America rises to the Trump challenge

The rise of Donald Trump to the White House has caused high anxiety among millions of Americans. Trump’s contempt for convention, his inability to admit error, his prevarications and his eagerness to lash out at any and all perceived enemies led many to fear the worst: that after taking office as president, Trump would use his executive powers to set himself up as some sort of fascist or even dictator.

In a Salon article in January, Chauncey DeVega predicted Americans would rue the day they elected a “fascist authoritarian” bent on total power. An essay in The Atlantic’s March issue by David Frum envisioned what America could look like in 2021 after four years of Trump and his allies undermining democratic norms. It noted how many nations — Hungary, Poland, South Africa, Venezuela and the Philippines — had left democracy behind after electing leaders who didn’t uphold it. In a Fortune article in April, Brian Katulis detailed his fears that America would become a fascist pseudo-democracy, one where Trump and his family profited off his power and loyal former generals enforced his diktats.

But in recent weeks, it’s become plain that those who feared the rise of a dictator underestimated America. The durability and ingenuity of the balance of power among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government set up in the U.S. Constitution more than 200 years ago — reinforced by decades of accumulated tradition in crucial government agencies — has led to President Trump’s excesses being stopped or tempered time and again.

Federal judges have blocked Trump’s highest-profile executive orders for being illegal and unconstitutional, but it’s not just the court system where Trump’s run into resistance. More subtly but no less profoundly, lawmakers extracted a promise from Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he would recuse himself from the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian operatives’ contacts with the Trump campaign after learning Sessions had had such contacts himself despite initially saying otherwise.

This led directly to an outcome that Trump detests but that people who value democracy and justice should defend. After Trump — angry over the Russia probe — fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9, Comey alleged Trump had sought promises of loyalty and had urged him to end a probe of former national security adviser Michael Flynn that’s intertwined with the Russia investigation. Comey’s accusations shook Washington, understandably, as presidents aren’t supposed to interfere with the FBI, another government safeguard.

Sessions’ second-in-command — Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, now in charge of the Russia probe — agrees. In appointing a heavy hitter like former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel to oversee the investigation, Rosenstein sought to ensure the probe won’t be impeded by further machinations. The Trump appointee put the Justice Department — and the nation — first.

Going forward, of course, Trump could fire Rosenstein and Mueller or do any of 100 other alarming things. But the sheer genius of the Constitution will impose boundaries on how far he can go, ensuring America’s version of democracy will endure long past the 45th president.

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