One of the core governing principles of Donald Trump's life is that the rules do not apply to him. Now that the American people have seen fit to make him the world's most powerful man, this philosophy extends to our constitutional government. The signs are everywhere. Last week, the president said he ordered a military strike against Iran but pulled the plug with 10 minutes to go, when he finally asked and learned there would be 150 casualties. (This autobiographical account was supposed to make him look Presidential.) What legal authority did he cite to order this act of war? The 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force does not apply to Iran, even if Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was making the case to Congress in the lead-up. Even Republicans have raised doubts.

And yet the president could easily have launched an act of war against a random country, in direct contravention of the war powers allotted to Congress in the Constitution, and nobody could have stopped him. What we've learned, painfully, is that the law is a dead letter if you don't enforce it. And because he stopped himself, nobody's even really asked why this whole deal wasn't illegal.

All this is to say that his response to a Supreme Court decision handed down today that torpedoed his administration's blatantly shady attempt to manipulate the Census with a citizenship question was fairly predictable. The president sought to defy the Constitution, because the rules do not apply to Donald Trump.

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Seems totally ridiculous that our government, and indeed Country, cannot ask a basic question of Citizenship in a very expensive, detailed and important Census, in this case for 2020. I have asked the lawyers if they can delay the Census, no matter how long, until the..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2019

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.....United States Supreme Court is given additional information from which it can make a final and decisive decision on this very critical matter. Can anyone really believe that as a great Country, we are not able the ask whether or not someone is a Citizen. Only in America! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2019

He'll talk to his lawyers? What is this, a dispute with the zoning board? Is one of the dozens of contractors he stiffed asking to be paid what was promised?

Here's Article I, Section II of the United States Constitution:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

The Census is taken every 10 years. That's it. As Ari Berman from Mother Jones pointed out on Twitter, the Census is constitutionally mandated to begin in April 2020. You cannot defy the Constitution because a Supreme Court decision did not go your way. But you'd best believe Trump will try.

After all, the president is continually defying another clause of the Constitution:

...[the president] shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States...

Trump is blatantly abusing the "acting" designation to avoid seeking Senate approval of his Cabinet members, including the Secretary of Defense at a time when he's saber-rattling at Iran—a country of 81 million people with a sophisticated military apparatus.

He may also be in violation of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause:

No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

The guy is raking in money from foreign powers through his hotels and a sprawling network of overseas business interests. That's the subject of more than one lawsuit at the moment, including one from congressional Democrats that scored a key victory this week. And yet it doesn't seem to matter. It doesn't matter that he quite clearly committed obstruction of justice multiple times. The rules do not apply, in this case because the Democrats in Congress refuse to enforce the law by beginning impeachment proceedings. This lawless president will not just wreak havoc in the present. If he is not held accountable, his legacy will be a long and storied nightmare for this constitutional republic.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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