President Donald Trump's calls in the Rose Garden to act tough against protesters and walk to the historic St. John's Church — as well as officers' use of tear gas and flash grenades to clear away peaceful protesters before he left the White House — showed that the "president of the United States is verging toward the ways and means of dictatorial power," presidential historian Jon Meacham said Tuesday.
"This is an incredibly serious American moment," Meacham said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Over the last three or four years, we've said that a lot. This is as real as it gets, it seems to me."
Trump, he added, is coming closer to violating, "in a permanent, a deleterious way, the separation of powers and the fundamental idea of divided sovereignty in America."
There is a great deal of focus on Trump's walk to St. John's and the "oddity of that silent photo-op," but what the president said in the Rose Garden and how his path was cleared are more important, Meacham added.
"He is ever closer to expanding and deploying, projecting American military force domestically because he can't address the underlying concerns," said Meacham. "He has no interest, apparently, in addressing the underlying concerns that have led to a moment of extraordinary domestic unease, the most unrest in half a century."
The United States is not quite 250 years old as a republic, Meacham continued, rejecting Trump supporters' claims that people on the MSNBC program are looking for reasons to criticize him.
"This is a data-driven point," said Meacham. "Democracy is as fragile a thing as it gets."
Historically, the St. John's Church, located near the White House, is part of America's "power and virtue," Meacham said.
"The presidents go there on inauguration days to pray," said Meacham. "Franklin Roosevelt went to his knees March 4, 1933, and prayed in that church the last time we had this many people out of work."
What makes the United States different, he added, is "a rule of law and a capacity to address underlying concerns. The president has no interest in that. The rest of us have to be."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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