An Obsession With Article II

Trump told us where he believed his power came from. We should have listened more carefully.

The U.S. Constitution according to Trump: “There’s this thing called Article II.” (Art by Charles A. Ray)

Long before Project 2025, immunity rulings, and sweeping executive orders, Donald Trump claimed Article II gave him powers “at a level nobody has ever seen before.” That wasn’t a stray remark—it was an early blueprint for the presidency he is now trying to build.

During his first term in office, Donald Trump did and said several troubling things, some of them outrageous and others downright frightening. Fortunately for the country, his cabinet was staffed by enough people willing to push back against some of his more dangerous inclinations. Even so, the country suffered.

Since his second inauguration, he’s been throwing so many spitballs at the walls, it’s been hard to remember that the first term was a mere dress rehearsal for what we’re currently enduring. Nor, I fear, do many people remember all but his most outrageous pronouncements from that period.

Going over some of my notes from that time, I’ve come across some of his ‘forgotten’ performances, and I found one that was little noticed or remarked at the time, that, in my view, perfectly sums up his goals for his second bite of the apple.

First Term Dreams of Unbridled Power…

On July 13, 2019, just before boarding Marine One on the West Lawn of the White House (which, by the way, will now have a helipad instead of the traditional grass), Trump gave a rambling, surreal press interview. He denied that there’d been ‘collusion’ with Russia in the elections, when asked about Robert Mueller’s investigation, and kept harping on it despite being asked about other things. Then, as he was praising then-Attorney General Bill Barr, who he said agreed that there was ‘no collusion,’ he veered off into a topic that left me with my mouth agape.

“Also, take a look at one other thing,” he said. “It’s a thing called Article II. Nobody ever mentions Article II. It gives me all these rights at a level nobody has ever seen before. We don’t even talk about Article II.”

The Article II to which he was referring is Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which outlines the authorities, duties, and responsibilities of the President. Now, it’s impossible to know for sure what’s on this man’s mind, or if he had, in fact, just discovered the second article of the Constitution; a frightening thought, that. But, knowing him, I assumed that he was saying that Article II gives him carte blanche to do whatever he wants to do. I’m no constitutional scholar, but I’ve read the Constitution many times. In my early work as a consular officer adjudicating citizenship claims of people born in the U.S. but raised in China, who were claiming citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, I needed more than a cursory understanding. So, I know that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, from which all other statutes must follow, and I decided that he either failed to understand what Article II says or was deliberately misinterpreting it.

A year and a half into his second term, I’ve concluded that he was deliberately ignoring anything in Article II that doesn’t accord with his perverted view of reality, or that is not in line with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

…And the Limits Trump Ignores

Article II begins: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,” and then it goes on to say that the President will be elected to a four-year term. Pretty sweeping if that’s all it said, because the statement doesn’t define ‘executive Power.’ By itself, it would pretty much give Trump rights at a level no one has ever seen before. But it doesn’t stop there, and these are the parts that Trump seems to have overlooked.

Section 1 also states that “Congress may by law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation, Or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President.” This sentence knocks a few pins from beneath Trump’s statement that the article gives him ‘rights at a level nobody has ever seen before.’ And it goes on to chip away bit by bit at his grandiose claim. For example, Section 2, which deals with some of the many ‘powers’ the President has, says that he has the power to grant reprieve or pardon for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Sounds to me like a limitation on presidential power. He can’t pardon anyone who Congress has impeached, or anyone who has been convicted of violating a State law. And this is not the only one. The president has the authority to make treaties and appoint government officials, but only by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate. The exception to this one is his ability to temporarily appoint officials when the Senate is in recess, but that authority is not unlimited. Section 3 even states that “He will, from time to time, deliver a report on the State of the Union. There are no specifics, but it also doesn’t give him the authority ‘not’ to do it; therefore, it’s another limitation of sorts.

Section 4 of the Article Really Gets in His Knickers

It reads, “The President, Vice President, and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of Treason. Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Oops, there go rights at a level nobody has ever seen before. Turns out that Congress can fire the president. We all know that the GOP-controlled House and Senate won’t do that, but unless he can figure a way to control the midterm elections in November that won’t lead to war in the streets, after January 2027, when the new Congress is seated, he might have to start watching his back, or hiring a lawyer to defend him at his impeachment hearing. I mean, this has to be considered a major limitation on his rights—right?

His Efforts to Side-Step the Constitution Fail…

Hardcore MAGA types, and even Trump himself, try to act as if the Constitution doesn’t mean what it says. Witness his flurry of executive orders, including the one that tried to amend the Fourteenth Amendment. The six Republicans on the Supreme Court bend over backward to appease and please him, but except for the unholy trinity of Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch and the one opponent of the executive order (Kavanaugh) who tried to signal a way around the Constitution for Trump, taking pruning shears to the U.S. Constitution was a bridge too far for Roberts and Coney-Barrett. They voted with the three liberals to send the executive order to the shredder. Except for the three who seem to have forgotten the Constitution exists, and perhaps Kavanaugh (only time will tell), the Supreme Court seems reluctant to allow blatant butchering of the Constitution’s basic provisions.

…But Pursuit of Power is Relentless

This doesn’t mean, though, that we can breathe a sigh of relief and stop worrying. Like his fixation on tariffs, or his desire to put his name on anything and everything, Trump seems to have an obsession with Article II of the Constitution. The Heritage Foundation crowd wants to reinterpret the Constitution to install a unitary executive and solidify Republican political control. Trump wants to be the big cheese. He is obsessed with ‘winning.’ Whether it’s the Nobel Peace Prize or President for Life, it’s unlikely he’ll give up his quest, not even when his term ends in 2029, when his second and Constitutionally-final term ends.

If Democrats take the House and Senate in the upcoming midterms, it will slow him down, but I fear that it won’t stop him, and there’s no way of knowing what he’ll come up with next. The only thing that will truly put paid to his efforts to destroy our democracy is a change of party at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2029.

Between now and then, though, depending on what he’s able to get away with, we’re in for a bumpy ride. If he’s still in office the day before Inauguration in 2029, we could be in for a catastrophic collision.

Charles A. Ray served 20 years in the U.S. Army, including two tours in Vietnam. He retired as a senior US diplomat, serving 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, with assignments as ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Zimbabwe, and was the first American consul general in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He also served in senior positions with the Department of Defense and is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 390 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, the FBI, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.