Post-Trump laws will have to prevent abuses of power and personal enrichment

“I am not a crook” is one of President Richard Nixon’s most enduring phrases from the Watergate scandal, a declaration made at a November 1973 press conference. Nine months later, on Aug. 8, 1974, Nixon would announce his resignation rather than face certain impeachment and conviction.

After Watergate, a host of bipartisan laws was enacted to prevent or counteract the wide-ranging abuses of executive power committed by Nixon and his henchmen. Across seven presidential administrations, those legislative guardrails largely held until the reign of President Trump.

In 2022, after Trump’s first term, Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith wrote an assessment titled “Watergate era reforms 50 years later.” The sub-headline read, “Laws and norms established after President Nixon’s resignation ‘had a great run,’ but the Trump presidency proves new reforms are needed.”

Goldsmith concluded that “ultimately, the efficacy of checks on the presidency depends on the identity of the man or woman whom the American people choose to elect, and the types of pressure that the public places on members of Congress and other government actors to resist executive branch abuse.”

Four years into Trump’s unforeseen second term, his administration has figuratively bulldozed post-Watergate laws and norms while physically bulldozing the White House East Wing.

Ironically, as we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, we should collectively acknowledge the dangerous shift in modern presidential behavior from the “I am not a crook” president, forced from office, to the incumbent president’s “I am not a dictator,” denial of authoritarian leanings, and “sometimes you need a dictator.” Then,........

© The Hill