The U.S. Constitution established America’s rule of law and its bill of rights, which are the foundation upon which America’s greatness has evolved.  These tenets of democracy provided a political, social and business environment that attracted top notch scientists and massive amounts of capital from around the world.  They also made investments in the United States secure, enabled a diverse group of creative people to flourish and gave entrepreneurs the freedom to innovate. 

Over the course of the 20^th Century these qualities made the United States the leader of the free world and a super power, scientifically, economically and militarily.  Today, however, its greatness is being seriously threatened by President Trump and his Republican Party acolytes.  And here are just a few of the many ways they are doing it.

Many CEOs and conservatives believe capitalism is what has made America great.  So, despite the numerous crimes Trump has committed, many of them probably voted for him to eliminate regulations and cut taxes.  Perhaps they ignored other things he promised to do.  Well, what these folks are experiencing is arbitrary regulation by Trump, according to his whims, and there is not much legal recourse for that.  Now they know he will try to punish any entity or individual that opposes or displeases him. 

When Walmart’s CEO announced that his company would increase prices because of the tariffs, Trump told him to “eat the tariffs” and that he would be watching.  He also recently told Apple’s CEO that his company must make iPhones in the U.S. or suffer a 25% tariff on all those that are imported.  And when a rumor spread that Amazon would start displaying the exact cost of tariff-related price increases alongside all its products, press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, immediately accused the company of being “hostile and political” during a press briefing and Trump called Jeff Bezos. 

If Trump gets control of the FTC, FCC, or any other currently independent federal agency that makes decisions on what corporations can or cannot do, he will use this power as leverage to make affected companies do his bidding.  If they are planning a merger, want to get or keep a license to operate or need any other agency approval, they will have to comply with his demands or risk being denied.  I believe Trump directed government control makes our economic system more like socialism than capitalism.

Republicans have been attacking everything that they consider “woke,” which I believe means anything they have identified as liberal.  The scientific community and universities are at the top of their list.  The Trump administration is investigating DEI programs as crimes and green energy programs to combat climate change are being terminated.

America is recognized as the world’s largest investor in scientific research, with half of all science Nobel laureates and four of the ten best scientific-research universities, according to my research.  The internet and mRNA covid vaccines are just two of the multitude of innovations by American scientists that benefited all of humanity.  Trump’s immigration policies and attacks on science and universities, however, are discouraging foreign talent from coming to the U.S. and driving highly skilled foreign residents to leave. 

Elon Musk’s and his Department of Government Efficiency’s methods to create government efficiency have been like someone cutting off their arm to lose weight.  They simply hacked pieces off agencies indiscriminately, no doubt leaving them less efficient.  In the process, they cancelled thousands of government contracts and laid off or fired thousands of government employees, many of them scientists and engineers that foreign entities are now recruiting.  As a result, critical research has been terminated on numerous projects and diseases, including Alzheimer’s and cancer.

The greatest damage to American greatness, however, is being done by Trump’s attack on the rule of law.  Over a month ago the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return to the U.S. of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who the government mistakenly deported to a Salvadorian prison without due process.  Yet, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently testified before a Senate committee that there is “no scenario” in which Garcia will be in the country again, as the court ordered.

Clearly, House Republicans are supporting the president’s lawless efforts.  The Big, Beautiful bill they passed last week contains a little noticed provision aimed at rendering court orders against President Trump’s deportations of lawful immigrants in the U.S. without due process unenforceable, according to Erwin Chemerinsky, the Dean of the University of California-Berkeley School of Law. 

Reacting to the Trump’s relentless attacks on American judges who rule against his policies, former conservative Circuit Court Judge J. Michael Luttig stated during a weekend interview on MSNBC, “[Judges] are simply enforcing their oath to the Constitution of the United States.”  And he warned, “I don’t know where this ends… but it appears that, in this moment, the President intends to prosecute this war against the federal judiciary–and the rule of law– to its catastrophic end.”

Unfortunately, there are many other ways Trump is threatening America’s greatness, like weaponizing the Department of Justice, exploding the nation’s debt with more tax cuts and jeopardizing the reputation of U.S. Treasuring bonds as a safe investment.  I believe the courts and the bond markets will help restrain him, but strong public protests may be the best way to stop him.  So, let’s keep doing it!