The Plum Line Opinion

Think Trump’s war on the rule of law is bad now? Just you wait.

By Paul Waldman
Opinion writer
September 19 at 12:36 PM

“I don’t have an attorney general. It’s very sad.” ... That’s what President Trump told The Hill in a newly published interview. Which is strange, because my sources tell me that Jeff Sessions arrives to work at the Justice Department in the morning, then spends his day doing things like cracking down on immigration and overseeing a sprawling bureaucracy, all from an office that has the words “Attorney General” on the door. But the key words here are obviously “I” and “have.”

The United States of America has an attorney general. Whatever you think of his priorities and performance, the position is not vacant. But Donald Trump does not personally have an attorney general, because as far as he’s concerned, having an attorney general means that the person occupying that post will work to protect him from any legal jeopardy.

This interview offers some clues to Trump’s increasing frustration with a justice system that has refused to turn itself into a instrument of his will and his whims. Trump is so far in a kind of one-sided cold war with that system — lots of blustery rhetoric, occasional forays into direct but limited assault, but largely avoiding full-on warfare.

But if Democrats take back the House in November and begin making his life much more difficult on the matter of Russia, there’s a good chance he’ll go nuclear on the Justice Department.
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Paul Waldman is an opinion writer for the Plum Line blog. Follow https://twitter.com/paulwaldman1