The President of the United States has specific responsibilities, which do not change from year to year or based on the ideology of a person or their party. Core among these is to faithfully execute the laws and uphold the Constitution. This means, primarily, three things:

• To faithfully administer the government, as designed and developed by the people and their representatives, over previous years and decades;
• To honor and uphold the Bill of Rights, and all of the rights enjoyed by the people, whether written into law or protected by the Ninth Amendment;
• To never inject personal grudges, personal interest, or authoritarian power into a system that is shaped by checks and balances—to serve without seeking to rule.

There is a reason avid followers of Mr. Trump are willing to believe the brazen falsehoods he spreads: They want big structural problems to be addressed, and they have come to believe that the political system itself is built to be unfair and ineffective. They may be right, in a number of ways, but the existence of injustice, or inefficiency in governance, does not create special powers that Mr. Trump can use to do what he wishes, no matter who it harms. 

The Bill of Rights prohibits cruelty. Cruelty cannot be part of any core Constitutional responsibility; it is inherently criminal. The Bill of Rights recognizes the right to remain free from persecution for one’s views, including speech. Presidents cannot use the powers of office to coerce private institutions into submission or to punish dissenting speech, even from the federal workforce. Such actions cannot be lawful, according to the Bill of Rights. 

When the Supreme Court ruled that Presidents have “absolute immunity” for actions that are “core” to the Constitutional responsibilities of the office, they did not grant Mr. Trump license to dismantle the American government, in direct violation of federal statute or the Constitution. They did not find that Presidents can ignore the Bill of Rights and not be reversed by Courts; they did not find that Americans’ right to redress—which the First Amendment clearly states is irreducible—could be wiped away by the whim of one man. 

The Constitution does not allow for those actions, and so the Court did not grant permission that they be undertaken. What the Court found was that a successor government cannot prosecute a President for ideology, for making a policy choice that they do not agree with, for signing a law they don’t like, or for faithfully executing the laws, while not necessarily delivering the desired outcomes. Political prosecutions are unlawful.

The President is still, however, bound by the rule of law—on all sides, in all matters, at all times.

The lie that makes Trump’s misuse of the levers of power so far-reaching is the view that he alone will wield such power without ideological favor. He claims that all prior uses of public authority, by Presidents, the Congress, and the Courts, have been somehow biased and inappropriate, and he alone can be trusted to obliterate the institutions built on that past work.

Mr. Trump claims he acts as an agent of destruction for the benefit of those who voted for him. And yet, he has canceled programs required by Congress and which he has no Constitutional authority to cancel, programs that feed the hungry and support universal education for the American people. He has dismantled entire agencies that build peace, make the world safer, and spread American influence. 

He has asserted a power, described nowhere in law, to unilaterally impose massive new taxes on the American people. Tariffs are, under Article I of the Constitution, the sole province of the people’s representatives in Congress, together with the power of taxation and budget approval. It is Congress that has authority to regulate commerce with foreign nations, not the President. 

Congress is empowered, explicitly, by Article I to design federal agencies, provide for their staffing, and to assign to designated officials the responsibility for hiring decisions, both in specific terms and according to general federal laws protecting the rights of all workers and of federal staff in particular. 

Mr. Trump’s moves to ignore the Constitution, usurp the role of Congress, and dismantle agencies established for the honorable and constructive service of the American people and their republic, directly undermine the rights and security of all Americans. Such actions are similar to those listed in the indictments section of the Declaration of Independence, which is to say, they are contrary to the purpose of the republic. 

In other words, the fact that some of Mr. Trump’s followers believe they are engaged in an ideological battle with others in politics, and so they may celebrate what they perceive to be acts of defiance, does not mean Mr. Trump’s actions serve them. In fact, the states that voted for Mr. Trump are more dependent on federal funds for basic services and will be more directly harmed by cuts. Beyond that:

• He ignores their right to representative government.
• He ignores their right to be served by high officers who honor human rights and the law above all else.
• He ignores their right to enjoy the fruits of investments made over generations, both for the constructive management of their own country and for peacebuilding in the wider world.
• He ignores their right to redress and instead uses the Presidency to menace critics and suppress the free movement of facts and ideas.

A President does not work to undermine basic rights, safeguards against corruption, or the checks and balances that limit executive authority and make American democracy so different from the imperial system it replaced. A President does not seek to control the minds and the speech of those he is sworn to serve. A President does not lust for power or assail those who exercise their authority to express disfavor for his manner of serving. 

This is not a Presidency. The American people have a right to be well and honorably served by a President who never uses office to serve his own aims, to enrich himself or his family, or to dismantle what the people have built. That right is irreducible and transcendent. By taking the oath to serve as President, one commits to act rightfully and lawfully, to honor that most fundamental right, in all thoughts, words, and dealings. 

The occupant of the Oval Office must understand: only those instructions that are 100% lawful and appropriate, honoring the Constitution and the transcendent, irreducible rights of all people in the United States, carry presidential authority—the authority that embodies the American people’s right to a faithful and lawful government, committed in all of its actions to the honorable service of even the least powerful or privileged person.