My column today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bruce Ledewitz

Special to the Post-Gazette

Apr 7, 2025

4:30 AM

My friends and family members are frantic that Donald Trump will destroy the Constitution. I don’t blame them. Trump is acting like a king who can do whatever he wants.

Trump the king

Trump has ordered states to require proof of citizenship for voting in federal elections. Maybe a state could order this, or Congress. A president has no authority to do so.

Trump is threatening law firms that engage in “unfair challenges” and represent people in “destructive causes” with loss of federal contracts, access to federal buildings and security clearances. Some law firms have caved in.

This violates so many constitutional rights, they are hard to count. Trump does not understand that private citizens in America can perform any lawful act they like. We don’t need his permission.

On the cultural front, Trump has seized control of exhibits at the Smithsonian Museums and the Board of Directors at the Kennedy Center. The people shall see and hear what Trump decides.

These are just a few examples. I could go on.

Principled conservatives have spoken out. Cal Thomas protested the lack of due process for accused Venezuelan gang members being deported. But principled conservatives are few.

Average people are not likely to be moved by constitutional violations that do not directly affect them. So Trump remains popular, though his poll ratings have slipped.

Nevertheless, I am not worried about Trump. He is destined to fall.

Fortunately, Trump has a flaw not shared by other elected authoritarians whose examples he admires: Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, and Recep Erdoğan, President of Turkey. These leaders have successfully suppressed individual rights in their countries over a long period of time.

But they have each built support among ordinary people by attending to their needs and interests, at least to some extent. These leaders are populists in that sense.

Just a rich guy

Trump is not a populist. At heart, he is a rich guy who wants low taxes and little government regulation of business. Trump wants to make money for himself and others like him. That is why he is trying to cut Medicaid to fund tax cuts.

The problem for Trump is not just that he feels this way, but he makes no effort to hide it. You can plainly see that Trump is no populist in his administration’s attacks on Social Security.

Elon Musk called it a Ponzi Scheme, as if the receipt of public benefits paid for by fellow citizens, who will themselves later receive these benefits, is a shameful and harmful thing. It isn’t. Social Security is an intergenerational compact.

Trump and Musk have made fitful claims that there is fraud and abuse in the Social Security program. With more than 65 million people receiving benefits, there are errors. But fewer errors than in comparable private pension funds and usually the result of mistakes rather than fraud.

There isn’t even much inefficiency in Social Security. It is being cut anyway. This will make it harder for ordinary people to obtain their benefits.

The administration even floated the possibility of delayed or skipped payments. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested that only “fraudsters” would complain about missing a monthly check and that most people wouldn’t mind if the government simply skipped a payment.

It will surprise Lutnick to learn that many recipients of Social Security, like other Americans, live paycheck to paycheck. They are in no position to lose a payment.

The Trump Administration instituted two changes in Social Security that add to the impression he has little regard for the people who rely on these benefits.

One change was the elimination of telephone identity verification when, for example a person changes banks, leaving only online verification or in-person visits to a Social Security Office. After an uproar, the policy was scaled back but not entirely reversed.

There are plenty of older Americans who both are inexperienced with computers and have trouble getting around. Online verification may be impossible for them and a trip to an office is expensive and time consuming. Plus, the number of offices is being cut.

Trump doesn’t care.

The second change is the clawback rule. Under President Joe Biden, when the government overpaid a Social Security recipient, usually because of a government error, the extra money was deducted from the recipient’s payments over time.

That was already a hardship for many, who did not necessarily understand that a mistake had been made and did not set the extra money aside.

But now the rule has been changed to require that all the money owed be deducted at once. For some recipients, this could mean no money for food or rent because the government made a mistake.

Trump’s fall

Of course, Trump may fall in popularity because his economic policies lead to ruin. But I believe his disdain for ordinary people will also do him in. You will not be king for long when you show contempt for your subjects.

Constitutional rights may not matter in the abstract, but the American people will resist when they are scorned.

Bruce Ledewitz is a professor of law at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University. His previous article was “Republicans, force Donald Trump to act legally.” He writes every other Monday. The views expressed do not represent those of Duquesne University.

First Published: April 7, 2025, 4:30 a.m.