As we chronicle life here in the United
States every Friday, there are moments
when it's important to recognize just
how rapidly things are changing here and
how irreversible some of the shifts may
prove to be in the years ahead. This was
a week when President Trump said things
that not even his boldest predecessors
would have dared to articulate. Richard
Nixon craved an all powerful executive
presidency. So did Dick Cheney when he
served as vice president to George W.
Bush. But neither of them ever said
this.
>> If I would have the right to do anything
I want to do. I'm the president of the
United States. If I think our country is
in danger, and it is in danger in these
cities, I can do it.
>> The president asserting no limits
whatsoever on his authority. I have the
right to do anything I want to do. He
said there during Tuesday's cabinet
meeting. And for the second time in as
many weeks, he also flirted with the
dword. So the line is that I'm a
dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of
people say, you know, if that's the
case, I'd rather have a dictator, but
I'm not a dictator. I just know how to
stop crime. We will return in just a
moment to the nervous laughter around
the cabinet table there. But first, to
the meat of the issue. The president now
seems to be planning to test whether he
has the authority to concoct a national
security emergency out of thin air.
Let's be absolutely clear, that is what
he is proposing. After flooding
Washington with National Guard troops
and other federal agents earlier this
month to deal with a largely
non-existent crime wave, he now wants to
do the same in Chicago and then in New
York, Los Angeles, and a host of other
Democratic Party strongholds.
>> Mr. President, do not come to Chicago.
You are neither wanted here nor needed
here.
>> That is JB Pritska, the governor of
Illinois and a possible runner in the
race for the 2028 Democratic Party
presidential nomination. This week, he
warned every single Trump official,
military leader, and even the men and
women in uniform that accountability for
their actions in the days and weeks
ahead will come eventually. to the Trump
administration officials who are
complicit in this scheme. To the public
servants who have forsaken their oath to
the Constitution to serve the petty
whims of an arrogant little man. To any
federal official who would come to
Chicago and try to incite my people into
violence as a pretext for something
darker and more dangerous. We are
watching and we are taking names. But
you can watch and you can take as many
names as you like. Democrats will only
be able to seek the justice that they
are threatening if they win some
elections. And this week, another top
Democrat, Gavin Newsome, the governor of
California, said the quiet stuff out
loud. And watch carefully here because
the audience, even the host at a summit
in Sacramento funded by the website
Politico, took a while to grasp the
gravity of the point that the governor
was making. I don't think Donald Trump
wants another election.
You think for a second he want I have
two dozen Trump 2028 hats.
His folks keep sending me.
And you and you think he's going to run
again.
>> No, don't give me You don't Who spends
$200 million on a ballroom at their home
and then leaves the house?
>> This is serious, guys. This is serious.
>> So, it'll be Newsome Trump in 2018.
>> No, no. This is There's no This guy
doesn't believe in free fair elections.
He could He tried to wreck this country.
What were we did were you there January
6? I mean, he tried to light democracy
on fire. He dialed for 11 almost 12,000
votes. Now he's doing it in plain sight.
And people said, "Oh, just Trump being
Trump."
>> Now, Trump supporters waved those
suggestions off, absolutely offended
that anyone might suggest democracy is
unsafe in his hands. But it's not just
the Trump 2028 hats that he now tries to
offload on visiting heads of state when
he escorts them to the White House gift
shop that are raising questions about
the future. It's also the increasing
virolence of the rhetoric spouted by his
leading ideologues. Take a listen to
this. The deputy White House chief of
staff, Steven Miller, architect of the
president's mass deportation program,
laying the groundwork on Fox News this
week for perhaps prescribing the
Democratic Party as a criminal
organization.
>> The Democrat Party does not fight for,
care about, or represent American
citizens. It is an entity devoted
exclusively to the defense of hardened
criminals, gangbangers, and illegal
alien killers and terrorists. The
Democrat party is not a political party.
It is a domestic extremist organization.
The Democrat party, Sean, that exists
today, it disgusts me. I do not
recognize that party. Sean,
>> I think Lassie might be trying to tell
us something because there is no great
leap between calling the Democrats a
domestic extremist organization working
to defend terrorists and then
restricting the party's activities,
maybe rounding up their leaders, perhaps
even banning them. It would be rash to
think that Mr. Miller doesn't believe
every word that he says. Which takes us
back to this week's cabinet meeting. If
the Trump administration is not a
dictatorship, word does not seem to have
spread to his top left tenants. For
three and a quarter hours this week live
on television, they slathered him in
baby oil to an extent that even the
North Koreans might struggle to achieve.
They were all at it. But here in order
are three of them. Treasury Secretary
Scott Bassent, Director of National
Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and US
Special Envoy Steve Witco. Sir, a as
we've said very often, economic security
is national security and our country has
never been so secure thanks to you. Uh
you have brought us back from the edge.
>> Thank you, sir. Uh as as we approach
Labor Day weekend here, uh this is just
such a great opportunity really to
recognize your leadership as a true
champion for working people. And there's
only one thing I wish for. That that
noble committee finally gets its act
together and realizes that you are the
single finest candidate since the Noble
piece this Nobel award was ever talked
about to receive that reward beyond your
success is gamechanging out in the world
today. And I
>> What is going on here? They've even got
the synchronized applause nailed down
in the battleground state of Missouri.
This week and in many other parts of the
country, elected Republican lawmakers
were getting an earful during the
congressional summer break.
>> Okay. If you didn't want to hear my
lies, why did you come here?
>> All right. If you don't want to hear
anything I say, why did you come here?
>> All right.
>> Congressman Mark Alford there, a
proTrump Republican facing off against
furious constituents. In this case, an
elderly farmer.
>> And get Trump out of office. The man is
a dictator. He knows nothing about what
he talks about. You need to take your
head out of Trump's ass and start doing
your your representation of us. Scenes
like that have been repeated nationwide
and echo voter surveys that show the
president's approval ratings underwater
on all his signature issues.
Immigration, national security,
inflation, and the economy. In
Minneapolis this week, the start of the
new school year witnessed tragedy. The
by now all too predictable cadences of
another school shooting being covered by
America's news channels. One child left
with a bandage on his arm, raced to his
mother for an embrace. Um it's clearly
um a very serious situation.
>> My friend got hit in the back.
>> Did he go to the hospital?
>> Yeah, he went to the hospital.
>> What went through your mind when you saw
that?
>> Um I was super scared for him,
>> but I think now he's okay.
>> Two children, an 8-year-old and a
10-year-old, were not so lucky. They
died in the Catholic school's chapel
where morning mass was underway when the
attacker, a 23-year-old former student,
opened fire, shooting through the
windows. Officials called the asalent,
who died at the scene, a deranged
monster, obsessed with the idea of
killing children. Naturally, no action
will now be taken to implement
meaningful gun control in order to head
off the chances of the inevitable
repetition. Among celebrities who have
spoken out against gun violence, we have
noted before on American Week the
contribution of Taylor Swift. Her song
Only the Young, decries the failure to
act by successive American presidents
and is her most devoutly political work.
This week, as you undoubtedly know by
now, Miss Swift made an announcement
that immediately helped to lift the
national mood. She and her boyfriend
Travis Kelce, a football player with the
Kansas City Chiefs, announced their
engagement in a posting on Instagram.
"Your school teacher and your gym
teacher are getting married," they
wrote, a reference to her song, "So High
School pictures showed her boyfriend
down on one knee and Miss Swift sporting
a massive diamond ring on her finger,
estimated to be around eight carats."
The American television networks broke
into programming to make the
announcement. CBS News, it turns out,
has a huge swifty in the form of the
Storied Network's White House
correspondent, Olivia Raldi.
>> Taylor Swift is engaged.
>> Taylor Swift is engaged. Taylor Swift is
engaged.
>> This Come back to me. She just posted
it. Oh my god. Oh my god.
Oh, it's huge. The ring is ginormous.
This is so exciting.
She was able eventually to contain
herself and report the news on air from
the White House lawn. Inside the
building, President Trump, who has
previously said he hates Taylor Swift
and considers her no longer hot, was
asked for his reaction during Tuesday's
cabinet meeting.
>> Well, I wish him a lot of love.
>> No, I think it's I think he's a a great
player. I think he's a great guy, and I
think that she's a terrific person. So,
I wish them a lot of luck. When and
where the wedding will happen, who gets
to attend, we do not know. But the
biggest thing in pop culture is a go.
And the week received its badly needed
mood change, a happy diversion from the
far less edifying dramas that are
playing out in Donald Trump's America.