A number of my friends have said the Founding Fathers never anticipated someone like Trump. I agree that they never thought of someone precisely like Trump (no morals, stupid, a grifter, a pedophile, etc., etc.) in the Presidency, but they did anticipate that someone would abuse power and try to rule like a king.
That is precisely why we have three branches of government with its checks and balances. Power was diffused. Ambition would counter ambition. Terms differed. Powers differed. There were always limits.
What they did not anticipate was a single ideologue capturing all three branches. They did not anticipate a craven Congress. And they certainly did not anticipate a Judicial branch of spineless and weak jurists.
In an analysis of appeals court justices appointed in his first term, researchers found that those Trump-appointed justices backed him 133 to 12 in cases brought in 2025. 92% of the judgements by Trump judicial appointees in the 13 appellate courts were to allow Trump’s policies to take effect.
Judicial appointees often tilt to the party of the President who appointed them. 75% of the judicial appointees of George H.W. Bush backed Trump, 69% of decisions by Reagan’s appointees favored Trump, but only those judges appointed by Trump backed him over nine out of ten times.
So there you have it–Trump has control of a spineless Senate and House and the lifetime appointees in the Courts. Madison and Hamilton and Adams and the rest of them could not have predicted that. American voters could not have predicted that so many people in this country would be willing to serve someone this evil.
For the full analysis of the judicial decisions, see Mattathias Schwartz and Emma Schwartz, “Trump’s ‘Superstar’ Judges Backed Him 133-12 in ’25,” New York Times, (Jan. 11, 2026), pp. 1, 26.
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