from the preserving-the-constitution-vs.-destroying-it dept
Saturday, January third, 2026. The President of the US stood in his personal membership in Palm Seaside, Florida, and announced that America had toppled Venezuela’s authorities and would now “run” the nation indefinitely.
Not from the Oval Workplace. Not in session with Congress. From Mar-a-Lago, in entrance of gilded chandeliers and membership members, Donald Trump pointed to the boys standing behind him—his Secretary of State, his Protection Secretary, his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs—and said: “The folks standing proper behind me, we’re going to be operating it.”
Working a nation of thirty million folks. Indefinitely. With out congressional authorization. With no declaration of conflict. With out even the pretense that constitutional constraints apply.
When requested concerning the authorized foundation, Trump cited oil rights he claims have been “stolen” from American companies a long time in the past. When requested about resistance, he promised a “second wave” of navy motion. When requested who would govern Venezuela, he gestured at his cupboard and mentioned they’d determine.
That is the anti-Lincoln second. Not as a result of Trump expanded government energy—Lincoln did that too. However as a result of Lincoln used emergency authority to protect the constitutional framework, whereas Trump makes use of it to declare himself outdoors constitutional constraint totally.
Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus to save lots of the Union. Donald Trump introduced imperial conquest to extract oil. One defended the regime. One destroys it. Trump isn’t like Lincoln. He’s the structural reverse—doing precisely what Lincoln would have fought towards.
Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. Expanded government conflict powers. Asserted federal authority over states claiming sovereignty. That is historic reality.
However watch what else he did.
He submitted the habeas suspension to Congress for ratification—which they gave. He accepted that courts may evaluate his actions. He ran for re-election throughout conflict and accepted he would possibly lose. He yielded energy when constitutional course of demanded it.
Lincoln’s logic was at all times this: the constitutional framework faces existential risk from secession, and extraordinary measures to protect it are justified—inside constitutional bounds and topic to eventual constitutional accountability.
The important thing phrase is protect. Lincoln expanded government energy to save lots of the framework that makes constitutional authorities attainable. Secession would have destroyed the Union. No Union, no Structure. No Structure, no self-government. The emergency energy served constitutional continuation.
And crucially, Lincoln submitted to the framework even whereas defending it. Congress may verify him. Courts may evaluate him. Elections may take away him. His query wasn’t “How do I escape accountability?” It was “How do I protect the system that holds me accountable?”
That’s emergency energy in a constitutional republic. Extraordinary measures, constitutional objective, final accountability.
Trump’s Imperial Declaration
Trump’s announcement Saturday inverts each precept Lincoln defended.
No Congressional authorization underneath Article I, Part 8. No declaration of conflict. No emergency requiring fast motion to stop assault on American territory or residents. Simply the President deciding to wage conflict, seize one other nation’s authorities, and announce indefinite occupation.
“Venezuela unilaterally seized and bought American oil, American property and American platforms,” Trump said from his membership. “The socialist regime stole it from us… Now we’re taking it again.”
This isn’t emergency energy to protect constitutional framework. That is imperial conquest introduced as useful resource extraction. That is the President declaring he’ll “run” a international nation to compensate American companies for property nationalized a long time in the past.
The New York Occasions got it exactly right: the occasions “evoked recollections of a bygone period of gunboat diplomacy, the place the U.S. employed its navy would possibly to safe territory and assets for its personal benefit.”
Trump hung a portrait within the White Home that includes himself alongside William McKinley—the president who seized the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Now he’s appearing out McKinley’s imperial playbook, however with out even the pretense of Congressional authorization that McKinley obtained.
Article I, Part 8 of the Structure offers Congress—not the President—the facility to declare conflict. This isn’t ambiguous. This isn’t a grey space. The Founders explicitly rejected giving conflict powers to the chief as a result of that they had simply fought a revolution towards monarchical energy.
Lincoln understood this. Even whereas increasing government authority to suppress insurrection, he sought Congressional authorization, submitted to Congressional oversight, and accepted that courts and elections may verify him.
Trump’s place, articulated by his defenders, is totally different: Congressional authorization is irrelevant when the trigger is simply. Maduro is evil. Venezuela’s persons are struggling. Generally you must crack a number of eggs. Constitutional course of is pedantry when outcomes are good.
This isn’t Lincoln’s emergency energy. That is Carl Schmitt’s sovereignty: the sovereign is he who decides on the exception. The robust chief acts decisively. Constitutional constraint is impediment, not obligation. Emergency is everlasting situation justifying everlasting exception.
Lincoln used emergency energy inside constitutional framework to protect that framework from destruction. Trump makes use of emergency claims to declare himself outdoors constitutional framework—to wage conflict, seize governments, and extract assets with out Congressional authorization, with out declaration of conflict, with out even the pretense that constitutional constraints apply to him.
This isn’t remoted. That is the sample.
When election outcomes constrain him, he claims fraud, makes an attempt to stop certification, and incites assault on the Capitol.
When courts rule towards him, he calls the judiciary illegitimate and guarantees to disregard hostile rulings.
When Congress investigates, he refuses subpoenas, claims absolute immunity, and purges inspector generals.
When the Structure limits conflict powers, he wages conflict unilaterally from his personal membership whereas his defenders mock proceduralism.
Each emergency declare serves the identical objective: remove the constraint. By no means protect the framework. All the time escape accountability.
His defenders make it specific. Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State and Nationwide Safety Adviser, mentioned of Venezuela’s interim chief: “We predict they’re going to have some distinctive and historic alternatives to do an important service for the nation, and we hope that they’ll settle for that chance.”
Translation: do what we would like, or face second-wave navy motion. This isn’t partnership. This isn’t liberation. That is imperial diktat backed by armada.
Trump himself was clearer: America will extract Venezuela’s oil, and the partnership with the US will make“the folks of Venezuela wealthy, impartial, and secure”—in the event that they comply. In the event that they resist, he warned: “We’re not afraid of trainers on the bottom.”
That is conquest. Introduced from Mar-a-Lago. With out Congressional authorization. In specific pursuit of seizing one other nation’s assets for American company profit.
Lincoln would have acknowledged this immediately as what he fought towards. That is government energy divorced from constitutional constraint. That is sovereignty claiming exception to regulation itself.
We’re not in regular politics. Regular politics is coverage disagreement inside shared constitutional framework. Ought to taxes be increased? How ought to we conduct international coverage? What’s the proper steadiness of regulation?
That is regime disaster. One facet claims constitutional constraints don’t apply when emergency or good outcomes justify exception. The opposite facet retains pretending we’re having regular coverage debate.
When the President wages conflict with out Congress, that’s not “international coverage I disagree with.” That’s constitutional violation requiring constitutional response.
When the President proclaims from his personal membership that his cupboard will “run” a international nation of thirty million folks indefinitely, that’s not “aggressive international coverage.” That’s declaration that constitutional conflict powers don’t constrain him.
When his defenders argue the violation doesn’t matter as a result of Maduro is evil and outcomes are good, that’s not “totally different political philosophy.” That’s rejection of constitutional constraint as governing precept.
Each act of “let’s debate the Venezuela coverage” is collaboration with framework destruction. Not as a result of debate is dangerous, however as a result of they’re not proposing coverage inside the framework—they’re eliminating the framework whereas we debate.
You’ll be able to’t defeat “constitutional constraints are non-compulsory” by following constitutional constraints politely whereas the opposite facet wages conflict from personal golf equipment. You’ll be able to solely defend the framework by utilizing each energy that framework supplies.
That is the regime disaster I wrote about in the manifesto. That is what occurs when democratic constraint disappears. That is what Lincoln fought to stop.
And that is what protection of the republic requires us to cease.
We can’t deal with this as regular politics.
Lincoln preserved the framework. Trump declares himself outdoors it.
Your grandparents knew which facet they have been on when the republic was threatened. They fought. They gained. They constructed the center class and the democratic alliance that stored the peace for seventy years.
We’ll do it once more.
2026 begins now.
Mike Brock is a former tech exec who was on the management workforce at Block. That is an abridged model of a model initially revealed at his Notes From the Circus.
Filed Below: abraham lincoln, donald trump, marco rubio, venezuela
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