In 2019, I wrote an article for the Herald titled, ‘We Can Learn from donald trump’. That may be an oxymoron, but bear with me as I summarize my argument and even add more lessons.

Although I describe him in a restrained litany of adjectives as “inept, unqualified, egotistical, immature, mendacious, petty, ignorant, illiterate, bombastic, improvisational, indecent, shameless, vindictive, mortifying, dangerous, selfish, cruel, disloyal, undignified,” I enumerate how his unorthodox candidacy exposed some weaknesses in presidential politics that the Founding Fathers could never have anticipated and we, in the 21^st century, could not have fathomed.

I charged us then to learn from our history lest we be condemned to repeat it. Guess what? 2024 is déjà vu all over again.

Back then, “he refused to release his tax returns, claiming that they were being audited. Thus, he became the first candidate in 40 years to refuse to honor a long-standing tradition. Not a law. Just a tradition.” That was one of many lies that marked his administration. He wasn’t audited until 2019. What we ultimately learned was that trump “declared millions of dollars in losses in 2020, 2017, 2016, and 2015, and paid just $750 in taxes in 2017 and 2016.” That would have been helpful information for taxpayers before they went to the polls.

The tradition should become a law.

Even before his tax returns would have exposed questionable financial dealings, the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia brought court challenges, alleging that, because his DC hotel does business with both foreign embassies and state officials, donald trump was violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which forbids government officials “from accepting payments and gifts from foreign governments or individual U.S. states.” In other words, the nation’s first anti-corruption laws.

Trump violated the Constitution as soon as he was inaugurated in 2017, “in part because he never truly relinquished his businesses, and in fact could ‘withdraw profits’ from his not-so-blind trust whenever he pleased, which presented ongoing conflicts of interest… Evidently, trump’s businesses continually raked in money from constitutionally prohibited sources.”

Lost in the chaos that was January 2021, the Supreme Court dismissed any lawsuits that had accused trump of violating the Constitution’s emoluments clauses as moot since he had not been re-elected. Are we surprised that this Court relinquished the opportunity and responsibility to explicate the emoluments clause for the American people, “to set an explicit precedent on presidential profiteering,” and to show that trump was not above the law?

Guess what? 2024 is déjà vu all over again… again.

Perhaps the most egregious behavior that the Founding Fathers did not account for was the candidacy of a convicted felon. For goodness sake, why would they? When trump was elected in 2016, we didn’t expect that he would run again in 2020, let alone 2024. In fact we prayed against it. Yet here we are. But who could have guessed that the chickens would finally come home to roost?

So many chickens. Thirty four so far, and counting.

• Hush money case – 34 felonies – Guilty
• Federal Election Interference Case – 4 felonies
• Georgia election Interference Case – 13 state-law felony charges
• Classified documents case – 41 felonies
• Jean Carroll – sexual assault – $5 mil
• Jean Carroll – sexual assault defamation – $83.3 mil (trump’s defense: “She’s not my type.”)
• Trump Organization – fraud, conspiracy, tax fraud, falsifying business records – $1.6 mil (though not personally on trial, trump’s defense: he did not know fraud was being committed at his company.)
• Trump Organization – fraud – falsifying documents re: his wealth in order to secure business loans – $355 mil

That’s quite the resume.

And yet he can still run for president because he fulfills the Constitutional requirements:

• Be at least 35 years old
• Be a natural-born citizen of the United States
• Have lived in the United States for at least 14 years

Nothing there about character because the Founding Fathers didn’t feel the need to enumerate the obvious: law-abiding, kind, honest,  decent, respectful, compassionate, modest, intelligent, focused, attentive, sympathetic, judicious, articulate, disciplined, collaborative, loyal, unselfish, calm, amicable – just to name a few that are rather self-evident.

Nevertheless, a convicted felon is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party – once the party of Lincoln – and the trials aren’t over yet. Surely the Republicans can do better. How much more hypocritical and sycophantic can they be? If it weren’t so disgraceful to watch and listen to, it would be pathetic.

And MAGA voters. Just how mesmeric is trump that they continue to follow him even though he preaches rage and retribution and has gotten away with behaviors that would consign them to prison?

We can’t legislate for decency, but we can legislate for a law-abiding president of the United States.

The tradition must become a law.