President Donald Trump has every reason to believe he’ll never be called to account for his actions.
He managed to skate on several impeachments and a host of felony convictions. He was allowed to return to office despite his part in an attempt to halt the peaceful transfer of power to his successor. The Supreme Court, a constitutionally enshrined backstop on his power, opted to give him blanket immunity for any number of crimes.
Still, it’s shocking to hear the president openly admit that no one in the government could stop him. And that’s exactly what he did in an interview with the New York Times that was shared on Thursday.
Pressed about the checks on his presidential power following a shocking raid on that ended in the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump said he’s constrained by nothing but his own sense of right and wrong.
“There is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me,” he said.
Trump also said that he didn’t “need international law” because he’s “not looking to hurt people.”
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The outlet asked Trump to consider the precedent he was setting via his arrest of Maduro. They wondered if China might see a justification to take similar actions against Taiwanese leadership.
“This was a real threat,” he said of Venezuela. “You didn’t have drugs pouring into China. You didn’t have all of the bad things that we’ve had. You didn’t have the jails of Taiwan opened up and the people pouring into China.”
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