Among so many provocative and often simply off-the-wall social media posts from Trump in the past week was this one: He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” I have preserved his odd capitalizing of nouns that don't require such.
I have no idea where he ran across this quote that is usually ascribed to Napoleon, which first appeared in a book written by Balzac in 1838, nearly two decades after Napoleon's death. Balzac was an admirer of the emperor and spent years gathering quotes about the man along with quotes from the man.
I would be willing to bet serious money that Trump doesn't read old texts by Balzac and that this idea came from some bright young aide who regularly visits "famous quotes" sites.
Unless firmly part of the Trump Cult, most people must see this as the rationale of a would-be dictator/emperor/king, staking a legal and ethical claim saying that mere laws should not apply to him.
No one really knows if Napoleon said the quote (in French, his second language after Corsican Italian), but most scholars agree that it sounds like something he might have said. After all, he lived a life, for a time, that illustrated it.
If nothing else, the post from Trump riled people up and got some searching for whether the source was correct.
These historical quotes that pop up regularly online as memes are always catchy and rarely verifiable, it turns out.
In fact, the very first thing we should do when some catchy quote appears in our news feeds is to go to Snopes and see if there has been any verified research into its origin. It's quite easy but there is a good argument for not bothering. After all, social media is awash with lies, provocations, and hate. There is no harm in simply continuing to scroll.
My plan when Trump returned to the presidency was to sit back and watch as the cult inevitably attacked itself and his low-information voters began to realize that they had been bamboozled... again. Those things are happening but my plan is not providing me much satisfaction.
We have been spoiled as Americans, lulled by the relative success of our nation and our political systems over the past 70 years, at least. I'm afraid we are having trouble right now comprehending that we are in the grasp of stupidity. Musk appears brain-damaged by his ketamine use and the urge of unchecked power. Trump has always been a flim-flam man who combines luck and bravado to thrive.
Few Americans would argue that indiscriminate firings and deletions are the "smart" way to proceed in reforming government or schools or businesses... or anything.
Americans have always been a bit "anti-intellectual" but the Trump Cult has gone all in on not knowing, and thus far only a few lonely judges and the governor of Maine seem to have called out the ignorance.
For most of us, we wait for someone to save the day.
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