Our Zaporozhian Cossack President

And: Calvin Robinson Follow-Up; Identity, Memory, and 'New Finnish Grammar'

That image is iconic: President Trump signs an executive order banning trans men from competing in women’s sports. This is exactly what we who supported his re-election wanted. And what a master of imagery! A friend in Texas said it reminds him of this famous Ilya Repin painting, “The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks”:

This painting captures the moment when the Cossacks drafted a letter in response to the Ottoman sultan’s request that they surrender and submit to him. It’s almost certainly a literary fiction, but it’s hilarious. A version (forgive the vulgarity, but it’s necessary):

Zaporozhians – to the Turkish Sultan:
You Turkish Satan, brother and comrade of the damned devil and secretary to Lucifer himself! What the hell kind of knight are you? The devil shits and you and your army swallow it. You aren't fit to have the sons of Christians under you; we aren't afraid of your army, and we'll fight you on land and sea.

You Babylonian busboy, Macedonian mechanic, Jerusalem beerbrewer, Alexandrian goatskinner, swineherd of Upper and Lower Egypt, Armenian pig, Tatar goat, Kamenets hangman, Podolian thief, grandson of the Evil Serpent himself, and buffoon of all the world and the netherworld, fool of our God, swine's snout, mare's asshole, butcher's dog, unbaptized brow, may the devil steam your ass!

That's how the Cossacks answer you, you nasty gob of spit! You're unfit to rule true Christians. We don't know the date because we don't have a calendar, the moon is in the sky, and the year is in a book, and the day is the same with us as with you, so go kiss our ass!

Big Taras Bulba/Zaporozhian Cossack energy with El Trumpo! Many such cases.

That said, and as thrilled as I am with what he has been doing, I have increasing unease with it all. If so much can be undone with the stroke of a presidential pen, what does my side have to look forward to when the Democrats retake the White House, as they of course one day will? One thing Trump’s executive blitz reveals is how useless Congress has been for a very long time. Yet I fear that much of what Trump is doing now won’t withstand court scrutiny. Maybe I’m wrong. But if I’m not wrong, then that again raises the question of what we will face when a Democrat sits in the Oval Office next.

Trump reminds me of a Caesar who rolls in as a man of action to usurp the priorities of a feckless and sclerotic Senate. Yuval Levin writes:

Generally speaking, the president has a lot of leeway for setting personnel policy, or deciding who will operate what computer system to facilitate Treasury payments. There are still legal limits on these things, and it’s possible for executive officials, even with the president’s permission, to act illegally in administering federal agencies, but the courts will not be quick to limit the president’s discretion to administer his own administration.

On the other hand, the president cannot unilaterally close down government agencies created by law. And it is not likely that the courts will allow him to refuse to spend money mandated by Congress.

None of these lines is entirely simple and clear. But in broad terms, if the argument you hear is that President Trump is not allowed to decide who does what in his administration, then you should be skeptical. But the argument that the administration can’t refuse to do what the law demands or can’t act where no legal authority exists is likely to prevail.

The second kind of argument cuts to the core of some of the new administration’s most aggressive ambitions. Some in the president’s circle are taken with the logic of progressive presidentialism, and would like to see the executive crowned the supreme power in our system. They insist, for instance, that the president can “impound” appropriated money — that is, refuse to spend public dollars authorized by Congress for purposes he deems unsuitable.

Leaving aside the constitutional arguments, the radicalism of what Trump is doing — even though his specific decisions please me — bring to mind the lessons of the early 1930s in Spain. I strongly encourage you to watch at least the first episode, “Prelude To War,” of this 1980s six-part British documentary series on the Spanish Civil War. What we see is that the left-wing Republican government formed after the end of the monarchy went too far in its, shall we say, exuberance. More radical elements burned churches and convents. It was all too much for Spanish voters, who put a right-wing government into power at the next election. That government exacted revenge. Its extremism brought the Left back to power in the subsequent election. After that, there was no center left to hold. Civil war came upon Spain.

The cultural radicalism and misgovernment by the Biden administration has a lot to do with bringing Donald Trump to power. He is correcting many of their mistakes. But America is still a very divided country, and nothing Trump is doing now is fixing that. To be honest, I doubt it can be fixed: Americans of the Left and Right believe too many incommensurate things. Most Americans are not on either extreme, but the extremes are what move Washington. Even as I cheer for the MAGA blitzkrieg, and blame the Democrats and the Deep State for the mess they’ve left Trump to clean up, I fear the future.