A President plays many roles.  Among these:

• Chief of State – An inspiring example to the American people.
• Commander-in-Chief – Of America’s armed services: Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
• Chief Diplomat – Decides what will be the foreign policy of the United States.
• Chief Executive – The highest-ranking employee of the Federal Government and the boss of millions of those who work in the executive branch.
• Chief Law Enforcement Officer – Ensures that Federal laws are faithfully administered and the orders of Federal judges obeyed.

It’s with his role as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer that Donald J. Trump has jeopardized his continued role as President of the United States. 

Since taking office on January 20, 2017, Trump has fired:

• Preet Bharara – U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
• Sally Yates – Assistant United States Attorney General
• James Comey – FBI Director
• Andrew McCabe – FBI Deputy Director 
• Jeff Sessions – United States Attorney General
• Randolph “Tex” Alles – Director of the United States Secret Service

Among those law enforcement officials he has forced to resign:

• Krisjen Nielsen – Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
• Rob Joyce – Deputy Homeland Security Advisor
• Elaine Duke – Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
• Robert P. Hayes – Under Secretary of Homeland Security (Intelligence and Analysis)
• Thomas Homan – Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• Rachel Brand – Associate United States Attorney General 

In addition, Trump has ruthlessly attacked members of the judiciary who have dared rule against him: 

• He has repeatedly attacked Seattle U.S. District Judge James Robart, who halted Trump’s first travel ban. 
• In one tweet, Trump claimed: “Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!”
• When Judge John Tigar of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered the administration to accept asylum claims regardless of where migrants entered the country, Trump called the decision “a disgrace” and attacked Tigar as “an Obama judge.” 
• At Trump’s bidding, White House aide Stephen Miller attacked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: “We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become, in many cases, a supreme branch of government.” 

Donald Trump

And as recently as April 5, Trump once again demonstrated his notorious contempt for rule-by-law—and his desire to replace it with “rule-by-Trump.” 

This occurred during his visit to Calexico, on the border of California and Mexico. He was there to inspect a section of fencing for his still-uncompleted border wall between the United States and Mexico.

He also attended a briefing on immigration and border security hosted by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

As part of this, he read a statement addressed to Central American migrants wanting to enter the United States:

“It’s a colossal surge and it’s overwhelming our immigration system, and we can’t let that happen. So, as I say, and this is our new statement: The system is full. Can’t take you anymore. Whether it’s asylum, whether it’s anything you want, it’s illegal immigration….Our country is full….So turn around. That’s the way it is.” 

Illegal aliens entering the United States

Nor did Trump have any use for those claiming asylum:

“Asylum—you know, I look at some of these asylum people; they’re gang members. They’re not afraid of anything. They have lawyers greeting them.  They read what the lawyer tells them to read. They’re gang members. And they say, ‘I fear for my life.  I…’ They’re the ones that are causing fear for life.  It’s a scam.  Okay?  It’s a scam.”

That was for public consumption. What was not were words Trump spoke in a private meeting with Border Patrol agents.

According to CNN, “the President told border agents to not let migrants in.”

That, in fact, is illegal, especially if they are seeking asylum. And Secretary of Homeland Security Krisjen Nielsen had told Trump so two weeks earlier. 

“Tell them we don’t have the capacity,” said Trump, reported CNN. “If judges give you trouble, say, “‘Sorry, judge, I can’t do it. We don’t have the room.'”

This was clearly an order for Federal law enforcers to break the law.

It also qualifies as “obstruction of justice”—an article of impeachment filed against President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Once the President left the room, read the CNN report, “agents sought further advice from their leaders, who told them they were not giving them that direction and if they did what the President said they would take on personal liability. You have to follow the law, they were told.”

Attending that meeting was Nielsen. Early on, she thanked Trump “always for coming out to the field to listen to the men and women.  We greatly appreciate your support.”  

Krisjen Nielsen

Two days later, she would be ousted by Trump as Secretary of Homeland Security.

Trump had won election in 2016 partly on promises to build a border wall and crack down on illegal immigrants. For his base, that remains the overriding issue. If Trump can’t make good on his promise, he’s unlikely to be re-elected by that base.

And Trump didn’t believe that Nielsen had been ruthless enough in stemming the tide of legal and illegal immigration from Central American countries.