When a president has to say 'I'm not a dictator,' we're in trouble

That's the sort of thing rising dictators tend to say, urging the public to ignore the accumulating evidence.

- JACKIE CALMES COLUMNIST

WASHINGTON ahead of the military parade on President Trump's birthday in June.

"I AM NOT A CROOK," President Nixon said in 1973. "I'm not a dictator," President Trump insisted on Monday.

And with that, another famously false presidential proclamation entered the annals of memorable statements no president should ever feel compelled to make.

It took months more for Nixon's crimes to force him to resign in 1974 ahead of his all-but-certain removal by Congress. But a half-century later, Trump is unabashedly showing every day that he really does aspire to be a dictator. Unlike Nixon, he doesn't have to fear a supposedly coequal Congress: It's run by slavish fellow Republicans who've forfeited their constitutional powers over spending, tariffs, appointments and more. Lower courts have checked Trump's lawlessness, but a too-deferrential Supreme Court gets the last word and empowers him more than not.

Americans are indeed in proverbial uncharted waters. Four months ago, conservative columnist David Brooks of the New York Times wrote — uncharacteristically for a self-described “mild” guy — “It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising.” It’s now past time.

Perhaps more troubling than Trump's “not a dictator” comment was a related one that he made on Monday and reiterated on Tuesday during a three-hour televised Cabinet praise meeting (don’t these folks have jobs?). “A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator,” he said. Alas, for once Trump isn't wrong. MAGA Republicans are loyal to the man, not the party, and give Trump the sort of support no president in memory has enjoyed.