Trump’s Words Are Not Meaningless Ramblings

When the president advocates for a viewpoint or course of action, he does not do so merely as an influential public figure with millions of Twitter followers. He does it as the country’s chief executive, charged not only with ensuring that the law is followed but also with the more basic task of saying what the law is. This is the legal reality at the heart of the struggle over President Donald Trump’s recent promises to crack down on protesters in more than 30 cities nationwide who have taken to the streets to decry last week’s brutal police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Presidential speech is never just speech. Because law enforcement begins with the simple act of legal interpretation, presidential speech is presidential action.

This is not how Americans usually think about what the president is doing when he speaks. Under the government’s three-branch