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His domestic and foreign initiatives – from the attempted coup in the past to current actions and warnings – undermine not only domestic and international law. The implications are broader.

These actions threaten the very concept of a civilized world.

A moral purpose of a functioning society is to forestall the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Failing that, we could find ourselves trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest could survive.

This concept lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the heart of the modern framework of international relations championed by the US, built on collective action, democracy, individual liberties, and the legal authority.

Yet, it is a fragile principle, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their power. Maintaining it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.

Unfettered might does not make right. It makes for turmoil, upheaval, and war.

Whenever entities that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are weaker, the structure of civilization weakens. If such aggression are not contained, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into instability and violence. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in modern history. This encourages the powerful to exploit the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.

The resources of certain billionaires is staggering. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over a vast portion of the world. AI is poised to centralize wealth and power to a greater degree. The destructive power of the leading countries is without parallel in the annals of time.

Enabled by complicit legislators and a pliant judicial body, the presidency has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable instrument of government in history.

Consider this confluence and you grasp the looming crisis.

An unbroken thread links past lawless actions to ongoing provocations. Both were based on the hubris of invincibility.

One observes a similar pattern in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.

Yet, raw power does not make right. It produces instability, revolution, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to check the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for increased control and resources ultimately lead to their downfall – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for global conflict.

This blatant contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.