What did Donald Trump do today?

He said it was illegal to criticize him.

Trump spoke at the Justice Department today. Presidents normally never do this, to maintain the separation of politics from prosecutorial decisions, and certainly not to give a campaign speech, which was essentially what Trump did.

In a meandering, stream-of-consciousness speech in which he frequently slurred or stumbled over words, Trump once again aired his grievances against the law enforcement and prosecutors who investigated the crimes for which he was indicted prior to being re-elected. (Most if not all of them have resigned or been fired.) Trump singled out for praise the one judge, his own appointee Aileen Cannon, who regularly and sometimes inexplicably sided with his defense team in the four separate criminal trials he was facing. 

He also said this, referring to two of the mainstream news channels he is not currently suing:

I believe that CNN and [MSNBC], who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion, they are really corrupt and they are illegal. What they do is illegal.

In the United States of America, it's not illegal to "write bad about" the president, or any other elected official.

 

Why does this matter?

• No, really: it is not illegal to criticize the president.

• It is not illegal for individuals to criticize the president.

• It is not illegal for corporate entities to criticize the president.

• It is not illegal for permanent residents to criticize the president.

• It is not illegal for foreign diplomats to criticize the president.

• Criminalizing dissent is the foundation of every dictatorship.

• No one this emotionally fragile can handle the job of being president.