> President George H. W. Bush launched a war on Iraq without congressional authorization. That is illegal according to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution, the set of rules Bush swore an oath to uphold. President Bill Clinton did the same, overseeing illegal military operations in Somalia, Serbia, and Iraq.<p>> President George W. Bush conducted warrantless surveillance on American citizens, which is illegal according to the Fourth Amendment, and committed torture, which is prohibited by Section 2340A of Title 18 of the United States Code. His administration also launched undeclared, and therefore illegal, wars in Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq.<p>None of those things are "illegal" in the sense of being a crime.[0]<p>This is of course most likely known to the author, who relies on the kind of right-wing audience who consumes this content either because they are feckless and desire only talking points they can deploy without regard to truth, or because they are genuine rubes who think this is actually how the law works.<p>Of course, the author cannot go through and compare with any factual detail Trump's actions to anything comparable previous presidents may have done because no modern president has done anything comparable.<p>[0] Leaving aside any potential liability under international law for the torture stuff.
Hey, maybe the next time an illegal war gets started, the president _will_ get indicted. And the war crimes of the US Army might get prosecuted too.<p>But acts as commander in chief relate to job functions of the presidency. Acts as a businessman or candidate do not. There's rather a difference there.
Obscene what-aboutism. Not a huge surprise in view of the title.<p>Someone could prove that 20 former Presidents committed all sorts of crimes and that would provide zero evidence to dissuade me from my view that MAGA followers are the single biggest threat to American democracy since the Civil War and that Donald Trump is their mentally ill clown.