Special counsel Jack Smith’s report on efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election underscores systemic failures in holding President-elect Donald Trump accountable, conservative analyst David Frum argued in The Atlantic on Tuesday.
While Trump spent the morning railing against the report, Frum suggested it ultimately reflects a victory for the former president. “Compared with the present outcome, it would have been better if President Joe Biden had pardoned Trump for the January 6 coup attempt,” Frum wrote.
“A pardon would at least have upheld the theory that violent election overthrows are wrong and illegal. A pardon would have said: The U.S. government can hold violent actors to account. It just chooses not to do so in this case. Instead, the special counsel’s report delivers a confession of the helplessness of the U.S. government.”
Frum criticized the lack of meaningful consequences for Trump and his supporters, who, he said, “have transgressed the most fundamental rule of a constitutional regime, the prohibition against political violence — and instead of suffering consequences, they have survived, profited, and returned to power.”
He further argued that Trump’s return to power has emboldened him. In his first term, Frum noted, some figures within Trump’s administration attempted to check his authority. Now, loyalty to the January 6 effort has become a “test of loyalty” for those seeking roles in his administration.
Frum also reflected on the broader legal landscape that has enabled this outcome. The Supreme Court’s attempts to define the limits of presidential immunity for criminal acts committed in office produced a muddled precedent, leaving many legal experts dissatisfied.
“Now comes the Smith report with its simpler answer: If a former president wins reelection, he has immunity for even the worst possible crimes committed during his first term in office,” Frum concluded. “The incentives contained in this outcome are clear, if perverse. And they are deeply sinister to the future of democracy in the United States.”
Frum’s analysis paints a dire picture of the implications of Trump’s political resurgence and the systemic failures to hold him accountable, framing it as a significant threat to democratic norms and institutions.