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His domestic and foreign strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process in the past to current moves and statements – undermine not only domestic and international legal frameworks. But that’s not all.

They threaten the very concept of civilization itself.

The ethical foundation of civilized society is to forestall the more powerful from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a brutish war where only the fittest could survive.

This concept is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. It’s also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations championed by the United States, built on multilateralism, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

But, it is a vulnerable construct, often broken by those who seek to abuse their power. Preserving it requires that the powerful have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us demand responsibility should they falter.

Unchecked strength does not make right. It leads to turmoil, chaos, and conflict.

Whenever individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are weaker, the framework of our shared norms weakens. Should such behavior are not contained, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. History provides ample precedent.

We now inhabit a society and world with deepening divides. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in recent memory. This encourages the powerful to take advantage of the weaker because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The wealth of a handful of billionaires is difficult to fathom. The influence of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over numerous countries. Advanced technology is likely to centralize economic and political clout even more. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is without parallel in recorded history.

Supported by political allies and a sympathetic high court, the highest office has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of state power in history.

Combine these factors and you see the danger.

A direct line connects earlier breaches of norms to ongoing menaces. These were founded upon the overconfidence of invincibility.

There is much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by powerful corporate entities.

However, raw power does not establish right. It produces fragility, upended order, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to check the influential also protect them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth eventually bring them down – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten global conflict.

This blatant contempt for legal order will haunt the nation and the world – and indeed civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.