The Patriot Post® · The Preeminent Constitutional Duty of an American President

It appears as though the presidential contest is set…no, seriously this time. Yes, former President Donald Trump will, supposedly, be taking on Vice President Kamala Harris. I still have questions about who is running the Country now. In a few weeks, after the DNC convention in Chicago, shades of 1968 anyone, the dye will be cast. But this missive poses a very important question that real Americans should be asking. The answer is easy, and it is found in the US Constitution in Article II, Section 2, first thing.

“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”

The very first enumerated power bestowed upon an American president is the title of Commander in Chief of our military forces. Now, of course, that force has grown to include an Air Force, which used to be the Army Air Corps and now even a Space Force, for which I have some challenging perspectives. There are other enumerated duties granted to an American president, like the power to negotiate treaties. But, only the Senate can ratify those treaties, that is part of the separation of powers. And an American president also has the powers granted in the Appointments Clause, again requiring congressional approval.

But it is very clear that an American president is the Commander in Chief, not a duty that they share with anyone else. They do not need congressional approval unless they seek to deploy those forces into war, something that has been violated quite often recently.

When you read Article II of the Constitution, which articulates the powers of the Executive branch, it does not say anything about relieving college student loan debt. I did not see where it says anything about telling the American people what type of mode of transportation they must have. There is nothing about how the people should cook their food, warm their houses, or clean their clothes and dishes. I fail to see any mention of biological males playing sports with females. Nor do I see anything about granting rights and privileges to individuals who have illegally entered the Nation. Matter of fact, Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, known as the Guarantee Clause, specifically enumerates that the American president, the executive, must protect every State in the Union from invasion. Millions of people is certainly an invasion.

We need to seriously ponder the preeminent duty of an American president because we have not. We have allowed almost imbecilic emotionalism to drive our selection. Having been a member of the US Army for 22 years, I look upon someone wanting to be president through the lens of Commander in Chief…that is how the founding fathers wrote the duties of the office for all of us to assess.

So, when we assess Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, our first and foremost evaluative criteria should be Commander in Chief.

I want us all to stop, take a moment, and visualize each of them sitting in a room across the table from Xi Jinping…Vladimir Putin…Ayatollah Khameini…Kim Jung Un…leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Islamic Jihad, Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS…Nicolas Maduro…leaders of the transnational narco-criminal terrorist organizations known as the cartels.

Folks, that is what matters. At a time when we have witnessed a complete decimation of our all-volunteer military, who do you want addressing the troops? Who do you believe is capable of deploying them into a hostile combat zone and ensuring they have the right mission, guidance, equipment, and training to do that one thing…attain Victory?

I don’t think the ladies of The View should be entrusted with formulating our opinions on who should be Commander in Chief, speaking of imbecilic emotionalism. This is not about adult participation trophies and certainly not about leadership selection by DEI ideology or identity politics. I find it very funny that all of a sudden, the left can now define what a woman is. That is called situational ethics. And, of course, the leftist media has their marching orders…a prosecutor versus a convicted felon. The issue that should matter is that the so-called prosecutor has been a part of an administration that has set the world on fire with feckless incompetence and abject weakness. That other fella, well, he just simply smoked the bad guys, as we would say in the military.

So, think constitutionally about the preeminent duties of an American president. And who do you want not just answering the phone call but sitting in that room with the most dangerous people in the world?