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It’s valid to have conflicting thoughts about the Colorado Supreme Court <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/19/trump-off-colorado-ballot/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2" target=_blank>ruling that Donald Trump is disqualified</a> from the state’s 2024 primary ballot under the 14th Amendment.

On the merits, Trump used lies and suggestive language to at the very least egg on the mob that launched an insurrection at the Capitol; he also declined to immediately call that mob off, and he’s made it pretty clear that he wasn’t terribly sad about what happened. Whether that constitutes his engaging in insurrection — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/30/trump-running-president-14th-amendment-2024/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzAyOTYyMDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzA0MzQ0Mzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDI5NjIwMDAsImp0aSI6IjEzYTFkNjU2LWZmOWQtNGYyMy04YTlhLTcxMjRjMDJiNDU2MyIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9wb2xpdGljcy8yMDIzLzEwLzMwL3RydW1wLXJ1bm5pbmctcHJlc2lkZW50LTE0dGgtYW1lbmRtZW50LTIwMjQvIn0.7YN_W7L04YCcUeCm605uCswlZ9N82jeIsSKK-HZsRwM&amp;itid=lk_interstitial_manual_45" target="_blank">the standard set by the 14th Amendment</a> — is a question about which smart and serious legal minds disagree.

Trump disqualified for insurrection? Under 14th Amendment, it’s happened before.

As for the politics, they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/10/political-perils-using-14th-amendment-trump/" target="_blank">are dicey</a>. It’s quite possible that Trump ultimately will appear on the ballot, for a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/19/4-takeaways-colorado-supreme-courts-disqualifying-trump/" target="_blank">variety of reasons</a>, but the ruling remains a historic step with potential real consequences for the body politic. Americans in general and even (largely silent) Democratic lawmakers seem unsure about disqualification. Although a majority of Americans said after the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/january-6-capitol-riot/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Jan. 6</a>, 2021, attack on the Capitol that Congress should convict and disqualify Trump at his impeachment trial, the most recent polling shows <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23936298/cnn-poll-on-gop-primary-voters.pdf" target="_blank">only about half of Americans</a> saying that his alleged election subversion — if it is proved — should disqualify him.  The poll didn’t ask whether <i>the courts specifically</i> should make that decision. “Let the voters decide” is an easy argument to make.

But there’s another way to look at this. And that’s that Trump is yet again suffering under a standard he himself attempted to set for America’s political system.

Trump on Tuesday night derided the ruling as “eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice.” But not only did Trump try to overturn the will of voters after the 2020 election, he has on myriad occasions pushed the idea that candidates should be disqualified irrespective of the voters’ will.

That was basically the thrust of Trump’s rise to political prominence. He built a base in the early 2010s with the ugly and false “birther” campaign, whose entire premise was that Barack Obama wasn’t eligible to be president. A sampling:

“The birther issue is an issue that’s very important, because if you’re not born in the United States, you can’t be president,” Trump <a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-vlog-deleted-bill-oreilly-interview-march-30-2011" target=_blank>said in March 2011</a>.

“You are not allowed to be a president if you’re not born in this country,” he said on NBC’s “Today” <a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-interview-nbc-the-today-show-april-7-2011" target=_blank>a week later</a>.

“I think it’s an important fight because, you know, essentially you’re right down to the basics,” he said on Fox News <a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-interview-van-susteren-fox-may-29-2012" target=_blank>in 2012</a>. “The answer is if you’re not born here, you can’t be president. So it’s not like, ‘Oh, gee, let’s not discuss it.’ ”

Trump didn’t stop there. During the 2016 GOP primary campaign, he repeatedly pushed the idea that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) might — and even should — be disqualified, both because he was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/08/19/no-ted-cruz-birthers-are-not-the-same-as-obama-birthers/" target=_blank>born in Canada</a> and because he purportedly cheated in the Iowa caucuses, which Cruz won. And Trump explicitly called for two others to be prohibited from running, including Hillary Clinton — a lot:

Trump repeatedly pointed to the possibility that lawsuits could disqualify Cruz over his birthplace, adding, “I don’t want to win it on technicalities, but <a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-cedar-falls-ia-january-12-2016" target=_blank>that’s more than a technicality</a>. That is a big, big factor.”

He added that a constitutional lawyer who questioned Cruz’s eligibility “<a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-muscatine-ia-january-24-2016" target=_blank>should go into court and seek a declaratory judgment</a> because the people voting for Ted, for Ted Cruz, those people — I think there’s a real chance that he’s not allowed to run for president.”

Shortly after Cruz won the Iowa caucuses, Trump tweeted, “<a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/03/donald-trump-says-ted-cruz-stole-victory-in-iowa-caucuses/" target=_blank>The State of Iowa should disqualify Ted Cruz</a> from the most recent election on the basis that he cheated — a total fraud!” (The thrust was that Cruz allies had promoted the false claim that Ben Carson had suspended his campaign, affecting the results.)

Trump also said in 2011 that then-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) “<a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-vlog-deleted-anthony-weiner-june-7-2011" target=_blank>should never ever be allowed to run for office</a>” because of his sexting scandal.

And during the 2016 campaign, <a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-macon-ga-november-30-2015" target=_blank>on dozens of occasions he said </a><a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-interview-new-york-ny-december-2-2015" target=_blank>that</a> Hillary Clinton shouldn’t “<a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-sioux-city-ia-october-27-2015" target=_blank>be allowed to run</a>” because of her private email server. “She shouldn’t be allowed to run for president. She shouldn’t be allowed,” Trump said <a href="https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-speech-lakeland-fl-october-12-2016" target=_blank>shortly before Election Day 2016</a>. “I’m telling you, she should not be allowed to run for president based on her crimes. She should not be allowed to run for president.”

Needless to say, there is more than a vein of irony in Trump’s having said that promoting false information about an election should lead the authorities to disqualify someone. And Trump has repeatedly pushed the idea that a candidate’s eligibility for president shouldn’t be left up to voters. The candidate who a court now says is constitutionally ineligible to serve as president once showed great interest in having people he disagreed with disqualified under the Constitution’s standards.

This isn’t necessarily a good-for-the-gander situation. But it’s worth emphasizing that Trump’s supposedly principled response is undermined by his past words.

And if it sounds familiar, it should. After all, long before Trump derided the idea that a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/presidential-candidates-2024/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">presidential candidate</a> and former president like him could be indicted, he called for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/01/trump-ceded-moral-high-ground-presidential-indictments-long-ago/" target="_blank">prosecutions of both his 2016 and 2020 opponents, as well as former president Obama</a>.

If the whole 14th Amendment exercise is the political farce that Trump says it is, he certainly played a role in writing the script.

University of Minnesota

Aaron Blake is senior political reporter, writing for The Fix. A Minnesota native, he has also written about politics for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Hill newspaper.

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