Why Trump's "The Courts" Comment Is So Bad

President Trump has faced national backlash for his controversial immigration order — and rightfully so. Trump's immigration order targets seven majority Muslim nations, barring refugees from those countries from entering the United States. There are a number of issues with Trump's order, from how these seven nations seemed to be selected almost at random to the fact that the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security were barely notified in advance of the order itself. After multiple efforts by courts to block Trump's order, he's been throwing a presidential temper tantrum on Twitter. But Trump's statement about "the courts" checking his immigration order is dangerous — and here's why.

Trump's Twitter tirade began early Saturday morning when he tweeted, "When a country is no longer able to say who can, and who cannot , come in & out, especially for reasons of safety &.security - big trouble!" Between the irregular spacing and punctuation, you know the Don was all kinds of riled up when he found out his immigration order had been stymied yet again in the courts. But Trump's tweets escalated from not only questioning the "so-called judge" who temporarily blocked the travel ban to this particularly problematic statement on Sunday afternoon:

Here's what makes Trump's tweet about the courts so concerning: While it's been suspected for some time that Trump barely has a grasp on American civics and what a U.S. president actual does, it's more than apparent now that he's written as much in a public tweet. No, President Trump — our "so-called" president — the courts aren't making your job difficult: The courts are doing doing exactly the job they're supposed to do in the first place. Clearly Trump missed the transition team briefing on that whole "checks and balances" thing that has kept our country in some semblance of order for 240 years.

But it's more than just concerning that Trump doesn't seem to have a clue about how the system of checks and balances works between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches: It's downright dangerous. It means one of two things: First, that Trump really doesn't understand how our government functions and is the keeper of the nuclear codes; or second, and this one is far worse: that he intends to deliberately circumvent the judiciary if they don't lift the temporary block on his immigration order or strike it entirely. The White House did not immediately return Romper's request for comment.

Our nation's system of checks and balances have kept America pretty much in one piece since our country's founding 240 years ago. If the latter implication turns out to be the case — that Trump has no intention of obeying the courts — then he will subvert one of the foundational principles on which this country was founded. This is not making America great again — this is how you make America a dictatorship. I'm not trying to sound alarmist or hyperbolic: Eliminating checks and balances in an effort to consolidate power is exactly how dictatorships happen.

President Trump must be held accountable for what he tweets, as much as he should be held accountable for what he says. He's not just an independent businessman anymore: He's the president of the free world.