At an Oval Office event on November 18, US president Donald Trump let loose on an ABC News reporter, Mary Bruce, for daring to question Saudi terror kingpin Mohammed bin Salman about the 2018 murder — by Saudi agents, likely on MBS’s direct order — of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Such questioning, Trump said, was “insubordinate,” musing that Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr “should look at” taking away ABC’s broadcast license.
What does it mean to be “insubordinate?”
Put simply, insubordination entails a person who’s lower on some ladder of authority defying the orders of someone who’s higher on that ladder.
Trump clearly believes in the existence of such a ladder, upon which he enjoys higher ranking than, and authority over, mere mortals. Especially journalists. And most especially female journalists.
He doesn’t bother trying to hide that belief. Earlier in the week, while fielding questions about his long, close, personal relationship with late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a flustered Trump tried to shush Bloomberg’s White House correspondent, Catherine Lucey: “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”
In reality, Trump’s only subordinates (with respect to his position as president of the United States) are employees of the federal government’s executive branch. Literally everyone else in the country is either his equal or his superior.
The president is subordinate to Congress. Congress makes the laws, and can override his vetoes if he doesn’t like the laws they make. He has to ask the Senate for permission to appoint high-level executive branch officials or to enter into treaties. He only gets to spend money Congress appropriates, and only on the purposes it appropriates that money for.
The president is also subordinate to the courts, especially the US Supreme Court. In any legal controversy involving the executive branch, he has to defend his policies before those courts, or go to them, hat in hand, requesting that they enforce those policies. They decide; he obeys.
That’s what the US Constitution says, and what it means, even if we see far more breach than observance in practice.
With respect to the press, he’s neither superior nor subordinate. They don’t work for him, he doesn’t work for them, and the First Amendment forbids Congress (and therefore its subordinate, the president) to make/enforce laws “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
As for the public, presidents supposedly work for us, and constantly claim to.
The title “chief executive” doesn’t mean “chief of everything.” It means “chief” of executing the orders his superiors give him, and of the people he further delegates that execution to.
Trump’s not Mary Bruce’s boss. He’s not Catherine Lucey’s boss. He’s neither your boss nor mine. He’s a mere functionary who should learn his place — his SUBORDINATE place.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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