Trump: If it saves the country, it's not illegal

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Echoing France's Napoleon Bonaparte, U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday took to social media to signal continued resistance to limits on his executive authority in the face of multiple legal challenges.

"He who saves his Country does not violate any Law," Trump, a Republican, proclaimed on his Truth Social network. The White House did not respond to a request for more details.

The phrase, attributed to the French military leader who created the Napoleonic Code of civil law in 1804 before declaring himself emperor, drew immediate criticism from Democrats.

"Spoken like a true dictator," Senator Adam Schiff of California, a longtime adversary of Trump, wrote on X.

Trump, who took office on January 20, has made broad assertions of executive power that appear headed toward U.S. Supreme Court showdowns. Some lawsuits accuse Trump of usurping the authority of Congress as set out in the U.S. Constitution.

While Trump said he abides by court rulings, his advisers have attacked judges on social media and called for their impeachment. Vice President JD Vance wrote on X this week that judges "aren't allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power."

Washington lawyer Norm Eisen, who like Schiff worked on the first of Trump's two impeachment trials, said Trump's lawyers have repeatedly tried to argue that if the president does it, it's not illegal.

Napoleon's saying, he said, excuses illegal acts.

"This is a trial balloon and a provocation," Eisen said of Trump's message.

Trump, whose longtime slogan is "Make America Great Again," attributed his survival of an assassination attempt in July to God's will.

"Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason, and that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness," he said after his election victory.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Daniel Wallis)