The saying, “no one is above the law” has been repeated with abandon the past few years in the United States. It boomed during the Biden administration when multiple courts found Donald Trump and his supporters to have broken various laws. The idea behind the saying was simply one of equality before the law, whether accepted as judicial norm, constitutional principle, or just plain fairness in our democracy. Now with Trump back in office, the saying seems to have silently morphed into “no one is above the law but me.”

Convictions have been overturned on appeal, damages reduced, the Supreme Court docket jammed for emergency opinions expanding presidential powers. The abuse of pardons has become so heinous and blatantly political, Trump allies now have a literal ‘get out of jail free’ card. Not to mention the dogged prosecution of any and all of Trump’s opponents. 47 has gotten the best deal a dictator could ask for: the transformation of presidential power into authoritarian power. A complicit Republican bloc in Congress and in the Federal courts have been more than happy to hand this power over to him and his Justice Department.

Meanwhile the incarceration of former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, should remind us what no one being above the law really means. Sarkozy served as president from 2007 to 2012 and was recently convicted of conspiring to accept campaign funds from Muammmar Qaddafi, the former president of Libya. On his way to begin a five-year prison sentence, Sarkozy was caught on camera leaving his lofty apartment in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. His wife and former model Carla Bruni (who shares a background and look with Melania Trump) walked solemnly at his side. It was a picture-perfect moment. Sarkozy appeared and spoke not as a disgraced fallen leader but as the self-purported victim of the justice system (sharing a similar stance with Trump). The system simply rendered a verdict he didn’t like.

It is a testament to the strength of the French republic that not even a former president can be spared a guilty conviction and prison sentence for his crime. This is not to suggest the French judicial system is without its flaws. Many in France fairly asked whether the trial was politically motivated. But regardless of whatever motive brought Sarkozy before the court, the fact remains he was found to have broken the law by trying to get a foreign dictator to sponsor his presidential campaign. Trump has probably done that and worse, and despite several guilty verdicts, still walks free.

What Sarkozy’s trial also proved was that indeed no one—at least not French presidents—is above the law. Back in the United States, however, that prospect seems remotely in the past. Any sense of justice now is more likely to come from your political allies in power. And depending on which political party they are could make you feel either vindicated or victimized. Either way, for those in power, the law is now beneath them.