Donald Trump loved Tuesday this week. He lives for days like this past Tuesday.

The rest of us don’t. Some 342 million other Americans and 8 billion other denizens of this planet wondered if he’d carry through on his threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

Trump knew he’d back away from obliterating Iran. Maybe we all knew. It was, after all, TACO Tuesday.

The problem is that when people say the President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world, they’re not just mouthing words. The president, who as of this minute is a spoiled brat from Queens named Donald John Trump, has the capability to kill millions of people in a few minutes.

So you have to take a threat like that seriously. It’s why you got in trouble in school if you talked during a fire drill. Yeah, you knew that nothing was burning – you would have smelled it and seen it. 

But one day, there might be real flames. And being prepared is the best way to save yourself and everyone in your class.

Unfortunately, the stress caused by all this talk isn’t something easily shaken. If you’re an Iranian, or live in a country within missile range of Tehran, you have to wonder if Trump’s deadline is the beginning of the end of your life. 

If you’re an American military service member – or his or her loved ones – you fear that this is the call that isn’t the false alarm. And that the hopes and dreams of your family are about to perish.

There is no good reason why Tuesday had to happen the way it did. There is no reason to ponder the idea that the United States might commit mass murder on a scale that would blow the minds of Hitler, Stalin and any other madman you can remember.

Unfortunately, the Constitution of the United States – the document we venerate under glass at the National Archives, the document we thought was our great contribution to civilization, the document that is a focal point of the biggest musical of the 21st century – has failed a stress test.

It was thought that the other branches of government would check and balance the executive. In the 20th century, we added an amendment that allows responsible members of the executive branch to hold to account a person whose fitness to be president is compromised.

Nobody’s shown up. A Supreme Court stacked in his favor. A Congress that, despite the Republicans holding only narrow margins in both houses, refuses to impeach a madman.

There is almost nothing we can do except wait seven months for the midterm election and drive the Republican Party into the sea.

And his constant state of anxiety might not be remedied if Trump has his way and gums up the congressional election.

We need to learn from this. If we make it through this – and that is a bigger if than it should be – we must develop a safety valve to protect ourselves.

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According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states allow people to file petitions to recall statewide elected officials. The way the election plays out varies – in some states, a new official can be simultaneously elected at the same time the incumbent’s removal is at stake. In others, officials can be appointed or a separate election is scheduled if the incumbent fails.

The most prominent recall election in our lifetime took place in California in 2003. Democrat Gray Davis failed to get 50% of the vote in the recall. Simultaneously, voters chose Arnold Schwarzenegger, running as a Republican, as his successor.

Allowing voters to recall the President of the United States should come at a much higher bar than California’s. Few modern presidents have sustained 50+% approval ratings in polls – including popular presidents such as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

But if a way could be developed to allow a populace as disgusted as this one is right now, with appropriate guardrails to prevent railroading a president out of office, it would change a lot of things about the current situation.

I’m thinking that, if 60% of the American people say get out, the president should be shown the door.

Note, I’m saying 60% of the people. Not 60% of the states. This would be another check and balance that would ameliorate one of the worst offenses of American democracy – the Electoral College.

In a recall election, my vote in New York would count just as much as some truck driver’s in Wyoming, instead of the current situation in which he or she has more proportional power than I do.

The problem is that it would take a constitutional amendment to make that change. And, yes, that’s something we can push after this all ends.

In the meantime, we could still have the vote.

It would take place in the form of a question on the November ballot. There are 26 states that allow citizens to petition for the placement of questions on the ballot. All 50 states allow voters to act on amendments to state constitutions.

It’s probably too late in the election cycle to get questions on a ballot. But those of you who have participated in No Kings marches would have the chance to make an even stronger impression. 

One that could, finally, put Trump in a place unlike any other in American history. A public censure – the only president ever to get one.

All this is unlikely, I’m afraid. But it’s something to think about.

We should never again be in a position to feel powerless to stop a madman from even bluffing to kill millions of people. The next test will come soon enough – when the two weeks of the supposed cease-fire are up. Or even before that, as the real brains of the operation, Netanyahu, thwarts any effort to stabilize things.

We can’t let this moment pass without it having some mitigation. Recalling the President of the United States might just work.