Originally published at: EXCLUSIVE: Trump Makes Aggressive New Claim of Executive Power To Circumvent The Senate - TPM – Talking Points Memo
The Trump White House has taken its attempt to seize direct control over the entire executive branch to a new level and laid out a startling legal rationale for the move in a previously unreported email obtained by TPM. If successful, Trump would be making a dramatic end run around the Senate’s advice and consent…
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He was breaking the Constitution over birthright citizenship. Largely unreported as such.
Ringing alarm bells, indeed. Damned with faint shit.
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Trump voters, this is on YOU!!
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So what? Not one of his completely unfit selections have been stopped (or will be stopped) by confirmation hearings.
It’s completely against the law, of course, but given the craven capitulation of the GQP, ultimately meaningless.
USADF was set up under different rules, but should never have been a separate entity in the first place - it’s tiny, something like $140M of grants over 6 years. Should have been with State or USAID…
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On the bright side, they’re starting to do these things in quasi-official writng. Which will be discoverable, show state of mind, and reveal that they really have no idea what they’re doing. Just winging it.
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“I hearby announce that I am officially renaming our country to ‘The United States of America presented by Donald J. Trump.’ Thank you.”
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On March 20th payment 2 of 48 will be done. 46 more payments to go…
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Like so much else, I lay this at the feet of Leonard Leo, Kevin Roberts and Russell Vought.
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Drop dead, fuckface.
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I’d go a little further than that. Ever since Newt Gingrich, republicans have been increasingly transgressive. He personally ended “decorum” and made the Senate/House a bare knuckles brawl, the kind which we have not seen since the leadup to the Civil War.
GWB’s term was filled with ex-Nixonites who learned the lesson that Nixon’s statement that “If the president does it, it’s not a crime,” was correct. And that the proper response to Watergate was to defy the courts and consolidate power in a unitary executive.
These two things essentially predicted that someone like Trump would come in and absolutely abuse executive power in a nihilistic way. Trump obviously feels that the SCOTUS rulings and the lack of established law emboldens him to dispense with checks and balances. He’s not worried about future presidents. He thinks there won’t be any.
Add to this, a generation of Leonard Leo and Mitch McConnell packing the Court with Federalist Society nutjobs and a constitutional crisis was predictable.
I think republicans have become utterly corrupt. They’re by and large incompetent and seem incapable of governing. So, I’m going to go out on a limb here and also blame naive democrats for not acting on any of this beforehand. They should have either adopted the tactics of the republicans and become more ruthless and unified when messaging. Or they should have legislated against things that presidents who had respect for the office would not ever do. But they feared similar checks on power when a democratic president would be in power.
They are absolutely feckless right now. How is it possible that they couldn’t even unify for SOTU? Some had paddles, some wore pink dresses, some didn’t come. Al Green lost his temper, understandably, and some democrats even voted to censure him. For violating decorum. Conveniently forgetting that republicans started all this with “you lie” to Obama. And now a call to decorum is nothing more than trolling and gaslighting.
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“I have an Article 2 where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” - DJT, July 23, 2019
Capitulated to by the GOP House and Senate on January 20, 2025.
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Autocratic dictatorship is where we are headed unless the Congress (House & Senate) wake up and throw a hair-on-fire hissy fit about their losing Constitutionally mandated power. If they don’t then the Legislative branch will be shut down as a pointless waste of money.
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Have you noticed that the questionnaires being passed about read very much like oaths of personal loyalty to Trump?
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It is…
But… Not to call everybody who loves him a racist, but since this is an agency that helps African countries and African-led enterprises develop and thrive, I’d kinda expect a whopping portion of Trump voters to be THRILLED that their votes are helping to gut it, wouldn’t you?
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…for your attention to this matter!!!"
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Uh…what happened to the US Senate representing the American people?
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Here are the ten traitor Dems who voted to censure Al Green. Primary every single one of them:
| Amy Bera | California | 6th | D | Yes |
| Ed Case | Hawaii | 1st | D | Yes |
| Jim Costa | California | 21st | D | Yes |
| Laura Gillen | New York | 4th | D | Yes |
| James A. Himes | Connecticut | 4th | D | Yes |
| Chrissy Houlahan | Pennsylvania | 6th | D | Yes |
| Marcy Kaptur | Ohio | 9th | D | Yes |
| Jared Moskowitz | Florida | 23rd | D | Yes |
| Marie Glusenkamp Perez | Washington | 3rd | D | Yes |
| Thomas Suozzi | New York | 3rd | D | Yes |
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kevin who?
Maybe some other time…
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