There must be much laughing up sleeves in the White House today on the eve of No Kings Day. Donald Trump announced he will end the 43-day TSA funding stalemate in Congress by signing an executive order with his royal pen to pay the TSA employees, using “emergency powers.” Trump is demonstrating to Americans that Congress can’t act, but he alone can govern decisively with his royal pen to end the chaos at our nation’s airports.
Of course, Trump is who created the emergency at our airports by instructing Republican negotiators to refuse Democratic funding offers that would end TSA abuses such as masked operations and warrantless searches. His last instruction to Republicans was that he won’t agree unless the deal includes his Save America Act, a poison pill to any deal. He added that he probably won’t agree to any Congressional deal anyway. The President’s executive order was greeted with praise by Republicans, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham groveling, “You’re saving the country a lot of heartache and danger.”
The problem is the executive order is blatantly unconstitutional. An executive order is not a statute. Only Congress can appropriate funds or consent to move appropriated funds around among agencies. If Trump truly had the authority to fund TSA by decree, why did he wait while TSA employees went unpaid and let the TSA lines grow until the eve of No Kings Day? The timing is no accident. Trump issued his executive order to show Americans he can act better and faster than Congress, that we don’t need Congress. He thinks he can rule by executive order as a king would, figuring no one would dare attempt to block him in this desperate moment at airports across the country, a crisis that he created.
All the more reason why we should all participate in No-Kings Day
Jim Bruce
St. Michaels
I would say it is very presidential , President Trump waited for Congress to act , and there seems to be no agreement . I’m sure the people standing in line at airports will be relieved to know that they will not miss their flights. Furthermore President Trump puts his signature on his documents standing by his executive order rather than a machine run by an unelected individual.
What he is doing is unconstitutional, no matter the end result. We are all under the rule of law and the Constitution, unless you are a self-proclaimed king.
You sound like a Trump sycophant James.
It is a violation of the law for an executive department employee, including the President, to spend money without Congressional approval. That law, passed by Congress, is based on the powers granted by the Constitution to Congress. Nothing in the Constitution allows Trump to do what he did. It is both unconstitutional and illegal.
With all due respect, Mr Serio, you seem more interested in the type writing instrument the President uses than in the legality of his actions. Trump is a criminal. If Republican members of Congress were not bought by the billionaire that Trump serves, he would have convicted in his last term. MAGA people cannot recognize it, but the rest of the world knows we have a nutcase criminal for a President.
Presidential? The only thing “presidential” ǰìabout Mr. Trump is that he lives in the White House unless one believes that picking cabinet secretaries based on their loyalty and willingness to ignore long standing precedents and statutes, bullying weaker nations and insulting long standing allies as “presidential”. His actions indicate that he believes that the U.S. President should be treated as royalty, and apparently does not believe that an elected President is in fact a servant of the people. While his behavior on the international stage is tolerated by other heads of state, neither it nor his person is respected.
Kings can act by fiat – it feeds their ego. 250 years ago we renounced our fidelity to a King and struck out on our own. Let us celebrate today and on our country’s birthday and on election day that we are a democracy governed by a Constitution and not fiat and will finally have a functioning Congress.