Donald Trump is the president the Founders feared.
Our Founding Fathers were wary that an imperialist president might someday occupy the highest office in the land. So deep were their concerns they crafted into our constitution a series of checks and balances designed to curb any autocratic proclivities that might emanate from the office of the president. Chief among them, the Article One powers of the legislative branch; the power to write laws and appropriate the funding for those laws. The Founders established that congress writes the laws and controls the purse strings…not the president.
Today Donald Trump proved just how prescient the Founders were.
Having failed to persuade congress to appropriate the necessary funds to build his border wall; the president declared a “National Emergency” on our southern border. Under this executive action, the president announced that he intends to appropriate 8 billion dollars from other federal agencies to build his wall.
To be clear, this move by the president is a clear violation of constitutional law. It is a desperate power grab orchestrated for the sole purpose of fulfilling a reckless campaign promise to stem a made up crisis on our southern border.
It is true that on matters of national security the president does have the power to declare a national emergency and appropriate funds to curb the crisis. However, in order to execute those executive powers an actual national emergency must exist. According to our intelligence community and the elected officials and citizens that live and work along the border such crisis does not exits. Border cities are among the safest communities in our country. Apprehensions along our southern border are at historic lows; down from 1.6 million to 300,000 last year. Most of those apprehended are women and children fleeing to escape violence and death in their home countries; not the gang members and criminals as the president claims.
This is an unconstitutional action to address a made up crisis. A lie.
Trump lied when he said Mexico would pay for the wall. He lied when he said the new NAFTA trade agreement would pay for the wall. He lied when he said his tariffs would pay for the wall. Failing to get the money from Mexico he tried to get congress to allocate taxpayer dollars to pay for the wall. Getting push back from congress he miscalculated that by shutting down the government he would force congress to fund his wall; a reckless moved that resulted in financial ruin for millions of Americans. Having boxed himself into a corner, a publicly humiliated Trump was forced to sign a funding bill that gave him not one penny for his precious wall. Angry, humiliated and fearful that he is losing the support of his base and his party he lashes out with a feeble attempt to save face; an unconstitutional power grab.
This is what an imperialist presidency looks like. This is what our Founders feared.
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