Thursday, July 4, 2019

What Makes Donald Trump So Procedurally Dangerous?

At Least We Got a Tax Cut
So what is it about Donald Trump that makes him so procedurally dangerous? I suppose the Fourth of July is an appropriate time to write about that, given the Declaration of Independence's long catalog of alleged crimes of George III.

What about a catalog of alleged crimes, or at least procedural outrages, of Donald Trump.


He has combined the Presidency with running a large business empire and refused to make any financial disclosure, so that no one can tell whether he has ongoing conflicts of interest.

He has regularly profited off the Presidency by making his entourage stay at Trump facilities and using the office to promote his businesses.

He has given high ranking White House positions to unqualified family members.

He has, to all appearances, intervened to an unprecedented degree give security clearances to cronies and family members who pose unacceptable security risks.

He has mixed governmental and campaign functions in ways clearly forbidden by the Hatch Act and is seeking to make the federal government into his own personal and partisan instrument.

He has pressured the Department of Justice to prosecute his opponents and spare his supporters.

He has pressured the Department of Justice and other regulatory agencies to reward or punish business and especially media entities based on their support or opposition.

He has made clear that he regards the Attorney General as his own personal lawyer (read, fixer), and the Department of Justice as his private police force.

He has made unprecedented abuses of the unilateral tariff authority that Congress (foolishly) vested in the President for national security reasons.  This violates a principle going back to medieval England that the legislature alone holds the power of taxation.

He has diverted monies appropriated by Congress for one purpose to an unauthorized purpose.  This, too, violates principle that the legislature alone holds the power of appropriation.

He has made clear that he will stonewall any and all Congressional investigation or attempt to hold any portion of the executive branch accountable by refusing to produce any documents whatever in response to subpoenas.

He has circumvented the constitutional requirement that Cabinet members and other major officials be confirmed by the Senate by appointing "acting" officials for indefinite periods of time.

And now he shows all intention of defying a Supreme Court ruling that he must offer a defense of the citizenship question on the census that is not "arbitrary and capricious" by going ahead and including the question anyhow.

And I am sure I can come up with many, many more.

I realize very few normal people lose sleep over this sort of thing at night, and few base their vote on it.  But in the end, our constitutional structures and the rule of law rest on such matters, and are gradually being undone when our President is allowed to get away with such things.

To be updated as I think of new outrages, or as they occur.

PS:  Of course!  He has blurted out super classified information to Russian visitors, and ruined an important allied (Israeli) intelligence operation in Syria as a result.

UPDATE, 9/22/19:

He has threatened to fire career civil service professionals rather than admit an innocent mistake.  (Sharpiegate).

He has sent his personal lawyer to encourage a foreign government to give him dirt on his probably opponent in the next election.

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