Within less than a month in office, the Trump administration exceeded its constitutionally authorized powers, diminished the role of Congress, and challenged the authority of the judiciary. Waving away his campaign pledge to lower the cost of groceries, Trump focused instead on maximal cruelty and political retribution dispersed with a wrecking ball.
Article I of the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to establish federal agencies and to appropriate money to run them. But instead of examining expenditures and functionalities with an eye toward cutting costs, Trump and ketamine-crusted Elon Musk are blowing up entire government institutions, some of which have been in existence since the Revolutionary War.
As Trump serves up federal chaos as a surrogate for governance, one wonders if this is what the federalist-majority Roberts court had in mind when it gave Trump immunity from criminal prosecution and invited him to do his worst — a challenge Trump is embracing with drool on his chin. One also wonders whether the court will use one of the many pending cases to delimit its immunity ruling, or will appease Trump to avoid a clash, thereby threatening the separation of powers and its own authority.
-Sabrina Haakd in Salon.com
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