Who can be held accountable for the two-tap Venezuelan drug boat hit? This is a symptom of a larger problem: the pattern of the Trump administration's strategy to avoid accountability for any unpopular or controversial act. The buck no longer stops at the Oval Office desk. "The Buck Stops Here" Desk sign | Harry S. Truman
Trump is saved from legal action by the Supreme Court granting him immunity: Those below him are accountable and do not have immunity, but it is not as simple as we are learning to pin anything on them, as well. Probably the only entity with the power to expose responsibility is Congress, which is now engaged in doing so.: Trump's usual pattern of response when he is challenged for his actions is to deflect attention by claiming the protesters are against something they are not. He also reacts by throwing his own appointees "under the bus", letting them to take the fall and blame.
What particularly frustrates holding Trump legally responsible for an act is that the Supreme Court puts Trump above the law and he would never be held accountable within the justice system or outside of it for various reasons. there is an excellent discussion of this in a CNN analysis: Trump is immune from accountability for boat strikes. What about everyone under him? | CNN Politics
Here is how this Venezuelan boat controversy, side-stepping accountability, could play out based on Trumpian response to being blamed for other unpopular actions that get blowback.. I see this one as typical of Trumpian strategy: pick an issue that most support...stop narco and human trafficking...and get rid of migrants who committed crimes in our country. and claim the libs are supporting all of those sins. Narco and human trafficking, and migrants with serious criminal records are bad guys, and these are are motherhood and apple pie kinds of a consensus held by both the left and the right. Then, when there is an objection to the methods or legality, Trump will claim the libs are supporting human trafficking and drug runners and narco trafficking and want to cripple the military.
There will be many in MAGA who will nod their heads and say "amen" without serious consideration of the implications, political fallout, or the methods. They will just pass it off as "you hate Trump" or ignore the methods used to carry out goals, which is the essence of the criticism. Where Trump et al go off the rails is the methods they use that far exceed what they promised to do. Most migrants deported by ICE and grabbed without a warrant, for example, have no criminal record, and appear to be treated cruelly and brutally, violating human and civil rights and threatening family separation to force compliance. Per the CATO ,Institute, 73% of those detained by ICE have no criminal record, and only 5% have a record of violent crimes. Politically, polls are showing the majority of voters are showing disdain for the methods, if not the goal. Trump may have underestimated the blowback to his methods, if not the goals. Most Immigrants Support Border Enforcement, but Not Mass Deportations, Poll Finds - The New York Times
MAGA itself has been spooked to support mass deportations by such claims that yearly 4000 are killed by undocumented migrants. However, as Reuters reported, there are few statistics available but there are statistics on the commission of crime in general that show that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the general population. Texas does keep such statistics and they also agree that migrants commit crimes less than do the citizen population. Fact Check: No evidence 4,000 people are killed yearly by undocumented immigrants | Reuters
5% of People Detained By ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convict.ons | Cato at Liberty Blog
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