I am the first to say it is a good thing to kick Veneqelan gang members out of our country, but to use an 18th-century law designed for wartime or when being attacked when neither is true is the abuse of the law's intent and abuse of power. It is a dangerous precedent. The Trump administration may be signaling going rogue, defying the rule of law.
To make sure his supporters can rationalize their support of what were illegal acts or defiance of a judge's ruling, Trump claimed Venezuela attacked us. Gee whiz, by golly, if we were attacked by Venezuelans, that's news to us. Why weren't we bombing them? Where's the declaration? Declaring a war when there is no one to use "war powers" to violate the law is the issue and if he gets away with it, he is setting a dangerous precedent because he can say it is OK to kick others out of the country without giving them due process or a hearing anytime he chooses and simply declaring what is a false pretense. Trump's border czar Tom Homan's response to the judge: "We don't care (what you rule), we will do what we want.", is an explicit challenge to the rule of law by an administration threatening to go rogue. https://www.axios.com/2025/03/17/tom-homan-deportation-flights-trump-court-order
Trump followed with a tweet calling for impeaching the judge in caps and screaming rhetoric:“HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,” Trump wrote on Tuesday. “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”
This rant was Immediately followed by a slap down by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court : Use the appellant process; impeachment is not appropriate. Chief Justice Roberts rebukes Trump, saying impeachment isn't 'appropriate response' to disagreeing with judge's ruling
John Roberts pushes back on Trump's judge impeachment threat
(The Alien Enemies Act of 1789states it can be invoked "whenever there is a declared war" or "any invasion or predatory incursion" perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the United States by a foreign government.,,)
To defy a court order by leaving US jurisdiction quickly without a process to determine the deportees are indeed gang members, as it appears it happened in this Venezuelan gang case, is also a precedent that could be applied to others. To get around due process required by law to determine whether the deportees were actually gang members takes away civil rights that could be used against others.
How can Trump get away with this? There are no repercussions thanks to the immunity from criminal act prosecutions given to him by his Supreme Court. The immunity does not extend to Tom Honan, or AG Pam Bondi, FYI. This, however, is what could become called a constitutional crisis on steroids if Honan or Trump actually act to defy the courts.
The process of how we do it is an essential element of following the rule of law, and lying about the facts or twisting them to fool public perception, using false pretenses, is a tool Trump often uses to meet his desires of the moment. He does it by using his own definitions of calling a crisis or an attack when they are not. He depends on the ignorance of the public and slavish loyalty to him that demands them to believe everything he says is the truth. Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham ‘knows he can basically say anything, and his base will believe.’ https://thehill.com/.../4394676-grisham-trump-knows-he.../.
If a judge calls out a pretense as BS or even asks for time to hear the arguments, Trump attacks the judge as a lib, a lunatic, corrupt (where's the pay off?) or worse and calls for that judge's impeachment, not even waiting for the appeal to a higher court. That, too, is a pretense Trump uses to say he has the right to defy judge rulings he does not like, so impeach the judge. He has to come up with some cover for his illegal actions to satisfy his loyal followers that he is always righteous. It seems like some would get wise it is such a predictable rhetoric he would spew acid at a "bad judge, prejudiced against him" every time a judge rules against him,, so he threats to impeach him'her without even waiting for an appeals court or the supreme court to rule otherwise. It is an abuse of power, to say the least, that has a profound impact on whether they continue as a country abiding by the rule of law or the rule by a tyrannical king. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-officials-raise-stakes-showdowns-judges-rcna196702
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/his-own-words-presidents-attacks-courts
This is not the first time Trump has twisted definitions or facts to cover his illegal actions or to abuse power. It is hs modus operandi. The only defense the public has from being manipulated by his using false pretenses is to call out what he is doing publicly while we still have a free press and defend the rule of law he is subverting.
To use his tariffs to "punish Canada" for a bad trade balance and the US is taken for suckers is a false pretense., if you look at the raw figures the trade imbalance looks impressive, but it you subtrack the oil imports the US welcomes, we actually have a trade supluss with Canada. I.e., we make more trade with Canada than we spend on their imports. https://realeconomy.rsmus.com/market-minute-u-s-runs-a-trade-surplus-with-canada-excluding-oil/
Another false pretense used in the trade wars with Canada is the cooked-up " Fentanyl crisis". The way Trump can set tariffs without congressional oversight and stop him is by lying about the crisis. In reality, the fentanyl "crisis" had already abated. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/02/nx-s1-5283957/fentanyl-trump-tariffs-china-canada-mexico
The ultimate false pretense, of course, was that the 2020 elections were stolen because of widespread fraud, and to this day, over four years of seeking, no proof or evidence has ever been produced that proved that claim. Nonetheless, it became the reason Trump used to try to get Congress to overturn the results of that election by refusing to count the official results of the states.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment