Donald Trump is close to being out of control. We know, after what he has gone through, it is hard to be measured. He is not doing himself, his supporters, or the country any favors. Because his opponents have made so many reckless statements, and are themselves guilty of lying, when he is worthy of criticism, his friends must do it. And he had better listen. History is full of great leaders who went sideways.
We understand that the enemies of liberty have punctured the rule of law. They did this using “lawfare,” the January 6 Committee and their control of the mainstream media. We know that they lied to us about Covid, and the Russia Hoax. We know Biden was a puppet – possibly with Obama somehow fulfilling his own fantasy about a Third Term.
We might be headed for civil war with all the violence the Left is allowed to get away with, starting with “The Summer of Love” and the “mostly peaceful” riots in 2020. We see this now with the Tesla Torchings, attacks on prolife citizens and pregnancy-help centers and churches. But Trump is not helping the cause of freedom by shooting off his mouth in so many ways, just like many congressional Democrats have been doing.
You will squander your momentum unless you make the corrections – not the ones your enemies want to see – but your supporters.
Yes, the Constitution has been violated since its beginning, in 1789. Both the Left and the Right tolerate it when their side is doing so, and the Left and the Right have existed, only under different names, ever since the start of our independence. Trump’s supporters are largely ignorant of what is, and is not, “constitutional.” Things that were violated long ago have become accepted as somehow being legal when they are not. These create a springboard for subsequent violations, and he has already crossed several lines.
The latest one is quite serious: the talk about a Third Term. He will lose his best supporters by suggesting that he might try for a 3rd term. I have read through the micro-parsing of words in the 22nd amendment by those who believe that a technical loophole exists. Only lawyers would salivate over this, which is why there are so many scornful lawyer jokes.
The Left, for decades, has used constitutional technicalities to claim that the vicious and discredited Equal Rights Amendment is still up for grabs. For conservatives to suggest such magical nonsense about a 3rd term would forever forfeit the moral high ground about constitutionality.
Imagine if Obama had tried to do this in 2016! The entire Republican Party and its conservative allies would have been screeching to the high heavens, as would have many Democrats. Some Democrats dumped FDR and voted for Republican Wendell Willkie in 1940 on those grounds alone, when no 22nd Amendment existed, but rather a hallowed, unwritten law of tradition about third terms. Grant and Teddy Roosevelt tried for extra terms and were whacked down. The people made it clear enough to ensconce it into the Constitution in 1951, so any verbal loophole will sour Trump with his own friends.
Trump is floating a “trial balloon.” If we do not voice our displeasure, and right away, in every state, in every conservative blog large or small, he will see it as a green light.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
We all know that Trump is reckless with talk, but it is through his actions that we have supported him. Personally, I don’t like his talk about either Greenland or Canada, nor his saber-rattling with Iran, but during his time as president-elect, it produced some initially favorable results. But we still at least like to pretend that we obey the Constitution. He might have said something more reasonable and constitutional, as in “When I am sworn in, I will ask Congress to invite Greenland and part of Canada to join the United States.”
As I write this, Congress is making a bi-partisan effort to reclaim their power to control tariffs. It is a power that was yielded to the executive since 1962 in a decidedly unconstitutional manner. This effort is truly bipartisan. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are RINOs, but Rand Paul and Chuck Grassley are solid, proven and principled conservatives, and they can see the consequences for playing fast and loose with the rules.
Mr. President, closing up NATO, flipping off the EU and the UN, the alphabet agencies in our own government, ending the trade disadvantages that NAFTA and GATT created in 1994 by a lame duck Congress, stopping the weaponization of justice, attacking the madness of transgenderism and abortion, are all great strides you have made. But not everything you do is good, nor constitutional. No winning streak lasts forever. Even the 1927 Yankees could not win every game.
You will squander your momentum unless you make the corrections – not the ones your enemies want to see – but your supporters.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
28 Comments
I don’t believe he is ignoring the constitution. I believe the White House legal staff interprets wrong and adds to the confusion.
Im going to Hands Off rally.
Set free the Attack dog, we need to standup to all these people and countries taking advantage of us.
How are thosr countries taking advatnage of us? You import cheap goods made by Chinese slave labor, and somehow that makes _you_ the victim? And your big “attack dog” response is to force _yourself_ to pay more for said goods? Uhhh…
Trump is just putting tariffs on country’s that tariff us ,he’s Just playing fair.
I buy as much American made goods as I can, way before all this hysteria.
Just chill out people.
“……You import cheap goods made by Chinese slave labor, and somehow that makes _you_ the victim?……..”
If your claim of “Chinese slave labor” is accurate (it isn’t), it makes us all exploiters of slaves. You’d like to continue? Fine. Others don’t. In fact, a majority of voters don’t.
You lose.
smolden needs to figure out how spell check works! THE IQ OF THE DUNLEAVY ADMINISTRATION IS LAUGHABLE!
Trump must be impeached NOW.
Impeached for what?
GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP! GODS APPOINTED MAN FOR THIS APPOINTED TIME!
Bob, you might want to take your quest to follow the U.S. Constitution to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts who just voted with the left minority on the issue on letting Trump Suspend Grants to Teachers being trained in DEI.
Mr. Bird,
You take yourself too seriously. i suggest you ignore the noise and listen to the signal: President Trump has never been a statesman or a diplomat, nor did he ever promise to be. For those who believe he’ll seek a third term, you haven’t been paying attention. Note to self: Trump loves it when Liberal heads explode. He loves drinking radical left Marxist tears. The trigger speed of the Left is stupefying. 2028 is Gov. DeSantis’ election to lose. VP Vance needs more years. It’s a long game; we should be looking towards 2032.
Tamra & Penny: Talk like yours shows why all this is dangerous. When Trump himself says, “I am serious” and “We have the loopholes”, he has crossed a line. If he wants to talk recklessly, I am going to take his word for it. I cannot read his heart. Neither can you. No one can, only God. We have speech for a reason, and we all detest lies. Don’t call me gullible when the same can be said about your dismissing his words. The first step to violating the Constitution in such a blatant way is to make a “suggestion” and see if it “Plays in Peoria”. And, we still must answer the question: What would conservatives and Republicans have done if Obama said the same thing? Well, he actually DID, with his loose talk about implanted ear-pieces dictating to a future puppet president about what to say. I don’t think it is too far-fetched to imagine that that is exactly why Biden seemed so confused some of the time. I/We don’t want Trump to lose the momentum, but he is becoming his own worst enemy. I refuse to pretend that everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was given to us for a reason. Even Jefferson and Madison succumbed.
Of course you are entitled to your opinion, Bob, and I hope nobody here says otherwise. I also doubt that my “talk” is the least bit dangerous. I don’t think I am a mind reader for simply noticing how Trump works and why he says what he does for effect. Neither do I think you are gullible, but in fact what is dangerous is finding every little thing wrong with the only President in our time who might actually right the ship of government and rescue it from disaster. I never have agreed with everything any politician has stood for and I doubt anyone else has either, but I darn sure know that any other option at this point is guaranteed to cause disaster. You don’t have to pretend anything, any more than the rest of us do. I choose to get on board with saving the country. I imagine that Biden was confused because he was senile, and was demonstratively so, ear pieces be damned. It will take Trump all of his next four years to fix what the deep state wrought, and if mistakes happen, they can’t be nearly as bad as what occurred under Obama and Biden. I worked in the belly of the beast, and I can say straight up that our current government is a disaster, and will end this country without Trump’s whip hand. Your mileage may vary.
The original Constitution FOR the United States did not put limits on how many times a president could seek the executive office. In other words, the Constitution of the United States in not the original and was put in place by the corporation a long, long time ago. The information is out there but you won’t find it easily, especially without using a private web browser.
Goodness, Bob, I didn’t figure you for a pearl-clutcher. Trump says lots of things that are outrageous. He does this for effect, and it works. Art of the deal. He has kept leftists running around responding to all kinds of things instead of figuring out how to thwart him. I doubt he is quite as stupid or reckless as you portray him.
Leftists are obsessing about how to thwart Trump’s global poison, but they are hobbled by obeying the law. Trump is not encumbered by law. Or morality, intelligence, honesty, or empathy.
Fake! I never made this comment!
Sweetie, I don’t know you, but if you can’t even spell my name correctly, then perhaps it is you who are faking. Just saying.
I’m surprised you didn’t address his continued use of Executive Orders
That’s because an executive order which countermands an unconstitutional executive order RESTORES legality. The easiest example is Obama re-naming Mt. McKinley. Not that important, but whether “Denali” was a good idea or not, the Congress voted for McKinley with ANILCA in 1980. And ending foreign aid by XO is far more important. Not just some, but ALL foreign aid is unconstitutional. Bone up on your Constitution and we can talk further.
Thank you Bob!
Bob you are right in principle but not in content. They stole an election from him in 2020. The Deep State demons we are currently fighting that permeate every level of our Federal, State and Local governments are trying everything in the book to stop Trump’s plan to save our country. If you don’t understand the severity of what we face, you should look up his speech at the wall on the southern border prior to departing office. He listed their 16-year plan to destroy this country and if Killary had gotten in, we would no longer be the United States under a Constitution.
We are fighting an infiltration of globalists that have blackmailed many politicians from both parties. One of Trumps’ Executive orders suspended the Constitution in order to allow the Military to be used on our soil against our enemies. It was the only way to fight this. It is like a cancer that will need to be cut out. Many people have figured this out, apparently not all. Remember as well, in the courts, fraud eviscerates everything. They stole an election from him, and he deserves to have it back as well as the American people that voted for him. Soon this evidence will be presented to the American people, but first you have to find and remove the corrupt judges abusing their authority. He is the Commander in Chief, no judge has the authority to tell him to bring back illegal criminals to continue harming our citizens. Those States harboring enemy combatants in their sanctuary cities are committing acts of treason.
Well said! Many well meaning people on the right don’t realize we have been in a non-shooting world war for the past 20 years or more in which the goal on the left has been to destroy our democratic republic in which case we would ALL lose our rights.
I agree with Mr. Bird about the 3rd term issue and Rick Green, America’s Constitution Coach,said sometime ago he has not seen a violation of the Constitution with Trump but Green says that so much change has happened that he can’t keep track of it all.
Respectfully disagree, Bob.
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Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 enables the President to impose tariffs if imports threaten national security, following a thorough investigation.
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Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the President to impose retaliatory tariffs to counteract unfair foreign trade practices.
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United States v. Belmont, 301 U.S. 324 (1937) affirmed the president’s authority to initiate executive agreements with foreign states without Senate advice or consent.
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Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952) limited the power of the president of the United States to seize private property.
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International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) grants the President authority to regulate commerce during national emergencies involving foreign threats, requiring a formal declaration.
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These powers aren’t absolute. The Supreme Court upheld the need for an “intelligible principle” guiding exercise of delegated authority. Judicial oversight is meant to assure the President’s tariff-related powers remain consistent with congressional intent and constitutional mandate.
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The President has authority to impose tariffs under certain conditions, but this power is framed by statute and constitutional principles which uphold balance of powers. The legislative branch retains oversight role to ensure tariffs are used in accordance with national interests and rule of law.
Challenge is balancing executive flexibility with legislative oversight. Response to contemporary global trade dynamics requires flexibility from the executive branch, flexibilility which the legislative branch may not be able to provide.
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Bottom line is Americans have a framework to assure the executive branch can respond swiftly to trade challenges, while Congress retains its oversight role in taxation and trade regulation.
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Good point about not ignoring the Constitution, might we suggest the president is entitled to the same First Amendment rights?
One of the gazillion things I HATE about Trump is knowing that he’d lie when the truth would serve him better, but once in awhile, a true statement slips through. Definitely more relling to watch what he does than what he says, but still.
All I am reading is the writing of a weak and feckless GOP sychopant and coward.
The AK GOP is out of touch, corrupted, and truly has a facility for helping evil by doing nothing.
We need a serious change to the AK GOP, absolutely in the Legislatior and definitely in the Executive.