Tag: Trump abuse of the U.S. Constitution

Trump threatened Time reporter with prison — and then griped about never being named Man of the Year

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump threatened a reporter with prison after a photographer tried to snap a photo of his letter from Kim Jong Un.

According to a transcript of his interview with Time‘s Brian Bennett, the president asked to go off the record to show off the letter.

When the magazine’s photographer tried to take a picture of it, Trump became enraged.

“Excuse me — under Section II — well, you can go to prison instead, because, if you use, if you use the photograph you took of the letter that I gave you,” Trump said, according to the transcript.

View the complete June 21 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Trump says he will not fire Kellyanne Conway for Hatch Act violations

President Trump said Friday he will not fire Kellyanne Conway as White House counselor for violating the Hatch Act, rebuking the recommendation of a top federal watchdog.

“No, I’m not going to fire her. I think she’s a terrific person,” Trump said during a call-in interview on “Fox & Friends.”

The president’s comments came one day after the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) publicly said Conway should be removed from office, calling her a “repeat offender” who has flouted the law barring federal employees from engaging in political activity in their official duties.

View the complete June 14 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Trump puts GOP in tough spot with remarks on foreign ‘dirt’

President Trump has put Republican lawmakers in a tough position by saying that he would be willing to accept damaging information a foreign country such as Russia or China might offer about his 2020 Democratic rival.

Republicans were left shaking their heads Thursday over what many of them saw as a sloppy gaffe by the president, who didn’t appear to understand that what he was suggesting was against the law.

Several GOP lawmakers quickly denounced Trump’s comments, hoping to bury them and allow the controversy to blow over as soon as possible.

View the complete June 14 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Trump says he would listen if foreigners offered dirt on political opponent

President Trump on Wednesday wouldn’t commit to calling the FBI if a foreign power offered damaging information on a political opponent.

The comments, in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, came after special counsel Robert Mueller‘s report, released earlier this year, detailed numerous efforts by Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.

“I think maybe you do both,” Trump said when asked whether he would call the FBI or listen if Russia, China or another foreign government reached out.

View the complete June 12 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

‘Lying press’ and the Nazis: The long and troubling history behind Trump’s attacks on ‘the enemy of the people’

At an election rally in Cleveland in October 2016, two supporters of Donald Trump were captured on video shouting, “Lügenpresse!” What was going on? Why would people who are looking to Trump to “Make America Great Again,” be shouting a German word at one of his events? And what did it mean? The “lying press” — an idea at the heart not only of Trump’s campaign and presidency, but of his entire worldview.

The news media, Trump complains, treats him unfairly. It does not report all the positive news about his campaign and then his presidency. Instead, he insists, it lies to the public, publishing what he calls “fake news.” Within the confines of Trump’s community of supporters, stories critical of Trump are seen as lies, as phony left-wing propaganda. They’re not to be believed. As it turns out, the use of the term Lügenpresse happens to be quite illuminating. It sheds light on a connection between Trump’s political approach and that of Hitler in the 1930s, when one also heard that word used quite often.

The term Lügenpresse has its origins in Germany during the First World War. Initially intended to counter allied propaganda campaigns (a good deal of which we now know to have actually been accurate) the Nazis used it to attack hostile media. And considering the central role of anti-Semitism in Hitler’s worldview, it was a particularly effective weapon. The idea of a Jewish-dominated press stretched back decades. By the 1920s it was all but an unspoken assumption within German anti-Semitic circles. So now, if the press was critical of the Nazis, the explanation was clear: the Jews. And since, according to Hitler, Jews were fundamental enemies of Germany, the press, too, was the enemy of the people.

View the complete June 9 article by Richard E. Frankel from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Trump to stay at Doonbeg, his money-losing golf course threatened by climate change

President Trump arrived at his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, on Wednesday for a two-night stay — pausing between official events in Europe to visit a business that has cost him $41 million and never reported turning a profit.

Trump, coming off an official state visit to Britain, landed at Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland and met briefly with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar before flying to Doonbeg, about 40 miles away.

The Irish Times reported that Trump originally wanted to meet with Varadkar at his golf club, but Varadkar wanted to meet at another nearby hotel. The two leaders settled on an awkward compromise: the VIP lounge at the airport.

View the complete June 5 article by David A. Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.

To Conceal Trump Taxes, Mnuchin Cites Non-Existent Legal Memo

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is continuing to defy a request from Congress, first issued in April, to provide Trump’s tax returns.

On Tuesday, Justin Sok, senior adviser for Treasury’s Office of Legislative Affairs, insisted that Mnuchin was justified in his stonewalling because of supposed legal advice from the Department of Justice that doesn’t even exist in writing yet — and no one knows when it ever will.

“The Department of Justice intends to memorialize its advice in a published legal opinion as soon as its practicable,” Sok wrote in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. “We will provide a copy of the opinion to you when we receive it.”

View the complete May 31 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Clash Between Trump and House Democrats Poses Threat to Constitutional Order

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s wholesale refusal to provide information to Congress threatens to upend the delicate balance that is the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution.

Earlier administrations fought isolated skirmishes over congressional subpoenas. Mr. Trump, by contrast, has declared an all-out war on efforts by House Democrats to look into his official conduct and business dealings. And that has legal experts across the ideological spectrum warning that the president’s categorical opposition to what he sees as partisan meddling could create a constitutional crisis — an impasse that the allocation of interlocking powers and responsibilities by the framers cannot solve.

“A president who refuses to respond to congressional oversight is taking the presidency to new levels of danger,” said William P. Marshall, a law professor at the University of North Carolina. “We’re supposed to be in a system of checks and balances, and one of the biggest checks that Congress has over the executive is the power of congressional oversight.”

View the complete May 7 article by Adam Liptak on The New York Times website here.

Trump is literally asking courts to hold that the Constitution doesn’t apply to liberals

Who cares about the law when you’ve got the Supreme Court in your back pocket?

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin formally denied a request by House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal on Monday — Neal asked the Treasury Department to turn over several years of President Trump’s tax forms.

As a matter of law, this wasn’t so much a request as it was a mandatory demand, and Mnuchin’s response to Neal places the secretary in direct violation of the law. While the tax code provides that an individual’s tax forms generally should be kept confidential, one provision of that code provides that the Treasury Secretary “shall furnish” the Ways and Means Committee “with any return or return information specified in” a written request from the committee’s chair.

The law does provide some procedural protection for Trump — his return “shall be furnished to such committee only when sitting in closed executive session” — but the law provides no grounds whatsoever permitting Mnuchin to deny the request.

View the complete May 7 article by Ian Millhiser on the ThinkProgress website here.

Seven Foreign Governments Quietly Renting Trump Condos

At least seven foreign governments were given the green light from the Trump State Department to pay out money that could find its way into Trump’s own personal bank accounts.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the governments of Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Thailand, and the European Union were allowed to rent luxury condominiums in Trump World Tower in New York — even though doing so could violate the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits federal officials like Trump from accepting payments or gifts from foreign governments without the approval of Congress.

It also appears that Trump and his underlings understand the potential problems with this deal, and thus sought to hide it from congressional oversight.

View the complete May 2 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.