With many things Trump has been doing, there are plusses and minuses. USAID is complex. 
The Good
Rooting out fraud and ridiculous unauthorized payments is good. Moreover, there is grounds to fire everyone who sent out checks without questioning a single one.
The lead image is a great example. In addition there is $8.2 million payments to Politico.
And there is strong evidence that Politico was paid to suppress stories on Hunter and Joe Biden.
The unseen is undoubtedly worse. It’s good to root out all of this fraud and corruption and prosecute when appropriate.
The Bad
Sorry DOGE, but a blanket cancellation of all payments is unconstitutional.
USAID Critic claim that since President John F. Kennedy created USAID using an executive order in 1961, President Trump can do away with it via executive order.
However, the Congressional Research Service points out “Because Congress established USAID as an independent establishment within the executive branch, the President does not have the authority to abolish it; congressional authorization would be required to abolish, move, or consolidate USAID.“
Some of us (very few actually) want to see the President follow the law. I am in that group.
However, most people are hypocrites. The Left praised unconstitutional actions by Biden, and the Right is loudly cheering clearly unconstitutional Trump actions now.
I get it from both the Left and Right because I want both parties to follow the law.
The Ugly
Elon Musk has no power to do anything but advise the President and make recommendations.
NBC reports USAID security leaders removed after refusing Elon Musk’s DOGE employees access to secure systems
The USAID systems the DOGE team tried to access included personnel files and security systems, including classified systems beyond the security level of at least some of the DOGE employees, according to three of the sources. The systems also included security clearance information for agency employees, two of the sources said.
“No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances,” Katie Miller, who worked in President Donald Trump’s first administration and has since joined DOGE, said Sunday on X.
When USAID Director of Security John Voorhees and his deputy, Brian McGill, refused to allow them in, the DOGE employees threatened to call the U.S. Marshals, two of the sources said. The DOGE employees were eventually able to gain access to the secure systems, according to three of the sources, but it was not clear what information they were able to obtain.
Also note Elon Musk says he and Trump are shutting down USAID
Musk, the head of Trump’s government efficiency initiative, announced the shutdown in the middle of the night in an audio-only appearance on his social media site X.
But Musk has no power to shut down anything.
No one should defend this because the only legitimate role of DOGE is to make recommendations.
If you disagree then please tell me how you would have felt if Biden authorized George Soros access to the system to shut down payments he disagreed with.
Hypocrites make excuses. I don’t.
Also in the ugly category is the simple fact that many if not most of the payments are legitimate. By legitimate, I mean genuinely authorized by Congress, not that I think they are a good idea.
A 90-day review is simply too long.
The Right Approach
What Trump should have done is allow Musk to search for questionable items and report them.
That part happened, but in an ugly way.
Then Trump could legitimately block those items. Also he could have directed USAID to look at and question every expense, flagging and temporarily those that are questionable.
Instead, Trump blocked everything except for “critical items” whatever that means.
The Unfortunate Reality
There is no advantage in releasing Musk in a China shop than releasing George Soros in the same China shop. No good will come from a reckless smashing of plates.
And the unfortunate impact might very well be the courts block everything when some very good things may have happened if Trump took a legitimate case-by-case look.
Lawsuits are pending and Trump will lose. We should not be in this setup.
Related Posts
February 5, 2025: Some Staunch Trump Supporters Will Not Defend His Gaza Proposal
February 5, 2025: Trump Cancels USAID Funding After DOGE Finds $8.2 Million Paid to Politico
Addendum: Elon Musk’s DOGE Blocked from Accessing Labor Department Data in Stunning Win for Unions
Well that was fast.
Trump and his band of merry men have 4 years to continue to draft Presidential Orders. That should keep the Dems tied up in knots and spending their time concocting law suits to prevent shutting down the waste fraud and abuse. Which is the objective behind all of this; to expose the grifting class and their thievery to the previously uninformed public.
https://www.thelion.com/bin/forum.cgi?tf=politics_and_ot_topics&msg=12655&cmd=r&t=
It wasn’t until a few years ago that the victims of the chemically poisoned water at Camp Lejeune from 1953-1983, were allowed by congress to receive compensation for injury, as being the sovereign, legally protected the government from liability. Was it justice for the victims all those years? No, but it was legal. Why did congress wait so long after the problem was discovered, to do the right thing for the victims?
Mish is right about the law, but the Democrats, establishment RINOS, Deep Staters, etc., are using the law to protect their corruption of the American system. Pelosi filed to run for her 21st term in congress. 42 years, if she succeeds. A number of legislators think they own the seat in congress and die in it as McCain and Feinstein did. The voters just rubber stamp them each election cycle and allow the corruption to continue unabated.
None of the victims of corruption during the PREP Act, have any recourse for justice, because the law protected and still protects the perpetrators, as the law legally protects them from accountability. The PREP Act was a legislative response to the biological anthrax attack after 9/11. The public was told Covid was a public health crisis, but the PREP Act is a response to a biological warfare attack, in which those involved in emergency counter measures, are protected from liability from accountability for harm caused by those emergency counter measures used to defend against it. Only congress can change the PREP Act and has done nothing to do so for the last 5 years. Tough luck for all those who have been harmed by it, because it is legally the law.
I’m very happy to hear closing down the USAID which is destroying both donor US and recipient.
If you donate money to beggar you’re helping him for a day.
If you really want to help, give him a job which will help him his whole life and you as well.
USAID help the developing countries for short period of time. It can cause corruption on both sides.
If US really want to help, trade without tariff and invest in these countries. That’s the proper way to help.
Worse, USAID can be channelled to the anti-government organisations and destabilised the countries.
I hope USAID will be permanently closed down.
Except, may be to places like emergency situation such as starvation, flood, etc.
I am sure that I am not the only one surprised by the speed at which DOGE was set in motion. They knew exactly where, when and how to roll up USAID in record time which of course means that they had plenty of inside information. That goes for the other agencies as well. It was very well planned and I believe that the legal challenges have been gamed out beforehand equally. You can believe that there is going to be a wave of lawsuits on these basically fake NGOs. Non-profits also have a fiduciary responsibility before the law and looking at the ridiculous salaries and how little money actually ended up helping those who were supposed to be helped, I would say that I would not want to be on the board off any of these NGOs. They are wide open to lawsuits that could ruin their reputations and bankrupt them personally. Hats off to the preparation and the implementation. Masterful!
Everyone here should be re-reading “The Prince”.
is that Machiavelli’s “Prince” or Mark Twain’s “The Prince and The Pauper” ?
Of course, they had inside info. Haven’t you seen where Melania and Ivanka Trump were poster sponsors for USAID during Trump’s first term? https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-calls-usaid-tremendous-fraud-wife-daughter-promoted/story?id=118547473
Or maybe now that his family has already visited some nice tourist spots on someone else’s dime, it’s time to get rid of this particular program LOL
Missing the bigger picture, which is not ridiculous woke payments.
USAID is all wrapped up in foreign meddling and Intel ops, and that same machinery has been used against the USA. The woke payments, like everything else, are just tactical ways to stir up chaos in target constituencies. The whole apparatus completely defies and escapes any policy control.
its like a 3 layer cake, it’s all wrapped up in all you say and frosted in 3 layers of corruption,graft and crimes. It like the world bank for the families, their minions, and their NGO’s.
They have put nearly all of USAID’s personnel on admin leave (while they figure out a way to legally fire them).
I’m a Fed (DoD) who has been chatting with some USAID personnel on admin leave and they’ve confirmed this story (only 294 employees of ~14000 remain): https://ca.news.yahoo.com/usaid-set-hacked-14-000-214143149.html
Interesting times… I feel sorry for my fellow Feds but overall agree that somebody needs to gut lots of the Federal govt, and the approach DOGE is taking — though it will create lots of collateral damage — may be the only way to do this (eventually they’ll get bogged down in lawfare and Senate filibusters… slash and burn, shock and awe… starting this way caught the Swamp and Congress on the backs of their heels).
As long as USAID is tied up, maybe the regime-change “color revolutions” can be put on hold. Let George, Slovakia, Romania and Georgia have the leaders they elected – even if the US Deep State doesn’t like them. Also Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan ….
i’d feel little sorrow for “yer fellow feds” who share a common employer, as their were knifing you and every other tax payer, and they were making DOD’s job harder by starting color revolutions and mischief large and small like the woke revolution that led to massively declining enrollment for the woke trans army,navy etc.
you may share a country and even an employer (the federal government) but they are not to be trusted.
Have you received your “Fork in the Road” email? I’ve heard DOD is immune.
“Elon Musk has no power to do anything but advise the President and make recommendations.”
Lol! And yet every Democrat in Congress is having a conniption over him.
I have a hunch DOGE will prove to be the most effective department ever created in the history of the US Govt.
Perfect! Tell anyone that will still listen to you!
It is the newest form of warfare, where we fight with information rather than blowing up cities. A small improvement.
– USAID is complex.
> Don’t lose sight of “How Complex” it is, for Trump.
— USAID has the Democrat Party, The MSM, TV, Google etc. and Tens of Thousands of Citizens collecting the Money, Amongst Others (Foreign Governments etc.), IN SUPPORT OF THEM!
>> Trump has an Elite, and what now appears to be a Corrupt, “Top Level Tier” of Government, “Working Against” The People and there “Collective Will”, and Totally Against Him!
The Good – Rooting Out Fraud, and Rooting Out Political Interference, for Starters.
The (Potentially) Bad – DOGE may have rushed the cancellation of payments, but that’s unclear still. DOGE can’t abolish USAID, however (I Do Believe) the President can cease 100% of the Funding (NOT Cancel prior approved funding, no). So in essence shutting it down.
The Ugly – Apparently Musk must have said openly in a public statement, that “he and Trump” are shutting down USAID. In reality of course that’s exactly what’s occurring, but the “Ugly” semantics got in the way. When my Boss had me do something that affected something else, when asked I would say: “(Name) My Boss and I closed that line down” I had No Authority, and ironically most often neither did My Boss, but OUR BOSS DID and He Told Us Too. So yes We Shut it Down! “IF” Trump also doesn’t have any authority to do so, then that’s absolutely wrong, I 100% Agree, and it needs to be rectified, and something done to “Not Allow” things such as this to occur illegally again.
– Also in the ugly category is the simple fact that many if not most of the payments are legitimate. By legitimate, I mean genuinely authorized by Congress, not that I think they are a good idea.
> I believe it was after Trump said “Not To Do It”, and they did anyway. But if your right, and it was before that, then I also agree that was very wrong as well!
– The Unfortunate Reality. There is no advantage in releasing Musk in a China shop than releasing George Soros in the same China shop. No good will come from a reckless smashing of plates.
> I Totally 100% Agree!!!
>> And the unfortunate impact might very well be (USAID Caused Havoc by their Actions), and, the courts block everything when some very good things may have happened.
Lawsuits are pending… We shall see what transpires from them. Perhaps nothing at all? We shall find out at some point however…
If Congress didn’t know about this waste and corruption they weren’t doing their job and if Congress did know about this waste and corruption then the least they should do is shut up and let Trump and his people clean it up.
USAID can be put under the direct control of the Secretary of State (indeed, that has already happened). The individual appropriations authorized by Congress can’t be cancelled or redirected towards ends not specified in the congressional language. But the odds are much of this money has been sent to the former USAID under conditions that leave a great deal of discretion in the hands of the USAID administrator. That person now is Marco Rubio. The following from JFK’s executive order creating USAID indicates that, indeed, a great deal of discretion lies in Rubio’s hands.
“SEC. 103. Continuation of prior agencies. The corporate Development Loan Fund, the International Cooperation Administration, and the Office of the Inspector General and Comptroller shall continue in existence until the end of November 3, 1961. The personnel, offices, entities, property, records, and funds of such agencies and office may be utilized by the Secretary prior to the abolition of such agencies and office.”
It is always, always better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
In other words shut it all down and then beg for forgiveness in a sincere manner when the courts force you to restart. But getting it to the court level means it all (including classified stuff) has to be passed through the courts one by one and approved.
Really classified slush money won’t even bother to appear in court to ask because they don’t want the spotlight. Instead they’ll quietly accept the gravy train has ended.
(I recall from my time in the military, for example, that our monies appropriated to support operations, but not spent during the fiscal year, were returned to the US Treasury.)
The unmitigated reality is no matter what Trump does Congress does not write checks and the courts do not enforce the law. These are the purview of the executive branch. Congress puts the money in the bank. The judiciary can rule all they want but the executive branch enforces the law. Judges do not arrest anyone, and the congress does not write checks. Only thing they can do is impeach him and put in Vance. Everyone needs to stop and think about the basic reality. Trump is the king and above the law for the next 4 years and there is nothing anyone can do about it except for the house of representatives. Last time I checked the house was majority republican.
Exactly. I have the guns, nothing else matters
Did you sleep through civics class?
We don’t have a king here.
He missed publication of the Declaration of Independence.
Speaking of power … They are cancelling all media subs for GSA and among other agencies, Bloomberg is on the hit list. If you think that Letitia James can do anything at all, as well as the so called Governor with a face made for radio, without little Mike’s consent or urging, I have a bridge to sell you. Chucky is certainly on Mike’s payroll.
Disagree on losing the lawsuits. Some yes, most no. You think this is shooting from the hip? Au contraire mon frere. Law is a form of violence, more controlled than internecine conflict which makes it more powerful. In the end, its the power that is of importance. Pendulum is swinging hard away from the progressive agenda, plain and simple.
Remember that in 2 years during the mid-terms.
Nancy Pelosi leading the charge! Lol. Care to make a wager Mortimer?
Careful! She’s been known to angrily tear sheets of paper!
My little goldfish are blissfully incapable of such a feat of memory.
“Sorry DOGE, but a blanket cancellation of all payments is unconstitutional.”
OK, Mr. Libertarian. What is the constitutional basis for USAID to exist and for CONgress to spend money on all these grants?
If USAID and these expenditures are not constitutional, then how is cancelling the payments unconstitutional? Wouldn’t cancelling payment of public funds constitute defending the constitution from domestic enemies?
It surely would help if people could read.
Seriously, you need remedial English lessons.
Because Congress established USAID as an independent establishment within the executive branch, the President does not have the authority to abolish it; congressional authorization would be required to abolish, move, or consolidate USAID.“
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12500
300 employees left is not abolishing it. Keep up Mish.
Hanging on a thread there Mish. DOGE has effectively abolished the slush fund already and there is nothing a corrupt federal judge can do to bring that back. Whatever remains of USAID will be of no concern.
https://apnews.com/article/usaid-foreign-aid-freeze-trump-peter-marocco-8253d7dda766df89e10390c1645e78aa
The basis is Congress. You don’t like what Congress did, call your reps, you have two senators and a house member. Try visiting congress.gov
Let’s not pretend we’ve read the entirety of the Foreign Assistance Act. JFK created USAID by executive order. Most legislation is as long as the Bible. Who knows who begat whom? There could be clauses that give the executive sweeping powers to make changes. All of Trump’s questionable orders will be decided by the courts and probably SCOTUS. We’ll see what happens. Some of his actions will probably be declared unconstitutional, others not.
Unarmed representation is meaningless.
Latest is that they are pairing USAIDS down to around 300 employees to support essential services. So it is not being abolished, but for all intents and purposes, it is being abolished, at least as far as its current incarnation is concerned. All I can say is, Bravo!
US AID is a CIA front organization. The CIA now runs our country. Trump is attempting to undo some of that
If you believe we are still a Democratic Republic, you have not been paying attention
US AID has a primary impact in forcing regime change all over the globe, currently in Georgia, Slovakia, Hungary and probably in Romania. They also had a large role in the Ukraine coup in 2014 which has brought us to throwing $200 Billion into the fire and bringing us within hours of nuclear annihilation
I am torn about the one valid point here which is once you do this, you may suffer the reverse Soros effect later
The Left has already broken every line of appropriateness to the point we no longer have the Rule of Law or a real Justice system.
Can it be recovered? I have doubts
I believe what we have here is a few years of reprieve before we fall back into the situation of civil war. We will see
5 years ago I would have agreed with this article completely.
After what we have seen and learned the last 4 years, I am no longer sure
^This X 1,000.
As Musk said, USAID isn’t an apple with a worm. It’s a ball of worms. Sure, they dole out some medicines and do some other good stuff, but that’s just to create a veneer of respectability.
Next up, the National Endowment for Democracy – another CIA front group.
Trump promised he would be a lawless president. Promise made, promise kept. But that Trump would put a billionaire, who got rich through government contracts and subsidies, in charge of dismantling the federal government is, to put it mildly, a surprise. As stock market analysts have pointed out, the stock price of Tesla has by now ballooned on the assumption that Musk will manage to bend federal laws and regulations in Tesla’s favor. I guess this the new US capitalist model: turn billionaires into trillionaires by handing them over the federal government.
Without my surprise 277 million in the 9th inning, you’d be bitching about President Harris now. Show some respect, serf.
Its too late in the evening for hallucinogenics sir.
Indeed… it’s Ketamine Hour.
Everything Trump does has a second derivative, In this case it was to force the Democrats to defend the indefensible.
The skid marks he leaves on the furniture, maybe. He gives housekeeping fits!
Total clown show. Why not start with NASA of 25 billion? USAID 28 billion.
That’s getting a little too close to some Very Important People.
The Jews run NASA? I did not know that.
Hey, when you going to build a REAL space station? Like in SF, we need a 10 mile in diameter with spokes and everything.
Just as soon as I finishing transferring the treasury to my crypto accounts.
NASA should be given MORE money. LOTS more!
But what is necessary at NASA is to clean house of the slow-walking administrator types.
I am sure that there are law firms in DC that specialize in setting up an NGO for a reasonable cost. All you need is the paperwork and an EIN number. You now have your own NGO, with some appropriate sounds-good, feels-good project somewhere overseas. Haiti or Africa sounds good. Helping Black folks is always tops and even better if they are members of the LGBTQ+ “community”.
You send a request for funding a few $Million into your NGO to USAID, and they approve it. In fact, they never failed to approve a single one. You get your funding and scrape off 50-60% for salaries, benefits and expenses. Rather than actually doing any work on your “project”, you send some of your funding to friends who have their own NGO. When they get some funding, they send some of it back to you.
Of course, you need to attend conferences, USAID meetings, etc. say in Florida or some island in the Carribean. In winter. You also need to wine and dine your friends in the NGO business to make sure you are seen as a real “player”. Your wife and other family members are employees or “Board Members” of your NGO. Paid, of course.
These people are the former Congressional staffers, aides, Generals, etc. that just hang around DC and cash in on the giant whale USAID, where the money keeps flowing. And don’t forget, there are tax benefits too. Your NGO is a “non-profit”, so you can stash some cash and never pay the tax man on any investment gains. When you terminate your NGO, you probably get to keep the remaining bucks.
Sorry. Your gravy train just ran off the tracks.
Wait, don’t shut down USAID until I get one of these babies set up.
This is SO GOOD an explanation of how the process works! I believe this is essentially the same with spending from any government agency, which should explain why it next gets investigated or curtailed.
Now that it’s exposed it will be easy to shut down. Before it would have been impossible. Removing the security clearances of a wide swath of former officials is part of the operation. It puts them out of the loop and cuts their usefulness to zero.
“I get it from both the Left and Right because I want both parties to follow the law.”
THE LAW(s) need to be changed and/or abolished. The absurdity of this spending is criminal level!
No laws = no crime. I like it!
I suppose you will call me a hypocrite because I am currently not feeling as weak kneed about the current crew of people people digging around and identifying where our hard earned tax dollars are going. How did we not know about this before someone had go to this extreme? I don’t like the way this is being handled but I think there is no other way.
Actually, a few Senators (Ernst and Rubio for sure) were actually asking about USAID before and were routinely ignored or their requests were slow walked. The time to play nice with the very career entrenched people, who have flipped you off for years was the last four years. Had they acted in good faith, I might feel differently. Our elected officials have been telling them “we are really going to be angry if you don’t provide the information we requested” for far too long.
The real problem is the folks who are being impacted by the temporary freezes are the exact people that USAID was intended to serve but the bureaucrats decided to FA and as a result innocent people with real needs are being impacted.
It seems it must be hard to quantify the real effects because the opposition to Trump would have you believe that any delay means that kids will be dying of TB tomorrow because the money was delayed today which is not reasonably believable.
If the situation was really that dire and they actually cared about the people they use to mask their misdeeds you would think the bureaucrats would have gladly offered up the low hanging fruit waste as soon as DOGE walked in the door. Their response, hunker down and yell like Corey Booker and the rest of the clowns.
If it takes 90 days to determine what has actually been authorized by Congress, then so be it. If we are worried about Russia or China providing the needed aid to increase their world standing, then perhaps, the EU can provide the aid for these dire needs until we can get back in the saddle again. Nothing stopping them from meeting these dire needs for a few weeks . . .
Finally, Democrats would have no need to have Soros do what Musk is doing, the career bureaucrats were already doing his bidding and using our tax dollars to “convince” the media of their virtuous programs.
Exactly! Democrats BAD. Republicans GOOD. Double PLUS good even.
You are a man of rare insight.
Well God Bless you.
To be clear (and you likely know this as you are clearly an enlightened individual) both parties have participated in this.
Both parties only seem to tightly cling to the constitution when it fits their current needs.
Have a great day.
“I suppose you will call me a hypocrite because I am currently not feeling as weak kneed about the current crew of people people digging around and identifying where our hard earned tax dollars are going.”
Actually if you read my post then you would know I 100% support this digging.
I have seen this movie again and again and again. Showing hungry children, dying children or begging women and asking money is to be stopped at once. If you’re really want to help third world countries , promote trading without tariff, and invest in these countries and lift the living standard of these people.
Stop USAID except in cases such as emergency situations.
Publish the names of all congressional critters that were responsible for this crap and keep up a constant stream of information to promote unseating them. Clean house.
Actually, after the last 4 years, when rogue, un-American left-wing traitors tried to destroy the US and turn us into France, much plate crashing is completely justified.
Its absolutely shocking to see taxpayer money funding these progressive social causes. I’m sure Kennedy was thinking about helping to feed the poor, build wells and provide healthcare. The utter corruption of our government is absolutely frightening. Kids can’t read, the number of homeless increased in Denver by 18%, sending checks to anyone who wants one (don’t forget about the fraudster who took 600 million through tax claims), and on and on. This is only the start, we are in the first few weeks of digging through the trash pile. I totally agree, Musk is very intelligent and cracks the code, but he has a lot of ethical issues.
Musk has runs coproate welfare companies. His companies get more than all the savings he will find.
Gee wiz, how did that happen?
Somebody put a price tag on your freedom, and I paid it.
…and more than they get now.
As is commanded by God and nature.
Intelligence is more important than ethics, and daddy’s money was more important than either.
It started out well but because of lack of oversight became corrupted. Any organization without oversight inevitably becomes corrupted.
Trump didn’t close USAID … it remains active reporting to State Dept… now at 3% strength (97% layoffs).
Unless Congress had specific funding allocations, USAID has discretionary authority to fulfill their objectives.
I haven’t read the FY25 omnibus relative to USAID, has Mish, or anyone?
“USAID has discretionary authority to fulfill their objectives”
Well – They don’t
And will lose in court on that – 100% clear
Change the name to US AIDS and have Fauci administer the program..
I agree to a point. Remember Trump’s first run in office when he thought he was doing things the right way. Look what it got us. These deep state and Congress members are filthy dirty. It’s hard to come up with the correct adjectives.
I view politics now as war, there is no longer a proper way. There is no good political party. This nefarious agency was not responding to requests; they ignored any demands from anyone and were untouchable. It paid for Trump’s impeachment; it’s lawfare against Trump and thousands of others, which is the tiny top of the corruption. The people, that is, Congress, are in charge of monitoring this pig. Do you think they will let anyone inside or vote to close it down? Most of them have their hand in the Aid Bank for who knows what. It’s a giant slush fund for Congress and intelligence agencies, all having dark missions.
We should audit the outfits that received the cash. I would bet money came flowing back to Congress members. This agency is the smoking gun that will indict Congress and others in all types of money laundering schemes. We always ask how a member of Congress can afford that (whatever that is) with their known salary. There’s a high probability
the answer goes back to this agency.
I think we get all the dirt we can so that the criminals in government can’t stop any investigation; otherwise, they look guilty.
The right way is to let Congress investigate or call a special investigation. Ha, that’s like letting the Mafia investigate themselves. Why do you think Congress voted to make this agency untouchable?
US needs to build “FIVE STARS PRISONS” now. Not one but many.
So wait a doggone minute. When you look it up it says JFK established USAID by Executive Order. Did Congress supercede his EO? I want Trump to follow the Law, so what is the law ?
Please re-read my post because I explained.
How about apparently paying journalists for favorable political stories?:
Ah yes… good old Mr. Pecker. A true friend to the cause.
I read an interesting thing today somewhere (don’t have link) that after Congress changes hands again but possibly after Trump leaves office, Congress will strip the executive branch of power to do much of this tomfoolery. I hope it happens at the mid-terms but won’t hold my breath.
While the courts may ultimately shutdown Trump, he will continue to push the envelope and likely crash the economy and maybe government by the time he leaves office.
All I can do is watch from afar……and smirk with an “I told you so….”
Be careful what you wish for. It may come to pass.
If Trump proves successful in the eyes of the public, Republicans may INCREASE their margins of control at the midterms.
There is an un-begged question that needs to be begged, “Why didn’t Trump do any of these things during his first term?”
The answer is that it’s ultra-high risk. He didn’t do it first term because if it crashed the economy hard, republicans would be out for 8 years. Now he has nothing to lose, he can’t run again and he may not survive (old age) his second term.
So it *may* work but it may very well lead us into Great Depression II. If we’re in Great Depression II, expect another “FDR” with socialism on steroids.
An FDR isn’t needed – just younger, smarter leaders.
Let’s change the Constitution so Musk can run. Then we can see who will agree with his current work.
And conversely, we can’t go on spending $2T extra a year, now can we?
The GOP doesn’t want to crash the economy, but it’s quite obvious that we’ve arrived at the moment where big structural changes have to occur on who, what, how, when & where we’re spending money.
The GOP is just as much on the line as if this were 2020 and Trump didn’t have the election stolen from him. They have right the ship without tanking economy, otherwise the Dems will take everything over in 2028.
Of course there are considerations and not all of them are economic. Some are political.
For example, a lot of this funding, even that outside the USA is politically driven, which is why no one has ever had the cojones to look deeply into the guts of spending from agencies like USAID.
I hope they audit the DOD also. There have been numerous stories over the years about excess and foolish spending by the DOD but nothing ever seems to be done. Will Trump fell powerful enough to take on the MIC? This could be the one step over the line that might get him physically eliminated.
Here’s something that needs investigation:
Another DOD/Pentagon investigation needed:
Which is worse, a president who doesn’t face reelection or one who does? It’s not obvious. Obama 1.0 said he couldn’t help “dreamers” because he wasn’t an emperor. Obama 2.0 did DACA. Apparently he was an emperor after all. You probably liked that one, though. Back then, libs said the president “had to act because Congress wouldn’t”. Trump is acting because Congress wouldn’t. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. We’ll see what the courts say. Maybe Sotomayor will have been replaced by the time it’s all sorted out.
Congress likes strippers, but stripping power from the executive branch is a fairy tale. Especially for the save our democracy crowd, since democracy only counts when its theirs and its not democracy. Thankfully this is still a republic and the separation of powers is still a thing.
The last 8 years have been a fiasco and it’s looking like the next 4 will be also…..the way to fix it is to strip power from the executive branch.
Very fair synopsis, Mish.
Very nice analysis & reporting, Mike! No one is above the law.
That depends on whether Biden’s preemptive pardons hold up.
Are you talking about Jeffrey Epstein’s ring?
Agree completely. My wish is that Republicans would show some ability to actually pass legislation. For a party that used to love to quote the Constitution they have been strangely silent. Governing is hard but maybe that is why they were elected. Unfortunately, they hide behind Trumps clearly illegal actions. And act so proud on camera. They better watch out. Elon could come after them.
Great post. The whole point of the United States is to be a nation of laws. Once we the people allow any politician to be above the law, then we allow all politicians to be above the law. That’s when the rest of us become beneath the law, and a certified 3 rd world country. It takes responsibility to be a citizen, something most voters have long since dropped.
The Left nullifies any law they don’t like. “No man is above the law.” Oh, oops, except for 30-million illegal immigrants. Pound salt. You’ve lost the plot—you’ve lost the moral high ground. Using USAID as a slush fund is illegal.
And Trump can prosecute everyone who broke the law.
Inshallah
The Constitution should henceforth be referred to in the past tense.
Stop making it about “WHO” is doing it, and start thinking (yes, thinking) about “WHAT” they’ve discovered.
This identity politics BS is what stupid people do.
I’ve lost all respect for this blog because you continue to focus on “WHO” instead of facts.
I wonder if I should even bother with Adam’s assessment because he can neither read nor think.
For starters my lead image shows I pointed out the facts.
I even praised finding them out.
And as I said, hypocrites – on both sides – don’t like it.
But those who want fair reporting are free to go to wherever they believe they can find it.
You are correct. I don’t like your answer but you are. I hope Musk does enough damage by the time the orders are reversed.
Fear not! You and your children will be slaves to the company in a matter of months.
Sounds like Bayleaf has a new name.
That’s what Denninger said today.