Trump’s War on the Constitution

It’s a cliché and more or less true that the Constitution’s phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” can mean whatever Congress wants it to mean. This is not only due to the fact that, in this area, the decisions of Congress are certainly not reviewable. This is because the framers of the Constitution intentionally gave a broad definition. Their focus was not on statutory crimes but on mismanagement. I wanted to take a moment to point out that what is happening in Minnesota is actually a definitional impeachable offense.

I say this without expecting him to be accused of this, much less convicted and removed from office, certainly not under Republican rule. But it is precisely these types of abuses of power, unconstitutional actions, that most clearly fall under the impeachment mechanism.

President Trump was the first to undertake what amounts to an invasion of the state, with poorly trained and abusive paramilitaries creating threat, chaos and death. The aim of this action was to terrorize and dominate the state. It was not about immigration control. Now, having been forced to at least reduce the visibility of their invasion of the state, they are resorting to removing budgetary support for social service programs. This money is distributed in accordance with Congressional law. The executive branch has no right to seize it based on a vague definition of not being a good “custodian” of money.

I don’t expect to cause much disagreement when I say these are illegitimate actions. I doubt even the administration expects this decision to stand up to judicial scrutiny. These are abuses that go well beyond laws or criminal law. The president is elected to enforce the laws, ensure national defense and prosperity, and provide civilian leadership to the armed forces. It has no right to go to war against states or regions with which it disagrees politically or against which it has a vendetta, nor to try to coerce or punish them into compliance.

The fact that Trump will not be impeached for this, at least not this year, should not distract from the fact that he should It is true that these are the fundamental forms of mismanagement that deserve removal from office, and that aside from the statutory legality of specific actions, the entire class of actions – coercion by violence and theft of funds – is excluded entirely.