Conservative Site Says Trump’s Executive Orders Are Pointless, Impotent, Illegal (Video)

There is mounting evidence that President Trump’s Executive Orders were thrown together with almost no thought or preparation. The key agencies that will be affected by the orders weren’t consulted or asked for input.

Even the conservative leaning website Fortune has been reporting on the carelessness of the President’s actions.  Because the Chief Executive failed to realize that he is part of a three branch government, and because he refused to recognize that he doesn’t know everything, he had not asked for input from anyone other than white supremacist Steve Bannon.

The result is that many of his Executive Orders run smack up against existing laws, and would be difficult, if not impossible, to enact.

For example, Trump wants to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, so he just wrote up a quick Executive Order (or more likely, Bannon wrote it) announcing that the project would be restarted. Unfortunately, he never talked it over with his State Department. They could have told him that the project can’t just be “switched on” again. That’s in part because TransCanada, the company that is supposed to be building the pipeline, is currently engaged in a 15 billion dollar lawsuit against the U.S. Government for canceling it.

Beyond amazing that our President didn’t bother to find out that fact.

Then there’s the famous wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The wall that Mexico is supposed to pay for, according to the man with his own set of alternative facts. The problems with this are complex. In the first place, the idea of paying for the wall with American tax dollars requires the approval of Congress. With spineless Paul Ryan and heartless Mitch McConnell in charge on the Hill, of course, it’s likely that the budget approval will come through, but it’s far from a done deal.

Still, that leaves the problem of getting those pesky Mexicans to pay us back, as Trump has promised us at least a thousand times.

The President proposes a 20 percent tariff on Mexicans exports. This is pointless, as many economists have pointed out, because tariff costs are born by the businesses that export, not the government. Worse still, those costs are always passed on to consumers. In other words, if you eat fruit, vegetables, spices from Mexico, you’re going to pay for the stupid wall. The Mexican government won’t.

And then there’s the fact that putting tariffs on Mexican goods would violate our treaty agreements. A violation that would come along with huge financial and political costs.

Once again, how did the President of the United States fail to understand this?

Right. Because he thinks he already knows everything.

We also have to look at the ban on refugees from seven Muslim countries. The American Civil Liberties Union has already won a stay on this particular Executive Overreach. They believe that the ban on immigrants from these seven Muslim dominated country is unconstitutional. When the President said that his ban would make exceptions for Christians, he violated the First Amendment. They write:

“According to the Supreme Court, ‘the clearest command of the Establishment Clause is that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.’”

The President doesn’t appear to have consulted with any constitutional lawyers at any point in his first chaotic week. He doesn’t appear to have ever looked at the actual Constitution at any point in his chaotic life.

He either doesn’t understand that he is not the Emperor of the land, or he doesn’t care.

This video shows the ACLU’s reaction to its small victory against one of these overreaching laws.

Featured image via YouTube Screengrab

Karen is a retired elementary school teacher with many years of progressive activism behind her. She is the proud mother of three young adults who were all arrested with Occupy Wall Street. To see what she writes about in her spare time, check out her blog at "Empty Nest, Full Life"