It is clear from listening to the case made in the Senate by President Trump’s lawyers that their defense of his conduct relies on a highly expansive assertion of executive power. Their theory of an uber-powerful president is constitutionally bogus and, worse, quite dangerous.

In the case of Trump’s delay of statutorily mandated military assistance to Ukraine, a delay about which he wrongly refused to inform the Senate, one overcome only after the whistle was blown against him and which even then resulted in a failure to distribute $35 million by the legal deadline, Trump actually transgressed upon the single most important authority
of Congress, namely the power of the purse. Therefore, he didn’t merely fail to abide by limits on a power assigned largely but not exclusively to him. Instead, he directly contravened a power assigned primarily to Congress.

Now, let’s move to practicalities. These Trumpian transgressions are not merely academic matters or abstruse political theory. A president who is not held to account, one with control of the vast bureaucratic state, power over the Justice Department and the IRS, and the too-infrequently-restricted authority over the armed forces, is a president who can install his own “deep state” agents, with impunity, to harass political enemies at will.

Conservatives willing to cede such massive power to Trump will suffer when the next Barack Obama takes office with a free hand and an iron fist.


[link:https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/in-senate-impeachment-trial-trumps-power-must-be-curtailed|