Hello and happy Saturday. Way back in late 2016 or early 2017, after Donald Trump shocked everyone by winning the presidency and Democrats were worriedly predicting he might undo some of President Barack Obama’s signature policies, I tweeted something to the effect of, “Dance like no one is watching if you will, but maybe don’t govern like you’ll never be out of power?”
I was referring to Obama’s reliance, particularly in his later years in office, on executive orders and bureaucratic rulemaking for such matters as environmental policy, his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and changes to Title IX on the adjudication of campus sexual harassment and assault claims. Executive action is much easier to reverse than legislation.
I really wish I could find that tweet. (I know it’s out there, but I try not to spend too much time on X these days.)
Trump has signed 129 executive orders in the three months he’s been back in office, setting up the Department of Government Efficiency as a temporary entity in the Executive Office of the President, going after law firms that employed or worked with lawyers who investigated or prosecuted him, and implementing his “Liberation Day” tariffs, most of which are now on hold. And it’s not just executive orders. He’s invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport immigrants without due process (though the Supreme Court halted deportations just this morning) and has frozen billions of dollars in grants to Harvard and Columbia while also threatening the former’s tax-exempt status.
As Jonah Goldberg noted in his Wednesday G-File, these actions are bad on the grounds that they are a threat to democracy. But he argues that they are also bad as a matter of politics:
Trump threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status if it doesn’t cave to his administration’s demands. For what it’s worth, I think there’s merit to many of the complaints against Harvard, but I think the administration’s methods cross all sorts of lines that shouldn’t be crossed. But put aside what you think about the substance.
It has been a dream of the left for ages to get rid of the tax-exempt status and relative autonomy of religious institutions—Christian universities, charities, hospitals, etc. If Trump succeeds in making the IRS revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, based in no small part on personal opposition to what Harvard teaches, what will be the principled objection to a President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Elizabeth Warren when the Eye of Mordor swings rightward?
We sent Charles Hilu to Capitol Hill to ask Democrats about all of this. For now, they are vowing to fight Trump for now and pledging a return to order when they are back in power. “He’s breaking the Constitution, and I don’t think anyone should follow that. I think what we should be doing is checking his unconstitutional actions,” Rep. Ro Khanna of California told Charles.
Thanks for reading. I hope you have a great weekend and a happy Easter.
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