Trump is deliberately bringing on a clash with Congress that puts the entire nation at risk
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Donald Trump has decided to shrug off the last vestiges of pretense and go full authoritarian—denying laws that require the IRS to turn over his tax forms, launching a lawsuit to prevent Congress from seeing his financial documents, and ordering a former WhTrump is deliberately bringing on a clash with Congress that puts the entire nation at risk
Donald Trump has decided to shrug off the last vestiges of pretense and go full authoritarian—denying laws that require the IRS to turn over his tax forms, launching a lawsuit to prevent Congress from seeing his financial documents, and ordering a former White House staffer to ignore a subpoena on a matter of national security. Trump is deliberately bringing on a collision with Congress that's been avoided for 230 years—and the wreckage threatens to include the entire government. That picture of Andrew Jackson that Trump keeps on his wall isn’t just there because it allows Trump to bask in the history of racism and cruelty. Jackson is also there for his most famous response to a court decision that he didn’t like: “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" With Trump gleefully defying every law he faces, and Attorney General William Barr standing by to administer absolution for all sins, just what action can be taken? The direct order from Trump to block the testimony of former White House personnel security director Carl Kline is likely to be the first of Trump’s beyond-unitary-executive claims to get a further test. House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings has already announced his intention to hold a vote on a motion of contempt directed at Kline. And he has pulled no punches in describing where things stand: “The White House and Mr. Kline now stand in open defiance of a duly authorized congressional subpoena with no assertion of any privilege of any kind by President Trump.” Rep. Cummings states that Trump “believes that the Constitution does not apply to his White House” and that he can order his staff to do anything, legal or not. And he cites an astounding point: Since Democrats took control of the House, the Trump White House has not produced a single official to testify or turned over “a single scrap of paper.” This is an existential fight for the Constitution of the United States, and the battle is already well underway. Read more