tRump's Fevered Executive Orders Leave Capitol Hill in Chaos - Vanity Fair

[ffr]

Drawn up without consulting his Cabinet or legal experts, a number of the president’s first executive actions could be headed for failure.

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Donald tRump has approached the presidency with the same impulsivity that defined his tumultuous campaign, using his first five days in the Oval Office to issue a slew of executive actions at a breakneck pace that has left government agencies in the dark, Republican leaders scrambling to keep up, and policy experts to wonder if some of tRump’s actions are even legal.

While President Barack Obama’s administration adopted a meticulous, weeks-long approach to drafting and issuing executive orders—thoroughly vetting any actions with affected agencies, lawmakers, and legal experts—the nascent tRump administration has been churning out initiatives at full tilt and, largely, without proper review. “He was determined to show people that he’s getting to work from Day One,” one person familiar with tRump’s strategy told Politico, adding that he was intent on signaling to his supporters—and critics—that Obama’s time in office was unequivocally over. But tRump’s aggressive pace in his first days as president could backfire. “If you don’t run these kinds of initiatives through the affected agencies, you’re going to get something wrong,” David Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University and a former official at the Federal Trade Commission, told Politico. “A government by edict is not a sustainable idea.”

Few in the West Wing outside of the architects of the executive orders—Stephen Bannon, tRump’s senior strategist, and Stephen Miller, the president’s senior White House adviser for policy, according to Politico—are reportedly fully aware of what they contain. Even the officials that will be responsible for putting the policies into action have been left out of the loop. Politico reports the draft order that would force agencies to rethink interrogation techniques, including torture, “blindsided” Secretary of Defense James Mattis and C.I.A. director Mike Pompeo. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, too, were surprised by the proposed directive, which would also allow the C.I.A. to re-open secret overseas prisons known “black sites,” inciting a wave of legal concerns. South Dakota senator John Thune, for one, dismissed the proposal as patently unlawful. “With respect to torture—that’s banned,” he told reporters. Arizona Senator John McCain also firmly rebuked the draft. “The president can sign whatever executive orders he likes,” said the senator, who was tortured as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam war. “But the law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America.”

It isn’t just the torture proposal that has raised legal concerns. The president’s memorandum to revive the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration blocked, could also present stumbling blocks for the tRump administration. - Vanity Fair

In other words a totalitarian dictatorship masquerading behind the blessings of a KGOP congress all too eager to put party before country, no matter how much it costs lives, our standing in the world, budget deficits and lost jobs.

The White House is out of control already. We're without a rudder and vulnerable.

Putin is winning.

[Lucinda]

1. KNR Thank you!

[underpants]

2. It's a clustertrump