Donald Trump scribbled out a new executive order on Wednesday putting in place potential sanctions against any country that interferes in a U.S. election. But, since the application of those sanctions would remain “at the president’s discretion” and Trump continues to deny Russian interference in the 2016 election, the sanctions remain entirely hypothetical—and entirely subjective.
As the Washington Post reports, both Democrats and Republicans were not impressed with Trump’s when-I-say, what-I-say sanctions regime. Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio issued a joint statement calling for strong, mandatory sanctions that wouldn’t be left in Trump’s far-from-impartial hands.
The order recognizes that interference can include not just direct attacks on the systems that tabulate votes, but also attempts to influence voting and conduct propaganda campaigns. But since the order puts the power of enforcement directly, and only, under Trump’s control, it provides him a tool set not to fight foreign interference, but to steer that interference by blocking or sanctioning some efforts and ignoring others.
Considering that Trump recently attacked the Justice Department for conducting investigations of “good Republicans” who just happened to be bad criminals, there’s every reason to believe that Trump will use this club not against foreign efforts, but to differentially protect his allies’ campaigns.