Sometimes, one tweet says it all. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did just that on Friday morning. His post on Twitter was in response to Trump’s lying, vacuous piece of shit (POS) speech at the White House.
Repeating...
“Mr. President, how can this possibly be an national emergency if you’re saying you don’t need to do it?” -Chuck Schumer
It’s a simple tweet, yet it perfectly encompasses the nonsensical, illegitimately-elected Donald Trump. Schumer is not known to be quite as outspoken and courageous as Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but this tweet is biting.
Backing up to the problems with Trump’s speech, Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner sums it up nicely:
Donald Trump walked into the Rose Garden on Friday morning, and, as expected, abused the National Emergency Act to appropriate funds for a wall along the southern border. What many probably didn’t expect was a speech so bumbling, random, and scattered that it made the average Donald Trump speech play like Shakespeare.
Mexico wouldn’t pay for his wall. Congress wouldn’t pay for his wall. So the “great dealmaker” simply determined to steal the money from other projects—including those genuinely effective in reducing the flow of drugs into the United States.
To get his money, Trump will take money from the Department of Defense from funds that were requested by the Pentagon and approved by Congress. These are funds that were earmarked not just for addressing emergencies, but for building military infrastructure. Trump is essentially stealing classrooms and homes from military families, taking hospital beds away from veterans. And he’s taking money from proven, effective programs to interdict drugs to fund a boondoggle that every expert agrees will not address the issue. What’s very likely to happen is that Trump will not get his wall, but that effective programs will be wrecked in the process.
The National Emergency Act was intended to deal with emergencies. As in situations that hit so fast, such as the events on 9/11, that some response is required before Congress can convene. What the authors of the act never even contemplated was a situation in which the executive branch might use the National Emergency Act to simply overrule the outcome of negotiations within the legislative branch.
We have a man in the Oval Office who defies the U.S. Constitution, makes money off his presidency, alienates foreign countries and their leaders, and abuses American democracy as if he owned it. Of all the horrid things he has done and gotten away with in a little over two years, this has to be in the top five—and may just be part of what brings him down. Trump thinks he's the only one that can change long-standing doctrine. We, the people, can do the same. As said by many, again and again: “Extraordinary actions call for extraordinary measures.” We have every right and reason to believe that this will be the first president to be led out of the White House … and walked into the Big House.