Conservatives should see Trump as the biggest loser (Dec. 13). Far too many conservatives excuse their embrace of President Trump by using the transactional argument that they must overlook his flaws because he supposedly delivers so many conservative policy victories. They are sadly mistaken. Aside from a few key areas, Trump has been a disaster for long-term conservative interests…. If even 10 years ago, someone had said conservatives would be embracing a huge-spending, pro-Russian, habitually lying, profane, norm-destroying president who failed at what he had called his two biggest legislative initiatives, that person would have been dismissed as a pathetic crank….
As Trump praises Putin, Putin thumbs nose at U.S.A. (Jan. 10). With news that it was with a Russian-made rocket that Iran shot down a Ukrainian civilian airliner, the question arises again: Has President Trump’s repeated obsequiousness towards Vladimir Putin achieved even a single reciprocal action helpful to the United States or to international stability?
I certainly can’t think of one….
Trump team and a judge take vote away from South Carolina Republicans (Dec. 12).
South Carolina Republican voters have been partially disenfranchised by a South Carolina judge who ruled that party bosses can refuse to hold the state’s traditional “first-in-the-South” presidential primary in 2020. Both the merits and the timing of the decision by Circuit Judge Jocelyn Newman are problematic.
The move to cancel the primary is part of a nationwide effort by President Trump’s supporters to eliminate primaries where possible, to make his renomination that much easier….
We need a border wall, but Texas judge was right to block Trump’s illicit way of funding it (Dec. 13). A federal district judge in Texas was absolutely right this week to issue an injunction blocking President Trump from funneling $3.6 billion in military construction funds toward building his vaunted wall along the Mexican border.
Judge David Briones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that Trump does not have the authority to redirect the money from the purposes for which it was originally appropriated by law. As I have argued all year, Trump was wrong to ignore the intent of the appropriation, wrong to declare border crossings an “emergency,” and nonsensical to say that he is using “emergency” powers to erect a wall that will take years to build. The wall does not serve a military function, and the funds have not been officially “authorized” by law for that purpose. That’s why Judge Briones ruled it was an “unlawful deferral of resources.”…
