Lawfare: Trump Is Both Menacing and Impotent

[kpete]

Jack Goldsmith: “The Trump Presidency is a strange combination of menacing and impotent. It is also fractured internally like no presidency in American history.”

“The menacing element is plain. Trump sets everyone on edge with incessant verbal attacks and relentlessly indecorous behavior. The maelstrom that is his presidency seems like it could at any moment push the country off the rails—massive pardons to kill the Russia investigation, a Justice Department meltdown as a result of firings and resignations, a North Korean miscalculation, or who-knows-what-other-crazy-thing. Many people worry how the impulsive Trump will handle his first crisis.”

“As for impotence, Trump has accomplished nothing beyond conservative judicial appointments. His administration is otherwise a comedy of errors in the exercise of executive power. What is most remarkable is the extent to which his senior officials act as if Trump were not the chief executive. Never has a president been so regularly ignored or contradicted by his own officials. I’m not talking about so-called “deep state” bureaucrats. I’m talking about senior officials in the Justice Department and the military and intelligence and foreign affairs agencies. And they are not just ignoring or contradicting him in private. They are doing so in public for all the world to see.”


MORE:
https://lawfareblog.com/our-non-unitary-executive

[longship]

1. Now this is an incredible take down.

Indeed, Drumpf is both utterly feckless at governing, and totally dangerous with his incompetence.

We are in deep shit!

[Hortensis]

2. All the more so coming from a conservative analyst.

Go, Lawfare!

[longship]

3. Yup! And one has to now know that this is where the smart money is.

Drumpf's presidency is doomed, utterly doomed.

[Hortensis]

4. Imagine the smart money was on that before he was sworn in.

I would have bet a rare spare twenty on it myself, but the only people who would have taken that bet would have very offended. We don't talk politics at all with them these days while they process what they've sown in their various ways, probably guessing still around 85-90% denial and defiance.

[madaboutharry]

5. excellent article.