The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #7: Terminating the Constitution. Piece by Piece.

Trump is not even in office yet and he is already busily trying to terminate rules in the Constitution.

We sure were warned! Trump’s own Vice President four years ago said Trump tried to put himself above the Constitution. Trump’s own Chief of Staff and his Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman BOTH told us he was a fascist. In 2022 Trump himself said the rules of the Constitution should have been terminated to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election.

Now Trump is at it again.

One of the rules in the Constitution is this one, from the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump doesn’t like this rule that anyone born in the United States is a citizen. He says he is going to end this Constitutional right with an executive order.

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Can presidents just eliminate Constitutional rights with executive orders? Can presidents just decide who is a citizen and who isn’t, regardless of what the Constitution says? I don’t think so! But Trump says he will do it anyway.

And that’s just the beginning.

Here is another rule in the Constitution: “He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law….” Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2

This important clause puts a limit on presidential power by requiring him to get the “Advice and Consent” of the Senate for the appointment of high government officials.

There is an exception to this rule as follows: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.” Article 2, Section 2, Clause 3

By reading the two clauses above we can see that the normal procedure is for the president to make appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate. If a vacancy occurs when the Senate is in recess the president can make temporary appointments without advice and consent.

Trump has now demanded that the Senate treat ALL of his appointments as recess appointments. This would simply terminate the Constitutional rule requiring the advice and consent of the Senate for presidential appointments and vastly increase the power of presidents to rule like autocrats.

So, Trump wanted to terminate the Constitutional rules that prevented him from staying in office after losing an election. Now he wants to terminate the Constitutional rule that everyone born in the United States is a citizen. Now he also wants to terminate the Constitutional rule that requires presidents to get the advice and consent of the Senate for high level appointments….

I wonder which Constitutional rules he will want to terminate next. Something in the Bill of Rights, maybe?

Let’s keep our eyes open!

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