Trump faced mounting losses this week in court on numerous fronts, both personal and presidential. An appeals court rejected Trump’s efforts to revive his defamation suit against CNN, a federal judge ruled against his deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, and another judge ruled he likely violated the law when trying to cut millions in funding to local governments unless they followed conditions related to immigration enforcement. Former White House lawyer during Trump’s first term, Ty Cobb, joins “The Weekend” to discuss.
The checks and balances of the constitution really requires Congress and the Supreme Court to not be controlled by sycophants to the President. The partisanship of the former led to the partisanship of the latter. There is nothing in place to check power in this case. And even if the sycophants were to lose power via election, there is very little that can be done to check power on a President like this short of impeachment and conviction to remove him from office fully. Laws that set bounds on the powers of the president, including the constitution, have absolutely no mechanisms of enforcement. No consequences for violation. No teeth, as they say. Particularly now as the SCOTUS is fully partisan and have granted him defacto immunity for all acts in office, literally the only option for repercussions for the President the nuclear option, impeachment and conviction. Then Vance walks in and you get to do it all over again until the next election (assuming we still have those).
It’s a giant fucking mess that there is just about no coming back from. The weak points in the foundation are exposed and the foreman’s hands are tied from fixing them without a massive bipartisan push to do so. Trump has broken all norms and fundamentally broken the stability of the constitution along with it. He’s only the first that will take full advantage of these weaknesses, and the next one will be even better at it.