Much as it makes my mind hurt I can’t help but imagine Lara Trump sitting down with her guitar to belt out a variation on her rendition of the iconic Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down. However sometimes one can feel great pain, yet also experience fun and even smile at the same time. Weird, but so is everything else when it comes to the Trumps. ‘I WILL Back Down’, or perhaps ‘Trump WILL Back Down’ or something similar seems appropriate this afternoon. Feel free to come up with and share your own rewrites.
Anyway, so much for Trumpty the Mighty, the Magnificent, the Omnipotent Master and Ruler of the Universe to to issue a breathtakingly crazy, disruptive and evil edict to suspend all federal grants. When one says or thinks ‘federal grants’ they tend to think of smallish things like money for some local project or non-profit or some pilot project. However it’s way the hell bigger than that! Money to the NIH and CDC for example were affected. So was money for all manner of federal projects. Medicaid and Medicare too are administered by the various states which means they too were in panic mode.
Why would Trumpty do such a thing you ask? Simple. Just to be an a-hole if for nothing else. Making tens (even hundreds) of Americans fearful and even worse, damaging their lives just for the fun of it is pure Trump. Like a child destined to become a serial killer torturing and killing small animals for “fun.” That’s what his Executive Order shutting down all federal disbursements was. The chaos it provoked and the damage it would do was FUN to him. Lives ruined or lost, even those of his MAGAs who depend on all that federal money whether they realize it or not were of no concern. GOP lawmakers were upset of course, probably running to Susan Collins for lessons on brow-furrowing and how to not sound completely lame/stupid/craven when making statements about being ‘deeply concerned.’ Of course few, not even handful as far as I can tell were willing to PUBLICLY say anything in dissent.
Perhaps they were just sitting curled up in a ball of COWARICE hoping a federal judge would do what they didn’t have the courage to do – step in. Yes, the injunction was temporary and a hearing was set for Monday but for the moment Trump’s EO wasn’t allowed to go into effect. It sort of did as all of a sudden the portals state and local agencies would go to in order to do their business with the federal government were shut down. That alone caused plenty of chaos. I’m sure Trumpty’s bigly donors weren’t happy about the turmoil it would cause in already reeling financial markets. Also, while they hate to admit it RED states rely on a f**kton of federal money flowing their way. From Blue states of course.
I truly doubt there were many GOP legislators willing to call Trump and politely ask him to reconsider. I say politely because to a person they all wanted to scream WTF on earth possessed you to DO something like that? Keep in mind not only that CONGRESS appropriates money, but that once it’s done so the only job the Executive Branch has is to ensure it flows out where Congress said it should go. Presidents don’t have the authority or power to simply decide THEY get to go in and change what Congress has done. This is so established in case and Constitutional law only an idiot would think it was possible for a President to do what Trump did. Of course Trumpty IS an idiot so…
How would you like to be the person who had to explain to him that if he hated losing all those election lawsuits back in 2020 he was going to REALLY hate what would come after Monday. The injunction would have been extended. He’d lose his appeal. And even SCOTUS would say ‘Nope – that’s a bridge too far dude.’ Maybe Chief Justice Roberts grabbed Alito and Thomas by the ear and dragged them into his office for a speaker phone call to tell Trump when it got to them they’d say NO.
In any case what we now know this afternoon as reported by The Washington Post and others is that Trump HAS in fact backed down. His order has been rescinded. (for now at least):
In a memo dated Wednesday and distributed to federal agencies, Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, states that OMB memorandum M-25-13 “is rescinded.” That order, issued Monday, instructed federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.”
Yesterday there was an actual old-fashioned press briefing with actual Q & A which was news in and of itself. Of course on this subject Trump’s new Press Secretary played it as no big thing. That regular folks wouldn’t be the least bit affected. Really? Again citing the WaPo I’ll reiterate what I said earlier that it WAS a VERY big thing that would have sweeping impact and in fact did during the short time it was in effect:
The original White House order freezing federal grants, which became public on Monday, caused mass chaos and confusion across Washington, appearing to imperil government programs that fund schools, provide housing and ensure low-income Americans have access to health care. States reported issues accessing funds under Medicaid, and even as of Wednesday, public housing authorities reported being locked out of their funding portal. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that assistance for individuals would not be affected.
Perhaps someone showed Trump a pie-chart, or perhaps a “beautiful chocolate cake” and just how much of the federal money he had decided to freeze would negatively impact his MAGAs in all those red states by cutting away a big chunk to make the point. At some point he WILL ignore a SCOTUS ruling and that’s a crisis we’ll deal with when it comes. However right now he’s got Republicans on the Hill terrified but with such slim majorities he’s worried about 2026. I’ve written recently he no longer has any use for his MAGAs but I think I was wrong to say so. They are already in a riled up state over Trump suddenly being all buddy-buddy with Elon and the ‘tech bros’ and their desire to replace what jobs they have with AI or foreign workers.
Much as Trump hates losing, and he’s lost on this one (and knows it) losing in 2026 as in Democrats taking back the House and perhaps even the Senate would be losing HUGE. So regardless of the personal humiliation he’s feeling today he BACKED DOWN. I’m betting on two things. First will be to (if he’s not already done so) order minions to figure out a sneaky way to do this that won’t get notice. We can talk about that down the road. Second? He’ll blame the whole mess on someone else. He was just “joking around” and some staffer thought he was serious and wrote up the proposal and sent it out. Someone’s about to get “Coffee Boy” status. For now enjoy the fact that while Trump will more or less skate like he always does damned near every elected Republican is standing in a train tunnel in a mountain with the Trump engine barreling down the tracks from one side and the voters from the other. Oh, and the memes of Lara singing with lyrics reflecting Trump having backed down!
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“Presidents don’t have the authority or power to simply decide THEY get to go in and change what Congress has done. This is so established in case and Constitutional law only an idiot would think it was possible for a President to do what Trump did. Of course Trumpty IS an idiot so…”
I’m sorry but didn’t SCOTUS uphold Trump’s “diversion” of funds directed for the military to go to paying for that wall (you know, the one Mexico was supposed to pay for).
I did a quick search and, lo and behold, here’s what I found from an AP article dated July 27, 2019:
“The Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to tap billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to build sections of a border wall with Mexico.
The court’s five conservative justices gave the administration the green light on Friday to begin work on four contracts it has awarded using Defense Department money. Funding for the projects had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit over the money proceeded. The court’s four liberal justices wouldn’t have allowed construction to start.
. . .
The Supreme Court’s action reverses the decision of a trial court, which initially froze the funds in May, and an appeals court, which kept that freeze in place earlier this month. The freeze had prevented the government from tapping approximately $2.5 billion in Defense Department money to replace existing sections of barrier in Arizona, California and New Mexico with more robust fencing.
. . .
The case before the Supreme Court involved just the $2.5 billion in Defense Department funds, which the administration says will be used to construct more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) of fencing.”
(Full article at https://apnews.com/article/5d893d388c254c7fa83a1570112ae90e )
Five right-wingers on the Court said, “Hey, if Trump wants to steal money from the military for 100 miles of his wall, then, sure. What’s the big deal?” Now, he’s got SIX of the brain-dead who haven’t exactly done a lot to thwart his tantrums or policies (and who haven’t exactly been models of “upholding precedent”–presidential immunity, anyone?) so I don’t really see them denying Trump of his efforts to usurp the Congressional “power of the purse.”
This is one of those areas where there’s just enough “gray” to allow for game playing. It’s shifting funds within a different department for a “related” use to the original intent. In this case the DOD has all manner of construction projects in various stages of planning/development. Not to mention some flexibility is usually built into money for military construction for contingencies. There are all manner of needs and never enough money to fill them all hence some flexibility. Projects for everything from base housing for troops and schools for military children (from construction of new stuff or repairs/maint. to existing stock) to medical facilities and associated projects move along then get put on hold. For example, the area I live in has one of the best VA Medical Centers in the system in Durham. It’s also for the ten years plus I’ve lived nearby (I get my medical care there) had a crying need for more parking – both for those of us who are patients to the employees who provide care. The project to build more parking is planned – the issue is the powers that be who make the difficult decisions on which ones get funded to actually start/complete construction have gotten this almost to “GO” status but something always comes up each year that gets it bumped from funding! This kind of thing happens around the country with “mundane” projects year after year and as I said affects all kinds of things. Including runways and hangers at military airfields to yes, even security fencing and guard posts at bases! Toss in a “National Security Need” designation, something which Presidents have traditionally been given wide latitude to do and while a stretch it’s not much of one for a political SCOTUS to let a prick like Trump have his way on this.
One could make a case they know bigger fights are coming and since the vote was 5-4 instead of 6-3 it might be a signal the Court (the conservatives) have gone into ‘pick our battles” mode and this one isn’t worth a fight.