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How ‘Empire strikes back’ Trump’s travel ban

How ‘Empire strikes back’ Trump’s travel ban

Thursday, February 09, 2017, 22:00 GMT+7

Editor’s note: Terry F. Buss, PhD, is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. He wrote this piece exclusively for Tuoi Tre News.

President Donald Trump started out well enough keeping his campaign promises, but his recent ban on travel to the U.S. from seven Middle Eastern countries engulfed in civil war has revealed the limits of presidential power.

Ironically, the travel ban—which has been temporarily halted by a federal court—illustrates how American governance goes into gridlock when the president, Congress, the courts, or opposition abuse power or fail to compromise. Ironically, this is as the Founding Fathers intended!

Considering the travel ban, what does this mean for Trump’s pursuit of his mandate for comprehensive change in American?

Chaos ensued after ban

The travel ban is illustrative. Trump crafted an executive order directing all travel from seven conflict states to be curtailed for 90 days until his administration could improve “vetting” of refugees. This is a national security issue.

Trump engaged a handful of staff to secretly craft the executive order; then he launched it to the surprise of his own top officials, including Homeland Security and Defense, not to mention law enforcement, U.S. embassies, Congress and even foreign governments.

Trump failed to issue directives to federal agents, airlines, embassies and the like on how to implement the ban. He also neglected to ask federal agencies for input on how the ban would work. Chaos ensued!

Star Wars fans will know the movie, The Empire Strikes Back. This is what happened to Trump.

Immediately upon issuing the ban, the mainstream and social media launched stories about how the ban was unlawful, followed by human interest stories of suffering under Trump.

Commentators called for Trump’s impeachment. Mass protests, funded by left-wing billionaires, erupted around the country in a blatant attempt to intimidate. One such protest group follows Trump wherever he goes trying to disrupt his affairs.

Opponents in Congress then mobilized. Democrat congressional leaders took to the media, blasting Trump endlessly. Republicans who did not support Trump came out publically against him.

Even Republicans loyal to Trump, after witnessing the negative media, protests and attacks abandoned him, expressing horror at such behavior.

Democrats and their constituents are trying to paralyze Trump’s government. Congress, because of Democrat obstruction only approved six senior officials, while nearly 20 more languish in congressional gridlock.

In other countries, anti-Trump opposition became activated. Canada offered to take in refugees rejected by the U.S.

The British Parliament plans to block Trump from speaking before it on an upcoming visit.

The German magazine, Der Spiegel, published a cover showing Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty.

The courts

The upheaval across America provides the context for the courts to enter the travel ban fray.

The court system’s purpose is not to make or evaluate policy or create new law. Its purpose is to provide a way to determine whether the travel ban is legal and/or constitutional.

Unfortunately, the courts have become heavily politicized. So those who do not succeed in getting laws passed in their favor often go to the courts who act as legislating bodies.

The travel ban executive order was taken to a federal district court by Washington and Minnesota state governments, arguing that the executive order was unconstitutional and illegal. Both states are dominated by Democrats. The judge agreed and suspended the executive order applying to all 50 states. The judge in effect overrode the authority of President Trump.

Trump can appoint an additional Supreme Court judge in the future, but this will take weeks, given Democrat opposition.

Before President Obama left office, he failed to appoint over 100 federal judges to vacant positions. So, if Trump moves quickly, he will control Congress and the federal courts. It is unlikely that Democrats will let this happen.

Prospects for the future

While Trump’s method of rolling out orders and directives, and abandoning regulations to overwhelm his opposition worked in his first two weeks, it will not work so well in the future. Surprise will no longer work as it did with the travel ban.

To further his agenda, Trump will have to stick more closely to process and procedure, and build a broader consensus outside just that small group of advisors in the White House. This includes Republicans and Democrats.

The civil service is also a problem: they have the power to slow or stop his mandate in the bureaucracy.

Civil servants are secretly organizing to thwart Trump when they can. The deputy assistant attorney general, holdover from the Obama administration, refused to defend the travel ban executive order in federal court, even though it was her job to do so. Trump fired her within minutes.

The one exception to all of this is foreign affairs where presidents have “broad discretion.” Obama, with little support or concurrence from Congress, signed agreements with Iran delaying its nuclear weapons program, with the UN on climate change, and restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba. Obama even granted amnesty to one million illegal immigrants.  

Trump’s travel ban is in the spirit of the Obama approach to bypassing extensive opposition. The travel ban, although poorly crafted and executed, is in fact legal and will eventually prevail.

The problem with the Trump/Obama approach is that it flies in the face of democratic principle.

Terry F. Buss

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