In an angry 4-tweet diatribe that Trump will undoubtedly use to fashion an “official” executive order sometime later today or this weekend, the President “ordered” private American businesses to look for alternatives to buying product from China, and subsequently “ordered” other private American businesses to seek out and refuse shipments of a particular drug when it comes from China.
All of this is, of course, totally unconstitutional. The President may issue directives to federal agencies, but even the staunchest Trump supporter will tell you that not only can’t the President order private businesses to conduct themselves in a particular fashion, but that it’s antithetical to the entire platform of the Republican party and cuts screechingly across the groove of the free market of capitalism.
Trump clearly believes he is a dictator, and people are already calling him that.
Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States. Also, I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
….all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop – it didn’t. Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
In fact, regarding the last tweet in the series, Trump’s directive to stop accepting shipments “from China (or anywhere else!)” of a legal, FDA-approved drug is no different than if he told them to stop accepting shipments of steel or apples or tricycle wheels. It’s simply not legal for him to do so, in addition to being colossally stupid.
All of this is, no doubt, in response to what he considers a lack of action by the Federal Reserve, after which he called Chairman Jerome Powell an “enemy” of America, sending the markets immediately tumbling to what is sure to turn out as another record low day.
If only we had a President who understood how laws worked, we might have one who hadn’t also bankrupted casinos.
Featured image via screen capture
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