Column: Trump hasn't got the chops to acquire the authority he claims. Thank God (via latimesopinion)
President Trump’s proclamation Monday that he alone has “total authority” over the states during the coronavirus crisis was quickly rejected by a chorus of legal scholars of all political stripes, as well it should be. The president’s off-the-cuff claim was not only silly but antithetical to core constitutional principles. It also demonstrated why Trump won’t succeed at chipping away at limits on executive power — something other presidents have done in times of national crisis.
Ours is a federal government of enumerated — that is to say, specified and limited — powers. The Constitution’s Article II, which establishes the executive branch, contains no residual grab bag of authority for Trump to pull out and use in case of emergency. The shelter-in-place orders or social distancing rules that now apply to much of the county are classic instances of “police power,” which under the Constitution’s Article I unambiguously belongs to the states.
With bravado, charisma and an appeal to the public that bold action was crucial, President Franklin Roosevelt was able to wrest huge power from Congress in response to the Depression and Pearl Harbor. President George W. Bush rode his impromptu post- 9/11 bullhorn speech to waves of political support for enhanced emergency powers for intrusive law enforcement measures that Congress readily ceded.
The reasons for each increase in White House authority are complex and fact-specific. One element, however, has always been present: effective crisis leadership. Presidents whose emergency powers increased harnessed or built on these basic qualities: credibility, rhetorical skill, political appeal and, most importantly, consensus-building.Trump’s management of the pandemic, indeed, his entire presidency, has none of those benchmarks.
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