Trump's constitutional sledgehammer hits a brick wall

Trump keeps bringing
 down the hammer

Trump is taking a sledgehammer to our Constitution, one amendment at a time.

Well, actually, yesterday revealed two.

Federal courts ruled that the Trump administration—despite its vow to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution"—violated not one, but two constitutional amendments, the First (free speech) and the Tenth (States' rights).

Regarding the First Amendment, Trump's Department of Education inexplicably thought it was appropriate to hijack the email accounts of its furloughed employees, surreptitiously crafting their out-of-office message to explicitly blame Democrats for the government shutdown, regardless of their personal beliefs or political leanings.

DC's District Judge Christopher Cooper found doing so was compelled free speech. He wrote: "Political officials are free to blame whomever they wish for the shutdown, but they cannot use rank-and-file civil servants as their unwilling spokespeople. The First Amendment stands in their way."

Meanwhile, in Portland, District Judge Karin Immergut issued a 106-page opinion to permanently block Trump's team from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, writing: "...the President did not have a lawful basis to federalize the National Guard."

That's two—count 'em—two breaches of constitutional amendments struck down in a single day.

And, of course, we remember the brazen attempts by Trump's DHS to deport dozens of alleged Venezuelan gang members, right?

Trump's Caribbean killings don't really
 worry about that pesky "due process" thing...

The US Supreme Court found it a clear violation of the Fifth Amendment, the right to due process (courts are currently hearing similar due process cases regarding Trump's wanton killings of alleged drug dealers in international waters). 

Trump also flirted with smashing the Fourteenth Amendment’s disqualification clause—pardoning and praising January 6 rioters, including those convicted of attempting to overthrow the U.S. government. That same amendment also enshrines birthright citizenship, which federal courts have repeatedly upheld despite Trump’s relentless assault.

And his allies say "there is a plan" for a Trump third term—a direct violation of the Twenty-Second Amendment. Trump has even kept "Trump 2028" hats on his Oval Office desk.

So, if you're keeping score, Trump's team has thus far violated the First, Tenth, and Fifth Amendments—as well as possibly the Fourteenth and—who knows?—maybe someday the Twenty-Second.

That leaves 22 amendments to go.

Keep that sledgehammer handy, Donald.

Trump: SNAP decisions, sham promises

Donald Trump has agreed to free up some money to feed hungry children.

Well, because a court ordered him to. 

Trump begrudgingly helps out

And while Trump did approve the court-mandated SNAP funds, it wasn’t a penny more than required. The amount will cover only about half of November’s SNAP costs.

Still the government shutdown drags on. November 6th marks day 36 of Americans held hostage. And the core dispute? Democrats insist that Obamacare subsidies shouldn't be allowed to expire—a move that, by most estimates, would spike premiums by at least 114%. 

Trump and the GOP say, "Just approve the budget and we promise to have meetings about the ACA subsidies after the government is again up and running."

Uh, yeah. Right.

There's solid evidence to show Trump won't keep his word.  Case in point: the 2018–2019 shutdown. Back then, Trump demanded border wall funding. Congress passed a bipartisan bill without it, after Trump signaled he’d sign it to avoid a shutdown.

Except—he didn’t. And that triggered the previous record-setting 35-day shutdown.

When you factor in Trump’s well-documented record of lying, bullying, and committing fraud, his word has less credibility than a diploma from Trump University.

Even Jimmy Kimmel weighed in during his November 3 monologue:

“He doesn’t want [low-income Americans] to go hungry—he just wants them to lose their health insurance.”

And Trump wasn’t exactly gracious at first.

“SNAP BENEFITS… will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

Naturally, the White House had to walk that back (as usual), assuring reporters:

“Of course we’ll comply with the court order.”

Trump later softened his stance with:

Red states also have SNAP recipients

“But I’m president, I want to help everybody. I want to help Democrats and Republicans. But when you’re talking about SNAP, if you look, it’s largely Democrats. They’re hurting their own people.”

Um, not quite. In many of Trump's most loyal—and inexplicably still slavishly supportive—red states, more than half of SNAP recipients are likely Trump voters.

My cut: It's a good thing Trump wants "to help Democrats and Republicans."

And children, I guess.

Even if it takes a court order.