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I, personally, am regretting my vote. Taking a chainsaw to the government was something I thought was just rhetoric, not something he'd actually do. I also didn't expect Elon to be doing so much direct chainsaw-ing, since he was just supposed to be an advisory role. In addition, I have never liked the executive overreach that often comes with abusing executive orders, and there has been a lot of that. How am I supposed to view his birthright citizenship executive order any differently from the New Mexican governor's executive order declaring gun violence a state of emergency, or Biden's executive order canceling student loan debt? How am I supposed to take a White House statement written like this seriously? Why did they cede sounding professional to the Democrats? ETA: The decision on national parks is also incredibly baffling. It doesn't cost that much. If he also axes federal lands, people who like to hunt in flyover territory are going to be affected the most by not having federal land to hunt on.
But the foreign policy has been the worst of it. Even if Zelensky was overstepping his bounds on a deal already agreed upon, surely there were better ways of handling it than getting into a shouting match over whether he's appreciative enough or not. The tariff baiting is another thing; shit or get off the pot. I'm not even entirely opposed to tariffs, though obviously they are going to hurt; this is just getting the worst of both worlds, though. And then the stuff about annexing or buying these other countries, like you said. Pointlessly antagonistic. And then aligning himself so closely to Elon Musk, who is a powder keg with questionable mental stability and intelligence, judging from how he handled the Nazi salute, the AfD endorsement, the time when Community Notes disagreed with him, and more. And the leaving NATO and the UN thing, and pulling troops out of Germany, and more. I'm pretty sick of all of it.
I never would have voted for Kamala Harris, ever. But the next candidate from the Republicans will have to disavow at least some of this stuff for me to vote for them again. I will just go back to pointlessly voting Libertarian again.
I also don't know how much complaining I would have if I was nearly this politically active during his first term. Maybe he was always this bad?
Okay, I keep thinking of things to add, and the mods probably don't appreciate over-editing of comments. The Zelensky thing wasn't as bad as withholding arms shipments to Ukraine that were already approved by Congress. And the withholding of military intelligence to the Ukrainians. Seems like these both led to the Russians pushing and taking Kursk. Trump responded by threatening even more sanctions against Russia, which is even stupider decision making -- how much are more sanctions going to do, and weren't you just talking about lifting sanctions? Better yet, you could have just not halted things unconstitutionally just to give red meat for your base that apparently wants you to be aggressive on Ukraine?
The Congress does not approve arms shipments though. They authorize the President to use allocated money - or, rather, usually the existing stock within the limits of allocated money - to send the shipments, but the actual shipments are entirely within the discretion of the President and Secretary of State. It is entirely constitutional and within President's authority to stop those shipments temporarily or even permanently - there's no demand for the President to spend all the money or any part of it. See for example: https://www.state.gov/bureau-of-political-military-affairs/use-of-presidential-drawdown-authority-for-military-assistance-for-ukraine for reference. If you enjoy this kind of thing, check out the actual text of the FAA, it specifically spells out that the President is the one who makes the determination.
People have taken a habit lately to use "unconstitutional" as a replacement for "anything that anybody does and I don't like" but that word actually has a meaning, and that's not what it means. You may hate what Trump does, and it's completely within your rights to do so, but there's absolutely nothing "unconstitutional" (the Constitution doesn't say much about it in any case) or illegal in his actions. If you're going to criticize him, at least bother to get some facts correct.
In this case, I just defaulted to assuming it was Congressional authority because, you know, “power of the purse.” I’m glad it’s explicitly delegated.
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I see. I was not aware of this. My apologies. Yes, still a shockingly bad decision, but not unconstitutional (in this case).
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