Fox News’ Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano isn’t holding back in his latest criticism of President Donald Trump.
The libertarian star is urging Trump supporters to be wary about there being too much power concentrated in the Executive Branch.
He added that when a Democrat returns to the White House, they’ll use the same reasoning Trump did to justify sweeping actions. (Newsweek)
Former Superior Court of New Jersey Judge Napolitano labeled Trump a “president who spends unappropriated funds, raises taxes, defies courts and changes immigration laws on his own.” Writing an op-ed for the Fox News website Thursday, Napolitano laid out how only Congress can authorize the taxes – Trump calls them “tariffs” – and allocate the funds that he used anyway on his Southern border wall. Napolitano’s piece details several ways in which he believes the power of the executive branch has been abused for decades and is now being taken advantage of by a president determined to maintain office at all costs.
At one time, Trump reportedly considered Napolitano for a Supreme Court position.
In regard to the border wall, Napolitano wrote, “After Congress expressly declined to give him that money, Trump signed into law – rather than vetoed – the legislation that denied him the funds he sought and then spent the money anyway.”
And addressing Trump’s so-called “tariff” war with countries like China, he argues, “The question regarding presidential power has also been asked with respect to Trump’s imposition of sales taxes – Trump calls them tariffs — on nearly all goods imported into the United States from China. These are taxes that only Congress can constitutionally authorize.”
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“After years of faithless Congresses legally but unconstitutionally ceding power to the presidency, we have arrived where we are today,” Napolitano wrote. “[T]he Republicans who rejoice in this will weep over it when a Democrat is in the White House. No president should have unconstitutional powers.”