A president who falls short again
Over the past few days, Donald Trump’s presidency has further diminished. The overreaching story in the country — as it should be — is the disaster unfolding in Houston, where Hurricane Harvey hit landfall Friday in south Texas with devastating winds and rains of biblical proportions, stalling over the fourth-largest city in the nation.
Houston remains awash. Rains still are falling, power is out in many places and some 30,000 people could be stuck in shelters. That’s just what we know now. More rain is projected and flash flood warnings remain in place. Only when the waters start to recede will we begin to comprehend the loss of life, destruction of property and ruin of this great American city. This is beyond devastating.
At a time of such crisis, it would appear that the president’s focus would be on saving lives, overseeing emergency efforts and serving as our comforter-in-chief as a united nation faces this natural disaster.
Instead, Friday night was the day that Trump chose to sign an executive order banning transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. armed forces and follow through on pardoning former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, convicted of criminal contempt. Arpaio ignored a federal judge’s ruling that he stop detaining immigrants simply because they lacked legal status.
Congress, should it choose, could overthrow Trump’s order on transgender individuals. According to the Congressional Research Service, Congress could end the ban before anyone is discharged as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act. That would be swift action to check a president who, too often, believes he can rule by decree rather than through cooperation with Congress. Trump does not understand the concept of equal branches of government.
There are fewer ways to check the abuse of the presidential pardon power, however. Many believe the Arpaio pardon is Trump just warming up, foreshadowing what might happen should there be indictments or convictions of people close to the president.
The reckless pardon for Arpaio did not undergo normal White House and Justice Department review and is a slap in the face, not just to the Hispanic community, but to all Americans who believe that the sheriff is more than a bully boy with a badge and gun. Arpaio is most certainly not a patriot keeping this country safe. He was and is a racist who ran a lawless operation behind the cover of his elected position as sheriff.
Coming on the heels of Charlottesville, Va., where the president did not quickly condemn white supremacist violence, it is clear that Trump is not interested in governing for all Americans.
Consider more bad news out of the Trump White House over the weekend. Leaks have confirmed that the president likely will do away with protection given to the children of immigrants who came to the United States unlawfully (another goal of white nationalist supporters). The Dreamers, as they are called, are granted immunity from deportation under an Obama-era executive order, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Reversing that protection puts 1.9 million young people at risk, including 7,000 in New Mexico. They deserve to remain in the country they have made their home.
Policy pronouncements of a different sort show the disconnect between the president’s words and actions. Earlier this month, Trump had announced a new executive order rolling back another Obama-era order, this one requiring that federally funded infrastructure — roads, bridges and the like — be designed to survive rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change. Things like, we would imagine, a hurricane of historic proportions.
Harvey is being called a 500-year-level storm. The sight of flooded buildings and highways in Houston reminds us how important it is to build structures that can stand. (Further hurricane hypocrisy? Some 23 Texas senators and representatives voted against aid for Superstorm Sandy on the East Coast in 2012; despite their previous votes, Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn wanted a disaster declaration for their state.)
And so it goes, a world where the president continues merrily about his way, targeting one group or the other, pardoning friends while also making flood-zone residents less safe through policy changes, all while he stays on Twitter endorsing books or asking Mexico to pay for his border wall. An America unlike any we’ve seen before; this, too, we pray, shall pass.