Would Trump violate the Constitution by tanking health law?

President Donald Trump and the White House are explicitly entertaining the idea that he could not only allow Obamacare to fail but also grease the skids when it comes to that supposed outcome.

And some say this would violate the very oath of office that Trump pledged when he was sworn in. But does it?

The president has tweeted in recent days about possibly withholding federal subsidies for insurers that assist low-income customers — “cost-sharing reductions,” or CSRs. As NBC’s Benjy Sarlin does a good job explaining, insurers are required to help these customers with out-of-pocket costs, and starting in the Obama administration, the government has reimbursed insurers for this cost.

But Republicans have argued that this arrangement is illegal and have sued. Trump has continued to make the payments — which would amount to about $7 billion in 2017 — but he has also made no promises about continuing to do so and is openly suggesting that the payments may stop. Incidentally, this comes as Trump is also urging the GOP to “let Obamacare fail” in the wake of the Senate GOP’s failure to pass a replacement. In other words, it looks a lot like he’s threatening to force the law to fail.

Trump suggested in a pair of tweets in recent days that the payments amount to bailouts for insurers.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, meanwhile, said Sunday on Fox News that Trump would announce soon whether the payments would continue. “He’s going to make that decision this week, and that’s the decision that only he can make,” she said.

As president, Trump swore to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” in accordance with the Constitution. And some have suggested that withholding these payments would violate that oath by effectively sabotaging the law.

Even Republicans have warned that such a move would be a bad call. But would it really be constitutionally questionable?

Here’s what we can say: There is no legal requirement that Trump make the payments, but the fact that they are already being made and he might rescind them would be the clearest sign yet that he’s willing to force Obamacare to fail, rather than simply let it. He may claim it’s a principled stand, but the implications are unmistakable, and some experts say it would violate the oath he took.

“The question of at what point a president’s supposed enforcement of a law transforms into illegal legislative action is a hard one,” said Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina School of Law. “But when the president is making clear he is deliberating not enforcing a duly enacted federal mandate, he has made clear that he is violating the Constitution.”

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who was lead counsel on House Republicans’ lawsuit against the payments — which succeeded in district court but is on hold — says the Obama administration’s action was unilateral, so Trump’s can be, as well.