Trump is “dissolving Congress in plain sight”
David Hernández writes that amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump has increased his governmental power grab, especially with respect to immigration.
By Keely Sexton
The Trump administration is capitalizing on the COVID-19 pandemic to consolidate yet more power in the Oval Office, according to David Hernández, associate professor of Latina/o studies at Mount Holyoke College.
Beyond stacking the U.S. Supreme Court, flouting Congressional oversight and plainly peddling pardons for friends and allies who commit crimes for his sake, Trump is using the current climate to double down on undermining the government.
“The clearest and most calculated form of this congressional suspension can be found in immigration policy-making, seeking to change the flow of migration to this country while altering the democratic system of checks and balances,” wrote Hernández for The Fulcrum.
“The president and his bureaucrats have been proceeding diligently, dissolving Congress in plain sight by administrative means. This is Trump's central method for doing dirt, the supreme manifestation of his long-signaled views about authoritarianism — whether stiffing workers and contractors as a private citizen, pinning medals on his favorite extremists, pardoning friends or circumventing congressional power at every turn.”