How much Constitution does this crisis have left?

Remember when Donald Trump refused to sell off his businesses, or put them into a blind trust, to protect both domestic policies and foreign interests of the United States? 

Remember when Donald Trump blasted national security by overriding the extraordinary letter from the combined heads of the FBI and security officials within the Department of Justice to release a memo that he felt gave him a political edge? 

Remember when Donald Trump simply walked away from an international treaty, despite all parties—including U.S. inspectors—agreeing that the conditions of the treaty had been met?

Remember when Donald Trump took away Congress’ control over budgetary decisions by declaring a national emergency under false pretenses and simply appropriating the money that both House and Senate had just voted to refuse him?

While those not-so-ancient events may now seem a thousand scandals ago, you might still have noticed that we’re solidly in the middle of Donald Trump refusing to acknowledge Congress’ oversight authority, even when that authority comes attached to a subpoena.

Emoluments. National security concerns. Foreign policy. Budgetary constraints. Congressional oversight. It’s wrong to say that these represented “challenges to the Constitution” by Trump, because Trump simply walked over them with little but some fist-shaking in opposition. Exactly how much Constitution does this crisis have left?

As Democratic lawmakers take to the courts in an effort to apply some push-back to Trump’s latest power grab, a lot of Americans, in and out of government, are discovering that existing regulations on the executive branch are all looking rather toothless. Partly that’s by design. Partly that’s because the people who built up those rules always thought that shame would be an effective deterrent in most situations. Those people never met Donald Trump.

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2GJ4bNh