No, Mr. President, You Are NOT a King!

April 14, 2020 4:39pm

In 2018, I denounced Time Magazine for their cover of Donald Trump envisioning himself as a king. Today, I stand by that denunciation at the time because it was a meritless attack against the President for simply exerting powers the Constitution very clearly allowed.

But his recent claim that he has total authority to decide how and when to end the Coronavirus Closure is absurd. Trump said “When somebody is President of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be. It’s total. The governors know that.” He went on to say that local leaders “can’t do anything without the approval of the President of the United States.”

No, Mr. President, that is not true. You are either inexcusably ignorant of our Constitution, or you have received terrible legal advice. I'd wager it's the former.

Trump said he would release a paper supporting his legal argument that “the President of the United States calls the shots." I look forward to reading it. It will have as much validity as the Babylon Bee, but it won't be as well-written.

The President has ZERO authority to shut down commerce and impose a quarantine upon America. Frankly, neither do the governors, but the governors have more authority to limit movement than the President does.

Trump's claim is wrong. And the news media rightly challenged him on it. But does anyone else see the pathetic irony of the Democrats and the media - but I repeat myself - blasting the President because he falsely claimed authority he doesn't have while at the same time blasting him for not exerting sooner the authority they acknowledge he didn't have???

If it wasn't for double standards, Democrats and the media would have no standards at all.