Summary
Elon Musk announced that he and Trump are shutting down USAID, bypassing Congress’s authority over federal spending.
Musk claimed Trump fully supports the move, though Trump has only criticized USAID without explicitly confirming its closure.
The White House has not commented. The administration has already placed USAID officials on leave and reviewed its funding.
Critics argue the move violates federal law, setting up a potential legal battle.
“buT iTS aN oFFiCiAL aCt sO itS LeGAl”
That’s… Not applicable here… Depending on what you mean.
That ruling was about personal responsibility and accountability. Not whether everything the government does at the president’s request is legal.
i.e you can sue the government, just not the president himself.
You also usually need “standing” to sue. If you’re personally affected, you have standing. If you’re a state or local government and have your government or citizens affected, you have standing. Who has standing here?
The human suffering cost is completely amoral and the influence cost on the us should be considered treason, but that doesn’t mean there’s someone who can sue to fix it
Congress would have standing aince it’s their laws being ignored - but good luck with that for 2 years… I assume the people in USAID also have standing as their employment would be illegally terminated.
“…the President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presump- tive immunity from prosecution for his official acts.”
Source
Yes, that’s what I’m saying. He can’t personally be prosecuted. You can still sue the government.
Which translates to “Trump can do whatever he wants… if there happen to be consequences, they’ll be paid by the tax payers”
I mean… You’re not wrong but you’ve also oversimplified too much to be right.
He can’t personally be punished, but then no president in history has ever actually been personally prosecuted which is why it was such a big deal that Trump may have been.
His policies and commands can still be overturned by courts though. So while he is free to command something it may or may not be done. Though chances are pretty good at the moment that he will face little in terms of opposition…
so where did I oversimplify exactly? he can do whatever he wants, there is a small chance he may be stopped (don’t know by whom, he controls all branches of gov and the courts)
His grants freeze was already ordered blocked by federal courts. There is some opposition, but courts are slow and trump is throwing shit like a monkey in the zoo.
He also has pardon power, so he can direct others to break the law and then pardon them
Nope.
It’s cute that people are still in denial
I’d say it’s “cute” when people with no grasp of the law attempt to make broad statements about it, but it’s not. It’s actually super annoying.