President Donald Trump is participating in a “disturbing trend,” dating back to the Woodrow Wilson presidency, of United States presidents acting to expand presidential power beyond what is prescribed in the US Constitution, declares Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano in a new episode of his Fox News video editorial series Judge Napolitano’s Chambers.
Napolitano, a constitutional scholar and former New Jersey judge, explains the danger of this trend, stating that presidents writing their own laws, imposing their own taxes, and spending money how they want instead of how directed by legislation passed by Congress results in “too much of an accumulation of power in the presidency and it imbalances that delicate balance that the separation of powers created.”
Regarding Trump’s efforts to expand presidential powers, Napolitano points to three actions by Trump this month: redirecting to the budget for building a fence along a portion of the US-Mexico border money allocated by Congress for a different purpose, directing the secretary of defense to send US troops to secure the US border in violation of legal restriction on using the military for domestic law enforcement, and effectively raising taxes via imposing a tariff on imports from China that will result in Americans paying higher prices.
Watch Napolitano’s complete video editorial here:
Napolitano is an Advisory Board member for the Ron Paul Institute.
Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.