I agree. Trump is by no means stupid. He is blessed with uncommon common sense.
However …
Based on his not ever mentioning Congress’s Section 8-limited powers (corrections welcome), Trump, like most other US citizens, has probably never been taught about the fed’s Section 8 powers, at least not to the extent that he thought to ask his advisors and nominees if they respect those limited powers when he interviewed them imo.
What I see is that once low-information politicians, including constitutionally low-information, non-politician Trump, get elected to office, although they quickly get themselves up to speed with the pecking order in DC, they probably remain oblivious that the pecking order is based largely on stolen state powers where domestic issues are concerned.
So until Trump actually reads Section 8, Judge Andrew Napolitano easily reading Section 8 in under three minutes, I’m afraid that constitutionally low-information Trump will continue to be “assimilated” by the Borg (Star Trek) Congress.
“Wrong way Riegels,” is another good analogy imo.
Roy Riegels wrong way run in the Rose Bowl
Hopefully patriots will drain the congressional swamp for Trump with their voting power in ’18, something that one person cannot do alone regardless if president.
"It is LAWYERS who have made a travesty of the plain words of the Constitution. 200 years of slippery, slimey, byzantine-complex, lawyerly, Jesuit-level thinking has convoluted these plain words awfully."
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison warned patriots to be on their guard against the feds unconstitutionaly expanding their powers in subtle ways, patriots abysmally failing to do so after almost 241 years imo, evidenced by the size of the unconstitutionally big federal government.
”I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” —James Madison, Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution (1788-06-06)
”To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.” —Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson's Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank : 1791
”The system of the General Government is to seize all doubtful ground. We must join in the scramble, or get nothing. Where first occupancy is to give right, he who lies still loses all.” —Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1797.
In fact, note that Thomas Jefferson went from an “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, to warning against apathy with respect to public affairs in the late 18th century.
“Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature.” - Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Edward Carrington January 16, 1787)
The ill-conceived 17th Amendment, the state legislatures foolishly giving up the voices of the state legislatures in Congress when they ratified that amendment, has helped the wolves to devour the constitutional republic imo.
Sometimes it’s far easier to give a warning than to heed one.
George Washington, in his farewell letter, warned the country about sectarian divisions. I’ll bet even as he wrote those words, Adams, Hamilton and Jefferson were all plotting against each other, among others.
The plotting’s gone on ever since.