Posted on 05/30/2025 11:30:44 PM PDT by ransomnote
The following is an excerpt of the book description written for The National Security Constitution in the 21st Century which Professor Harold Hongju Koh published on June 25, 2024.
If re-elected, could President Trump, by a single tweet, withdraw America from the United Nations, NATO, and every treaty and international organization to which the U.S. belongs? Or if re-elected, could President Biden gradually take us to war throughout the Mideast—Gaza, Yemen, Iran, the Red Sea—by supplying weapons and ordering drone strikes, cybercommands and Special Forces without congressional approval?
SNIP
This increasing imbalance of foreign affairs power has intensified across recent administrations of both parties. Some presidents like Trump and George W. Bush proactively grabbed unilateral power, while others (Clinton, Obama, Biden) reactively asserted unilateral authority when they could not win congressional support. This shift towards extreme imbalance spiked sharply during Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency. Trump ordered a discriminatory “Muslim Ban,” unilateral exits from treaties and agreements, defied Congress’ power of the purse by building a border wall over its objection, lethally targeted an Iranian general on Iraqi soil, and politicized the Justice Department to punish political “enemies.” His two impeachments illustrated how far he had diverted foreign policy to partisan political ends. The Mueller Report documented how he welcomed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and strongarmed Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy to get dirt on his 2020 political rival. Even after Trump was defeated at the polls, he encouraged mob violence to overturn the 2020 election results.
Through it all, Trump frustrated congressional oversight by asserting executive privilege and immunity and fighting subpoenas endlessly through the courts. He obstructed investigations, covered up offenses and attacked investigators and the media. And when his administration’s abuses triggered criminal investigations for violating national security laws, Trump pardoned the suspects or granted them clemency, even before trial. Even after leaving office, he endangered national security by continuing to hoard highly classified information at his private home.
Trump showed no remorse, instead claiming that all of his actions were authorized, justified by, and immunized from inter-branch interference by his plenary constitutional authorities. Under his extreme constitutional theory, any restraints coming from within the executive branch could be ignored under a theory of “unitary executive,” while any restraints coming from outside the executive could be treated as unconstitutional intrusions upon the President’s plenary national security powers. And candid interviews Trump has given during the 2024 presidential campaign vividly expose his intent to launch an even more monolithic imperial presidency on Day One that would nullify the rule of law for his second administration.
This constitutional challenge will not evaporate even if Joe Biden is re-elected. In the 21st century, new unprecedented threats—Ukraine, the Mideast, climate change, pandemics, cyberwarfare, and artificial intelligence—have provided even greater institutional incentives for Presidents both weak and strong to monopolize the foreign policy response; for Congress to acquiesce; and for courts to defer or rubber stamp, intensifying the interactive institutional dysfunction and disrupting the constitutional norm that national security policymaking should be a power shared.
Historically, Americans have asked the President to protect us from national security threats. But what should we now do if and when the President himself becomes a national security threat?
MORE AT THE LINK: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2024/06/17/is-our-president-a-national-security-threat/
No, BUT the last admin was definately a security thr3at and yale didnt say squat about it!
Yale cranking out emotionally-stunted morons for a lifetime duty of screaming on Reddit for its gang of 14-year-old brats living in mommy’s basement.
This guy is a CCP spy until proven otherwise. Hope FBI is looking into his background.
I think he’s right from his perspective that Trump is a national security threat; but that’s because Trump is a threat to China and China is this guy’s country.
He’s really stupid standing up for China; he’s only going to bring on more attention to himself.
If Trump truly was the threat to national security this “esteemed gentleman” claims to be, wouldn’t one of his first acts be to prosecute and imprison people exposing that danger? Therefore, that this “fount of wisdom” is still penning away stands as a clear refute to his argument.
😃😄😂🤣😜
👍👍 🤣🤣
I stopped reading when he claimed President Trump “politicized the Justice Department “.🙄
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