People keep posting that Trump should be ordered to do or not to do

[MineralMan]

things. Who has the authority to order a President around? As far as I know, nobody has that authority. If he wants to tweet, he can tweet. Someone might strongly urge him to stop doing that, but nobody has the power to make him stop. If he wants to make phone calls to Putin to discuss foreign policy, who can stop him? If he wants to create an international incident, he can do that, too, regardless of advice from experts.

The POTUS is the highest authority in the US government. He gives orders. He doesn't take orders. His powers are limited by the Constitution, but nobody can order a President to do or not do a damned thing. We've always relied on our Presidents to have good sense and to listen to advisers. But, there's nothing anywhere that requires him to follow anyone's orders.

We need to understand this, as crazy as it sounds. No President can be ordered around by anyone. That makes the office a dangerous place for a person who has no personal ethical limits. That's why voters shouldn't have elected Donald Trump to the office. But, they did, apparently, and we're stuck with him.

Like all Presidents, he will surround himself with people he listens to, at least to some degree. If he doesn't like their advice, he can fire them, just as he hired them. He will be advised by intelligence officials, military officers, diplomats, and many others, but will do as he damned well pleases about their advice.

I think we should always expect the man to do the unexpected, the unconventional and to ignore all advice he doesn't care for. He may well do very dangerous things during his term in office. If he goes off the deep end, the only recourse is for the House to impeach him and for the Senate to vote in a 2/3 majority to remove him from office.

But, there is nobody who can order him to do anything. He will give orders, but is not required to take orders from anyone. We screwed up "bigly" by electing him. In just three states, another 80,000 or so total votes would have elected Hilary Clinton. But that did not happen, for whatever reason. We're stuck with a sociopath and narcissist as President.

Presidents do as they please, within their constitutional powers. They do not take orders. We can be watchful, and should be, but we should not expect any President to follow anyone's orders. It's not going to happen.

[SHRED]

1. Twitter could cut him off

It's a privately held company.

They won't but they could.

[MineralMan]

2. Why would they do that? His tweets generate lots

of visits. Why would Twitter shut down such a source of visitors? That's not going to happen.

[SHRED]

4. Like I said...

They won't but they could.

[gwheezie]

3. The power of the executive branch

Has been expanded which each president. Now Trump has it.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes, it has, but nobody has ever held a position

higher than the President in this country. Nobody has ever been able to give a President orders. It's up to us, as voters, to elect sensible, sane people to that office. If we don't do that, we will suffer any consequences that occur.

That is one of the flaws of our system of government. It assumes that people won't elect an idiot or a tyrant to that office. Apparently that isn't always the case.

We've elected a narcissistic idiot to have control of our military and a vast range of other resources. We can watch, but we can't stop him from doing as he pleases, pretty much. Only Congress has the power to remove him, and it's very, very unlikely that it would do that in time to prevent disaster if Trump heads in that direction.

If you're a religious person, I suggest praying that Trump doesn't go off the deep end about anything. I'm an atheist, so all I can do is hope for the best. I'm less than optimistic that Trump won't create a major crisis while in office.

[gwheezie]

17. I have no faith in the gop

The only slim chance we have is to take back Congress in 2 years which is not likely.

[MineralMan]

19. Of course not. Neither do I.

That's why I think he'll have a free hand, mostly.

However, we'd better start working on 2018. Working hard. If we lose more ground in that election, we're going to be in deep doo-doo,

[treestar]

6. He's not above the law as POTUS

most POTUS would obey a court order; in fact, President Obama did not go ahead with one of his immigration orders when the Courts said he could not.

Donald I might expect to actually disobey a court order if it were directed to him. I would hope that such an act would be very big in the news and he would be questioned bigly.

[MineralMan]

8. Really, the only court order he would have to honor

would come from the Supreme Court. And soon, that court will be owned by the Republicans, too. President Trump will not be as biddable as President Obama. When it comes to a President's privileges, only the Supreme Court can rule. No District Court would be likely to issue orders having to do with presidential privileges.

It's a real dilemma. I hope it doesn't come to that. Truly I do.

[treestar]

12. Well hopefully his owning of the Supreme Court

is not that black and white. Justices follow precedent and pride themselves on knowing the law. It is not merely political. Look how Roberts voted to uphold the ACA. There are many instances where justices have turned out not to be partisan in twisting the law around to fit an agenda.

I think he would have to obey lower court orders or at least appeal them and ask for a stay.

There is nothing absolute about the Presidency - he can't just do whatever he wants even though his party has Congress.

[guillaumeb]

7. I cannot imagine the GOP impeaching Trump no matter the cause.

Their only concern is exercising their power to pay off their 1% owners.

[MineralMan]

9. I can, but it would require a truly major act by Trump.

I'm sure there are things he could do that would trigger an impeachment. But it would have to be something so threatening to the nation that nobody could ignore it. Now, Trump might conceivable do something like that at some point, but I'm sure there is a limit to what even Republicans could tolerate. Keep in mind, too, that not all Republicans would be needed. Impeaching a President ultimately requires just 67 Senators to vote for removal. That's a high bar, but not an impossible one if things got truly out of hand.

[guillaumeb]

10. What if Trump came out for single payer?

Would that cause the GOP to search for a pretext?

I know that sounds unlikely, but Richard Nixon was in favor of single payer, as well as a guaranteed minimum income. He also opened up relations with China.

[MineralMan]

15. To tell you the truth, that wouldn't actually surprise me.

I'm serious about that. Putting the whole healthcare thing to bed would free up Congress and the President to screw up many other things. I can guarantee that if the orange-haired gibbon pushed through Medicare for all that many people on this very site would become Trump fans.

Trump is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. He is a loose cannon. He's actually pretty apolitical in his thinking. It would not surprise me too much if he used something like Medicare for all as a cosmic distraction to derail opposition to other things he wants to do. It might even work.

Don't think of Trump as some sort of Republican. He defies definition.

[treestar]

13. Depends , because he could do something

causing so much public outcry that the House can't ignore. They all want to be re-elected.

Also he is unpredictable whereas Pence would be their predictable stooge. So I wouldn't write off their ability to impeach him.

[guillaumeb]

25. Agreed about Pence.

He might be the Cheney figure in this Administration.

[libtodeath]

11. I will never consider him a legitimately elected president.

[MineralMan]

14. OK. I can't imagine that he got elected.

We can consider whatever we want, I suppose, but it will not change the reality. The election of Donald J. Trump was unexpected and bizarre. It may well have been illegitimate, but it happened.

We also failed to regain a majority in the Senate, which may prove to be an even bigger mistake. The whole election, including state legislative control in Minnesota, was a massive mistake. Our government is about to be FUBAR. That's what gives me pause and concern. If we fail to correct some of those mistakes in 2018, I don't know if it will be possible for a couple of decades afterwards.

If we do not pull the Democratic Party back together, we are going to be truly hosed down the road. That's my only focus now. I'm 71 years old. I do not want to leave this world without knowing that it has been returned to some semblance of sanity.

We're still mourning the 2016 election. We need to stop doing that very soon and start working like crazy to reverse the trend, starting with 2018. I'm going to be very intolerant of anything that further divides the Democratic Party. We need to fix that, not splinter it.

[LanternWaste]

16. I see zero evidence of that happening.

"he will surround himself with people he listens to..."

I see zero evidence of that happening.

[MineralMan]

18. Well, he's lined up a bunch of wackadoos already.

[bdamomma]

20. He works for us

And The Congress is his oversight they are the ones to vote legislations or to declined them.

[MineralMan]

21. Ah, I see. Well, then, I'll write him a letter

and let him know that he should always do the right thing. I'm sure that will straighten him out.

Congress is now controlled by the Republicans. Do you think they are on our side? The Republicans have been waiting for a chance like this to virtually rape the nation. I expect them to begin doing that immediately, and Trump will sign what they send him.

Trump don't care. In that, he's just like the honey badger.

[bdamomma]

24. Yes, Republicans have been planning this takeover

to gut our social programs such as Social Security, Health Care, etc. I am not disagreeing with you, but since we got a one party system they are sitting in the drivers seat and they are driving recklessly and we are their passengers taking us over the cliff.

[Kilgore]

22. Good Post

I appreciate your laying out of reality in a clear concise manner. Plus I agree with you.

[librechik]

23. why oh why did they never treat Obama with the same deference and respect?

Give orders? Get his way because others must follow those orders? The presidency hasn't run like that...ever, as far as I know. And obviously an opposition Congress has a myriad ways to obstruct the "Democrat" president.

When Trump gives an order and people follow it is not out of respect. Fear maybe. But mainly self interest, I think.

Republicans take a pledge to never harm another Republican. As long as Trump claims to be in the party, they will do whatever they can, legal or illegal, to preserve his advantage. Oh, does that require them to welcome the enemy into their beds? At least Putin isn't black. GOP WIN!!!

[yodermon]

26. Well FUCK. Wish you'd written this 8 years ago and that Obama had read it. n/t

[MineralMan]

27. President Obama did just fine, thanks.

Given the difficulties, he got a lot done. Now, Trump will have no problem with a Republican Congress. How about that?

[ck4829]

28. The executive branch only has the power we collectively allow it

It's not like a law of gravity.

And taking orders/not taking orders goes both ways. People need to start disregarding the executive and legislative branches, one has already become an unrepresentative mockery of what the constitution intended and the other one joining in on the 20th, both a joke and a poor excuse of a functioning government.