No, Trump hasn't learned a lesson. He's got a record of misusing taxpayer funds.
By Sam Berger
As President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial winds down, multiple GOP senators have tried to justify their plans to vote against removing him by suggesting that Trump has been chastened — he may have done something “wrong and inappropriate,” as Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) described it, but he’s learned a lesson, and that’s good enough. Sunday on “Meet the Press,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said, “If a call like” Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “gets you an impeachment, I would think he would think twice before he did it again.” On Sunday, when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if she is “confident that he won’t do this again,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) replied, “I think that he knows now that, if he is trying to do certain things … he needs to go through the proper channels.”
But Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) had it right Monday when he argued before the Senate that Trump “will not change” and he will “do it again.” Why? Because Trump’s misuse of taxpayer funds, at the heart of his impeachment, is part of a pattern.
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government agency charged with overseeing the use of taxpayer money, found that the Trump administration’s hold on congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine was illegal, as it violated the Impoundment Control Act (ICA). And emails between the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department’s acting comptroller show that the White House was on notice that it was acting outside the law. “In fact,” as GAO noted in its decision, “Congress was concerned about exactly these types of withholdings when it enacted and later amended the ICA.”
It’s not the first time Trump has violated budgetary laws to further his aims. In 2018, Trump shut down the federal government, refusing to sign a government spending bill unless it included funding for his border wall. As the shutdown stretched on, however, he became increasingly concerned about the public response. So, ignoring the law, he began reopening parts of the government to try to reduce the political pain of his actions. Most notably, he recalled tens of thousands of IRS employees to ensure that processing of tax refunds would not be delayed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/03/no-trump-hasnt-learned-lesson-hes-got-record-misusing-taxpayer-funds/
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