The better question is what are all the Congressmen doing cozily on Capitol Hill. Like, not one has walked over to these departments to try and physically stop these kids from gaining the keys to the kingdom?
(EDIT: Whoops, they have.)
Look at Seoul. The balls on those lawmakers saved their democracy. I’m not seeing that strength or resolve in the Congress anywhere.
The right moment is only obvious in retrospect.
Instead, we have whatever this is. Doesn't look like it's complying with the normal process of the political system, which is designed to punish an electoral bait-and-switch. Looks more like Russian elections and populace-management.
Now it's my understanding that members of congress can't be truly arrested during session; so the above argument doesn't entirely stick for me.
Source? The House isn’t close enough to a supermajority, and the Senate goes by actual votes.
MAGA outlet Tucker Carlson had Mike Benz on this week. Mike Benz had been vocally opposed to all CIA or foreign interference programs during the election campaigns. This week he recanted, talked without his usual eloquence and said that USAID is not all that bad! So MAGA is being reprogrammed.
If nothing really changes, the Democrats (who were avid neocons in the past four years) won't mind. Which could explain the meek protests of Schumer etc.
The treasury story is way more difficult, we have to wait for more information.
Almost certainly not. The President can’t reorganise e.g. the CIA and Federal Reserve under HHS, for example.
Where I agree with you is in USAID not being politically worth the fight. And after the last 8 years (and Biden’s twilight) it’s hard for Democrats to argue for the rule of law per se.
Any sentence that begins with "The President can't" can safely be disregarded. The executive branch has all the lawyers, all the guns, virtually all the media, and (now) all the money.
Everything we were taught was an ironclad law of American constitutional governance has turned out to be a "guideline," a "custom," a "tradition," a "gentlemens' agreement," or "nothing that my pet judges can't fix."
Not to mention the blanket ruling from the supreme court that says "if the president does it, it's legal."
Judges do exist, and they matter more than any lawyer.
> virtually all the media
How does the executive branch control the media?
1: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/04/nx-s1-5248299/cartoonist-quit...
2: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5288181/why-cbs-stands-...
Also, bear in mind the history of America's most popular cable news network. Fox News is the propaganda arm of the Republican Party, and that was always the idea. After Watergate took down Nixon, the GOP swore the same oath that the Holocaust victims did: Never again. Never again would something like Watergate be allowed to play out in an unbiased, uncontrolled media environment. Ailes and Murdoch answered the call (https://theweek.com/articles/880107/why-fox-news-created) and the rest is history.
>Statute law also places USAID under "the direct authority and policy guidance of the Secretary of State".[4]
Source?