Analysis | Trump tests his power. Can you really do these things?

CNN
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There is a question that still has no answer that applies to many of the incredible things that President Donald Trump is trying to do as he advances at full speed in the second week of his second mandate: Can you really do this?

Consider your last bombardment of decrees, memoranda and ads.

His administration has offered to pay millions of federal workers so that they do not work until September if they agree to resign. Military and postcards are exempt from the offer, but it is not clear that Trump has the authority to spend government money in a massive anticipated ad hoc. Below.

Apparently not. Or at least not at this time, after a federal judge paused the order issued on Tuesday. The White House, after the protest of the Republicans whose voters depend on various forms of federal subsidies and other expenses, defrosted the funds on Wednesday. But the question is likely to come again that Trump refuses to spend the money assigned by Congress.

A possible confrontation in the Supreme Court is being developed on the issue of what Washington calls “seizure.” John Fritze, of CNN, writes that, although the Supreme Court has certainly shown consideration towards Trump on some issues, this is one in which he might not do it.

He will try. During his speech at the White House, Trump said he will sign an order for the National Defense and Security Departments to reuse the prison of the Bay of Guantanamo, Cuba, to house 30,000 migrants who cannot be repatriated to their countries of origin. The United States maintains a prison at the island’s base for some terrorists, including the intellectual author of the 11S, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Most of the alleged terrorists have been transferred or released from Guantanamo, and Trump sees the opportunity to house migrants there.

“Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust that countries retain them because we don’t want them to return, so we will send them to Guantanamo,” he said.

Do you really believe that the US government was financing condoms for Hamas in Gaza?

This is what Trump said in the White House on Wednesday, when he listed his achievements of the first week: “We identified and stopped the shipment of US $ 50 million to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. US $ 50 million. And you know what happened to them? They have used them as a method to manufacture pumps. What do you think?

Trump’s statement was a more extreme version of something that the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Tuesday in Washington. Here is the CNN verification:

In other words, Leavitt essentially said on Tuesday that the Biden Administration had decided He does not receive US condoms a former Biden official who worked on Gaza aid issues told CNN that Leavitt’s story about an expense of US $ 50 million in condoms for Gaza was “imaginary.” The former official said: “It’s a lie, things are being invented.”

It is worth examining Trump’s plan more closely to compensate federal workers, since it is a good example of contradictory messages.

Trump expressed his frustration for being misunderstood during a speech of 30 minutes before signing the Laken Riley law in the White House. That law, the first one that signed during his second term, approved with bipartisan support, demands the arrest of migrants accused of certain crimes.

However, at the signature ceremony, Trump felt the need to clarify his offer to federal workers.

What Trump says: “Just to clarify, because yesterday it was reported incorrectly, we have informed federal workers, who have sought to do so for many years, that if they work for the federal government, they must be presented in the office in time and as scheduled. We don’t want them. We don’t want them to work from home because, as everyone knows, most of the time they are not working. ”

Added:

“If they do not accept to return to work in their office before February 6, they will be fired. And, therefore, we will reduce our government. ”

Trump clearly sees the offer to workers as an ultimatum.

The memorandum sent to the workers says something different. Sent to federal workers from an unnamed email address, the memorandum does not sound like Trump. With the issue “Fork in the Road” (a fork on the road), taken from the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, offers workers the opportunity to resign, with salary, in September and allows them to avoid the orders of Reincorporation to work until then. The memorandum sent to the workers does not specifically say that the federal workers who resign will not have to work during the next nine months while they are paid.

A third explanation. The White House published a question and answer to explain the memorandum and there states that most workers will not have to work while they are paid. (Note: In the case of federal financing now defrosted, a memorandum with a strange writing was also published together with a declarative question and answer).

A Democrat says that the offer must not be believed. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, told federal workers that they did not believe the president when he offers such generous compensation without any contribution from Congress.

“He has no authority to do this. Do not be fooled by this type, ”said Kaine, pointing out that it is Congress that assigns money, including federal wages, through a budget process.