this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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283
Trump ‘does not have the authority to abolish’ USAID: Congressional Research Service (thehill.com)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world
37 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Summary

A Congressional Research Service report states Trump lacks the authority to abolish USAID, as congressional approval is required.

It explains that a 1998 law briefly allowed reorganization but expired in 1999. While past administrations have modified USAID's functions, they consulted Congress.

Lawmakers are concerned about Trump's executive order pausing foreign aid and potential USAID-State Department consolidation.

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[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 92 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

I love all these "it's illegal" and "he has no authority" articles.

Until someone stops him, he has the authority. The man isn't going to stop because you wave a piece of paper at him, and neither are his cronies.

I hope these kinds of stories embolden or empower the folks trying to stand up to him, but its already clear he'll physically remove people from offices if needed. How long before the dissenters are just on the next plane to Gitmo while every Republican voter either cheers him on, stands by silently, or doesn't even know it's happening?

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is going to end up with a whole lot of people getting lynched by angry mobs.

[–] Carmakazi@lemmy.world 20 points 5 months ago (1 children)
  1. Who's angry mobs are going to be victorious, is the question.
  2. That's not where things will end. That's where they'll start.
[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

God damnit. This sounds like some cyberpunk bullshit story and were fucking living it.

[–] wanderingmagus@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

It's because it is, it's literally the end goal. Look up Balaji Srinivasan, the guy that came up with the idea of replacing traditional nation-states with decentralized, corporate-run regions, and wrote about it in a whole-ass book called "The Network State: How To Start a New Country". These assholes read cyberpunk and decided it was an excellent idea because they all thought they'd be Arasaka or Pharmakom.

[–] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Turns out checks and balances don't work when one of them has all the guns.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

And none of the others have a spine.

[–] TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone 3 points 5 months ago

Nowhere near enough people understand this. Challenging these things in court isn't going to matter when the courts are all shut down. The DOJ has already advised that he can ignore court injunctions. The US government is being rapidly dismantled. The rule of law no longer exists.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 53 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Meanwhile USAID's employees are threatened and their servers seized by 20-somethings who refuse to give their name.
It boggles my mind how you can just...waltz into a government department with no legal basis, and people just comply.

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Money is god

[–] echutaaa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago

Well in this case the president is, and anyone in his service that he’d pardon.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 28 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Crazy how fast they move now...

It took years for them to decide if Biden had the power to do, well, anything as president.

Almost like them slow walking the entire Dem platform was intentional, and a major reason Dems lost 2024 as a result

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Biden was trying to with within the legal system. Trump don't care.

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Well he certainly had the authority to direct the national archivist to ratify the ERA. And if they refused, he had the authority to replace them. There are dozens of such examples. There is a yawning gulf between the lawlessness of Trump and the utter impotence of Biden.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world -4 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Hey now, he issued those pardons for his friends and family like a genuine dictator there towards the end. He was figuring out how to wield his powers effectively but they were only really put to use for personal gain. Funny how that works

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

This actually tells me that Biden, to the very last, still didn't understand that Trump doesn't believe in the system. If Trump wants to prosecute Hunter Biden, does anyone really think that these pardons will stop him? In a non-bizarro world, sure, maybe, but those pardons are going to mean about as much as we Kleenex to Trump's DOJ. ALSO, Biden didn't understand that Trump is really not interested in going after rich people as long as they stay out of his way. Trump got elected and basically instantly forgot about Hillary, never even bothered trying to prosecute her. I think we'll probably never hear anything else about the Bidens except for rants on social media.

[–] Donjamos@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

If the next president threatened to go after my family because they are my family, I'm pardoning them.

[–] zaph@sh.itjust.works 26 points 5 months ago

Okay well he's done it

[–] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

He has implicit Congressional Approval as long as the GOP maintain a majority and sit back, doing nothing.

Twenty-something years from now, we’ll all be quoting “First they came for the migrants, but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a migrant; then they came for the foreign aid workers, but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a foreign aid worker…” when referring to the downfall of the United States of America.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Twenty something years from now, the people left will be telling ancient stories around a campfire.

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 17 points 5 months ago

he doesn't have 'authority' to do many of the things he's currently getting away with.

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 12 points 5 months ago

We will condemn with the strongest possible terms as we watch.

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

In another day or two Elon and his minions will likely be able to halt all money going yo USAID, including salaries to workers. So that will effectively abolish it.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 7 points 5 months ago

He's already fired everyone. And takem over the federal financial systems. They have the firehose, they can point it at thier owm wallets.

[–] SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 months ago

Authority means nothing anymore. Only power does.

The Liberals still don't understand that.

The US has two options to reverse course now

  1. indefinite general strike and civil disobedience, damanding resignation of entire administration.
  2. Military coup.
[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It's cute that anyone thinks Trump cares or that the Republicans won't remove it of president musk demands it.

[–] Shanedino@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago (2 children)

So... impeachment? What are you waiting for.

[–] earphone843@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

They don't have the numbers for it to work

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Better not do anything at all then

[–] earphone843@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

He was impeached twice before and nothing happened because they didn't have the numbers in the senate. To remove a sitting president you have to have majorities in both the house and senate, and his people hold those majorities.

So, no, it's not better than doing nothing at all, and might be detrimental when they fail.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Nothing happened is not an accurate representation of those events. At minimum we have a historical record that all Republicans refused to convict him which means they supported his actions. Dem voters got to watch their representatives stand up for them and make the case that Trump's behavior was not acceptable. Those are both important things despite the fact that he was not removed from office. That's a big part of the information we needed to have to know how bad a 2nd Trump term is going to be.

What they're doing now is giving up without a fight. In fact, they're actively speeding things up by confirming his nominees.

[–] amorpheus@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

What are you doing?

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Impeachment has never done anything.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Ok, they won’t shut down USAID, but all US employees are fired and computers removed and buildings condemned. It’s still operating.