THERE ARE NO GROUNDS FOR OPTIMISM

Anyone who still thinks there is the slightest possibility Trump will not do every bad thing he has promised to inflict on us should now sit up and smell the coffee.

When Congress is out of session, the U.S Constitution expressly authorizes recess appointments. It says: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.”

Yesterday, Trump said the new Republican Senate Majority Leader must commit to allowing recess appointments.

He posted on Xitter (that’s pronounced “shitter”):

“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner. Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again.”

Notably, Trump did not endorse any of the three GOP candidates for Wednesday’s upcoming leadership election — Senators John Thune, John Cornyn - the “johns,” how appropriate now - and Senator Skeletor, aka Rick Scott.

Influential figures in the MAGA movement have rallied around Senator Skeletor in the aftermath of last week’s Republican electoral victories. He was endorsed by Ron Johnson, Bill Hagerty, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio, who posted “I will be voting for my Florida colleague @ScottforFlorida to be our next Senate GOP leader.” Senator Skeletor has also been endorsed by MAGAts Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Glenn Beck, Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk.

Of the three, Senator Skeletor was first to come out strongly in support of Trump’s idea. “100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible,” he wrote in response to Trump’s post. Unreconstructed Afrikaner Nazi Elmo Muck immediately posted “Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!”

Not to be outdone by Skeletor, neither Thune nor Cornyn ruled out the idea in their responses. Thune said “all options are on the table” toward delivering on Trump’s agenda “including recess appointments,” while Cornyn noted in a post: “The Constitution expressly confers the power on the President to make recess appointments.”

Trump taking this position means he will have a cabinet composed to temporary appointees who have no independent constitutional authority, who serve at Trump’s pleasure - or more accurately, his whim - with no protection in office. Sycophants totally in his thrall.

Recess appointments can last at the most for two years unless senators later confirm the nominee.

In recent years, the Senate has routinely held brief pro-forma sessions specifically to prevent the president from making recess appointments and sidestepping the chamber’s advice and consent. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 2014 that three recess appointments made by then-President Barack Obama were unconstitutional because the chamber was not truly in a recess for more than ten days, effectively undercutting the future use of the practice.

As a result, neither Trump nor Biden has been able to make recess appointments throughout their presidencies - even when their parties had unified control of Congress and the presidency - because of how the chambers arranged their schedules.

Trump previously toyed with the idea of using the President’s extraordinary powers to call Congress in and out of session, to force the adjournment of both chambers of Congress in order to allow recess appointments. “The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony pro forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis,” Trump said in April 2020.

Additionally, Trump said the Senate should refuse to confirm any further judicial nominations put forth by President Biden in the waning days of this Congress, saying “Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership.”

Trump’s request is almost certain to fall on deaf ears. Democrats maintain control of the Senate through the end of the year and have made filling judicial vacancies a top priority for the lame duck session.

Basically, this means Trump doesn’t want his cabinet secretaries to have to sit through Senate confirmation hearings even though Republicans have a 53-seat majority. So he’s telling whoever wants the leadership gig they better be prepared to make the U.S. Senate a Trump subsidiary.

The appointment of Tom Homan as Border Czar in charge of Trump’s “massive depotation,” a man who said he plans to deport whole families rather than break them up between undocumented parents and their U.S. citizen children, a man who salivates at the though of all the concentration camps that will b built, is a demonstration of what’s coming. Surprise surprise, he was a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership book.

Trump made the announcement on Truth AntiSocial: "I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders ('The Border Czar'), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security. I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders. Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin. Congratulations to Tom. I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job."

My hope that Trump doesn’t appoint Mike Davis - who wants to shoot “leftist American women” and set up concentration camps for Trump’ political enemies - just took a nosedive. I now consider his appointment as Attorney General the most likely outcome.

What is seriously troubling in all of this is Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution authorizes the President, “in Case of Disagreement between [the House and the Senate] with Respect to the Time of Adjournment,” to “adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper.”

One way to achieve recess appointments would be to have Keebler House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson work with whichever senatorial shill becomes the next Senate Majority Leader to adjourn Congress for a period of at least 10 days. During that time, Trump could make recess appointments, at least under the rule established by the Supreme Court in the Obama case

In the new MAGA government, in which Republicans are now sworn to ask “How high?” on the way up anytime Trump says “Jump!” it’s unlikely any of them will make any move independent of his approval. So this will most likely happen.

Should Democrats attempt to prevent such adjournment, such a previous Republican surrender of power will have given Trump not only the power to adjourn Congress but also to keep it adjourned “to such Time as he shall think proper.” He will have the ability - without any power to oppose him thanks to the Supreme Court grant of presidential immunity - to shut down the Article II branch of government, allowing him to thereby rule by decree, or in our case, by Executive Order.

Dictator On Day One, anyone?

Plan. For. The. Worst.

Because it’s going to happen.

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