Fox News’ Napolitano Wonders if Trump has too Much Power
Fox News Legal Correspondent Andrew Napolitano has had an often rocky relationship with the President. The judge has not held back from criticizing Trump at times. The president has been aggressive in his response, at one point claiming that Napolitano asked him to place him on the Supreme court.
Earlier this week, Donald Trump announced that money would be diverted from the military to pay for the Mexican/American border wall. Napolitano, in a Fox News article, heavily criticized the move and wondered if the President had too much power.
The judge claimed that while there has been a question of presidential power in the past, Trump has taken it to another level. “This question of presidential power is not an academic one,” wrote Napolitano. “Nor is it a question unique to the Trump presidency, as it has risen numerous times before Trump entered office. But the audacious manner of Trump’s employment of presidential powers has brought it to public scrutiny.”
The Fox News correspondent also warned Republicans that this could backfire on them if Democrats are to return to power. He wrote, “After years of faithless Congresses legally but unconstitutionally ceding power to the presidency, we have arrived where we are today — a president who spends unappropriated funds, raises taxes, defies courts and changes immigration laws on his own. I have written before that the Republicans who rejoice in this will weep over it when a Democrat is in the White House. No president should have unconstitutional powers.”
Napolitano closed the column by hoping that Republicans would stand up to Trump. According to the judge, “I have also written that the guarantees of the Constitution — separation of powers foremost among them — are only effective when the folks in whose hands we repose the Constitution for safekeeping are faithful to their oaths to uphold it. When they are, our freedoms flourish. When they aren’t — power abhors a vacuum — the temptation of tyranny arises.”