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Judd Legum Profile picture
@JuddLegum
Jul 9 • 10 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
1. Trump says that if he returns to the White House, he will have the power to cancel any federal program — or an entire agency — by refusing to spend $ appropriated by Congress

A federal law prohibits this

But Trump says he will do it anyway

Here is how the scheme works

🧵
2. In a video, Trump says that the president has "the Constitutional power to stop unnecessary spending through what is known as Impoundment." According to Trump, if Congress appropriates money that he decides is unnecessary, he has the authority to "refuse to waste the extra funds."
3. The last president to claim the authority to impound Congressionally-appropriated funds was Nixon. In the 1970s, Nixon unilaterally canceled billions in spending "for highways, water pollution, environmental assistance, drug rehabilitation, public housing, and disaster relief."
4. Nixon's impoundment funds was challenged frequently — and often successfully — in court.

But, to remove any doubt, Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which prohibits the president from impounding funds without Congressional approval

popular.info/p/the-alarming…
5. Trump, however, has decided that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional and has pledged to challenge it in court. Trump says he will use his self-proclaimed impoundment authority on "Day One" to secure "massive savings" and "crush the deep state" Image
6. The implications of Trump's claimed authority are enormous. For example, Trump has said he wants to "abolish the Department of Education." It would be extremely difficult to get Congress, even if it were under full Republican control, to approve such a deeply unpopular plan. Now, Trump is claiming the power to eliminate the Department of Education unilaterally by cutting off its funding.

Trump is also reportedly considering using impoundment to eliminate "green energy subsidies approved by President Biden as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and funding for the World Health Organization."
7. Pausing here to say that if you like this thread, you'll LOVE the Popular Information newsletter.

Get your news directly and not moderated through algorithms controlled by right-wing billionaires.

And it's free to sign up.

popular.info/subscribe
8. Reviving presidential impoundment is a priority of Russ Vought, Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Vought is a key author of Project 2025, the radical blueprint for a second Trump administration.

He is spearheading Project 2025's 180-day "playbook" for Trump — a document that will not be released publicly.Image
9. Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist, favors circumventing Congress to impose a far-right ideological agenda.

"What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them," Vought told the New York Times.
10. Do you know someone who should know more about impoundment and Trump's plans for a second term?

It's all right here, with links to primary sources:

popular.info/p/the-alarming…

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More from @JuddLegum

Judd Legum Profile picture
Jul 8
1. Project 2025 is a radical blueprint for a potential second Trump administration, spearheaded by the right-wing @Heritage Foundation

Trump says he has "no idea who is behind" Project 2025 and has "nothing to do with them"

THAT IS A LIE

HERE ARE THE FACTS

🧵 Image
2. Among other things, Project 2025 calls for withdrawing approval for the abortion pill, banning pornography, slashing corporate taxes, abolishing the Department of Education, replacing thousands of experienced federal workers with political appointees, imposing a "biblically based… definition of marriage and families," and placing the Justice Department and other independent agencies under the direct control of the president.
3. Of the 38 people responsible for writing and editing Project 2025, 31 were appointed or nominated to positions in the Trump administration and transition. In other words, over 81% had formal roles in the Trump administration. Image
Read 13 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Jul 3
1. The biggest donor of the 2024 presidential campaign, by far, is Timothy Mellon, the reclusive billion and heir to the Mellon banking fortune.

Who is he and what has motivated him to spend more than $100 million already this campaign cycle?

Follow along for details.

🧵
2. Mellon has donated $75 MILLION to Trump's primary Super PAC AND $25 MILLION to RFK Jr's Super PAC.

Mellon sent $50 million to Trump's Super PAC the day after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies.

popular.info/p/the-reclusiv…
3. Despite his political spending, little is known about Mellon. The most detailed account of Mellon's views comes from his self-published 2015 autobiography.

"This book was not ghost-written: every single word is my own," Mellon said in a press release announcing its publication.
Read 12 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Jul 2
1. A lot of the coverage of yesterday's SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity focused on the impact on the charges against Trump

And that's important.

But what's even more important is how it fundamentally altered American democracy

🧵
2. The idea that the President is not above the law is directly embedded in the Constitution.

Article 1, Section 3 states that even if a President is IMPEACHED and CONVICTED, the President "shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law."

The Framers wanted to make clear that the law applied to the President just as it did to everyone elseImage
3. In Federalist No. 69, Alexander Hamilton wrote that the President would be "liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law." This, Hamilton wrote is the key distinction between the "King of England," who was "sacred and invulnerable," and the "President of the United States."
Read 11 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Jul 1
1. On Friday, the Supreme Court executed one of the most brazen power grabs in the history of the United States, throwing out 40 years of precedent.

In many cases, instead of deferring to agency experts, federal judges will now decide how federal laws should be implemented

This has been a longstanding priority for right-wing ideologues seeking to dismantle regulations protecting the environment, curbing abuses in financial markets, and ensuring the safety of consumers
2. In 1984, the Supreme Court decided that when a statute contains an ambiguity, courts should defer to the judgment of the federal agency in resolving the ambiguity, as long as it is "reasonable."

The Chevron decision has been cited more than 18K times

popular.info/p/supreme-powe…
3. It is not a particularly ideological decision

In Chevron, the Supreme Court ruled AGAINST an environmental group challenging the Reagan administration's industry-friendly interpretation of the Clean Air Act

But Chevron deference is a critical tool that allows the government to address important and complex problems.
Read 8 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Jun 30
1. Things that will have absolutely no impact on whether Biden stays in the race or drops out:

Newspaper editorials
Tweets
Podcast hosts
Magazine columns
TV pundits

The only thing I think could possibly persuade Biden to step aside is extraordinarily bad polling

Not like, oh here is a poll that shows you down 6 points nationally.

But sustained, horrendous polling that makes it clear to Biden that the only thing that waits for him if he stays in the race is a humiliating defeat
2. The decision to run for president, as a Democrat or a Republican, take an absurd level of self-confidence and self-regard.

It’s the most powerful position in the world

The people who run thing: Yes, that’s for me. I should be the most powerful person in the world.

Biden has been trying to get into this position since the 1980s
3. For most of that time people have been telling Biden that he shouldn’t run and couldn’t win. Those people were right for several decades until they were wrong.

But Biden has a lot of practice in ignoring people who tell him it’s a mistake to run for president
Read 4 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Jun 27
1. On June 20, Missouri @AGAndrewBailey announced he is filing a lawsuit against the State of New York for prosecuting Trump

His legal theory is a farce

But the (still) nonexistent suit is already a success for Bailey

Because right-wing media outlets, including @WeAreSinclair, are legitimizing his stuntImage
2. In the U.S., in order to have standing as a plaintiff in a lawsuit, you must have an "injury in fact." In other words, it is not enough to allege that something illegal occurred

The lawsuit must show that the plaintiff was actually harmed

How was Missouri harmed by the criminal charges filed against Trump in New York? Bailey has struggled to come up with a convincing answer
3. Bailey says that "Missouri has a sovereign interest in participating on equal footing with other states in a national presidential election." Bailey then said New York, by prosecuting Trump, is "taking a presidential candidate off the campaign trail."

popular.info/p/how-right-wi…
Read 14 tweets

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