Trump, Republicans Destroy Another Democratic Norm – The Transition Of Power

I’m not sure that this has been pointed out strongly enough in the mainstream press but it strikes me as completely unprecedented that, rather than simply gathering his cabinet and forming a new government, Trump has actually been engaging in distinct economic and foreign policy before he has even been certified by the Electoral College much less been sworn in as President. The announcement of the Carrier deal may have only detailed Indiana state tax breaks for the company but most people are under the impression that Trump also made specific promises to United Technologies in that deal as well. In addition, Trump’s now admittedly well planned call with the President of Taiwan, followed by a tweet-storm about China’s trade and currency practices, indicates he is also leading a major shift in foreign policy. All this is being done without the consultation or even input of the existing structures of the American democracy.

Trump is certainly within his rights to change our policy toward China and Taiwan once he becomes President. And, even when he is President, he needs authorization from Congress to offer specific tax breaks to individual companies; and, even there, the language of that legislation has to be carefully framed to pass legal muster. Now, you can argue his promises to Carrier and United Technologies are not binding until that legislation is passed. But you can’t say something similar about the situation with China and Taiwan. Trump may be President-elect but he is still just a normal US citizen until his inauguration. And it has been the tradition that US citizens do not interfere in the foreign policy adopted by the United States Government.

This is yet another example of Trump exerting an authoritarian power and daring anyone to stop him. And Republicans are happy to play along with him. If the shoe was on the other foot and Obama was interfering in Bush’s Afghanistan foreign policy before he was inaugurated, I’m pretty sure Republicans would be calling for impeachment on day one. It has always been the tradition for the President-elect to lay low during this transition period while the current President provided some deference to the President-elect’s policies and positions. This is yet another norm that Republicans and Trump are destroying. It does not take a lot of imagination to think of a scenario similar to 2000 where the winner of the Presidential election is in doubt, but the candidate leading the election simply declares himself the winner and then begins to exercise economic and foreign policy as “President-elect”. Even today, it is not impossible that China could have easily overreacted to Trump’s actions and begun to militarily threaten Taiwan for which it has enormous nationalist feelings. Obama, as President, would then be responsible for a war that Trump started. What Trump is doing today is breaking another constitutional and democratic norm and setting a dangerous precedent for the future.