Summary
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) criticized Donald Trump for illegally firing inspectors general without giving Congress 30 days’ notice.
Trump recently dismissed the USAID inspector general after a report exposed the administration’s mismanagement of foreign aid, putting $489 million in food assistance at risk.
Grassley, a longtime watchdog advocate, said Trump could still remove officials legally by placing them on administrative leave.
I’m largely inclined to agree, but his point stands that the Democrats are completely impotent in the current situation (at least legally). Whatever slim chance there is rests with Republican infighting.
I suppose if I try hard I can cling to a hope. He indirectly threatened their lives whole going out the door. A lot of the stakeholders likely genuinely thought he was going to go away without them having to alienate the Trump fanatics. So opting out of second impeachment they perceived as their best shot at retaining power.
Now Trump is quite directly doing everything to render the legislature powerless. Threaten their lives, that’s one thing, but to deny them the power they won, well maybe that’s a different thing…
Democrats are not impotent; they can vote no on every confirmation, every bill, every time. They can delay all votes using parliamentary procedure. They’re just not doing it because they want to play nice. They think Americans will get tired of this on their own and vote Democrats into majorities in 2026. They don’t want to give Trump an excuse to say Democrats obstructed him so he had to do this, etc. But it won’t work, and while they play nice we’ll descend into autocracy.