Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"Judgе ΥЕLLЅ АТ ТRUМР ІΝЅІDЕ СОURТRООМ Ѕаturdау: "ΥОU АRЕ ΝОТ А ΚІΝG!"
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00:00The special report on presidential power, its limits, as Donald Trump tests the executive
00:05branch's power going farther than his own controversial first term.
00:09Indeed, he harkens back to presidents who had court clashes over bigger things like
00:14wartime powers or when the president may act alone.
00:18What wartime leaders like Roosevelt and Truman viewed as a last resort, though, carefully
00:23weighed with their experts, with their lawyers and the nonpartisan civil service that they
00:27respected.
00:28Well, in contrast to that, President Trump has just been rushing towards a first plan
00:33without any of those efforts to push these powers, sometimes even when flatly banned
00:40by the Constitution, sometimes in ways that his own officials have said is reckless, and
00:46when warned by his own aides that he could still lose, and even when it invites a string
00:50of losses that he's been facing in these first seven weeks, including new setbacks and losses
00:55in court this week alone, we can show you that on our tracker, not a single win this
00:59week and largely a losing record over the past several weeks.
01:05This is all driven by a strategy that you might call Sharpie first.
01:12Sign it and see what you can get away with.
01:15And that's actually partly different from Trump's first term when he pushed some orders
01:19that were knocked down in the courts.
01:20You might remember that, but I want to be clear, and I'm going to walk this through
01:23with you on our special report right now.
01:26Many things that he did do also followed past norms.
01:30Simple example, exit a climate accord.
01:32Presidents could do that just as Biden after his election rejoined that same climate accord.
01:38That's valid.
01:39But this term, President Trump has picked a different strategy.
01:45For starters, there's the volume you might have noticed doubling the orders from his
01:50first term.
01:51He pushed out an unusually high 89 executive orders, signing more in the first 10 days
01:56than any recent president did in their first 100 days.
02:02President Trump has reshaped the government with a flurry of executive orders.
02:06All we have to do is flood the zone.
02:08He has just signed a number of these executive orders.
02:13Just overwhelm the opposition.
02:15The flurry of executive orders has been head spinning.
02:19It has been an unprecedented situation to have dozens and dozens of executive orders
02:24within the first week.
02:26They'll bite on one and we'll get all of our stuff done.
02:29Bang, bang, bang.
02:30These guys will never, will never be able to recover.
02:35The initial rush could seem overwhelming to track, but that doesn't mean there's no way
02:40to ever quote recover as Trump campaign vet and convict Steve Bannon argued there, especially
02:48if many of these orders ultimately fail to stay on the books, if they just lose in court.
02:52So the legal history is instructive.
02:53Donald Trump likes to argue that he is a unique disruptor.
02:57And there's something funny I've mentioned to you before.
02:59If you watch this program, his critics sometimes strike a similar note.
03:04They make Trump sound like every single thing he does in government is unprecedented or
03:08that extreme.
03:09But the history is more layered.
03:11Trump is pushing limits.
03:13He is breaking ground with some orders that are flatly illegal under current precedent.
03:18While in both parties, most presidents have avoided that out of respect for the rule of
03:22law, sometimes out of a general idea that getting knocked back a bunch early in your
03:27term wastes capital and time.
03:29But as mentioned, there have also been these intense times in history where presidents
03:33did try to do more with executive power.
03:37Take those wartime eras that I briefly mentioned where you had bold government and you certainly
03:42had more public unity across America.
03:44Note the comparison here.
03:45Only Presidents Truman and FDR come close on total orders.
03:49Truman with 52 in those first 100 days and FDR with over 90.
03:54It depends slightly on how you count executive actions in that era.
03:57But they were combating existential threats from World War II and then its aftermath,
04:02which of course came after a punishing depression.
04:05FDR famously wielding his powers and taking on bankers to try to rewrite labor and business
04:11law basically on the fly.
04:13He also tried to change the Supreme Court itself with a court packing plan, which not
04:17even Trump has tried, by the way, or perhaps yet.
04:21And Truman, a veteran, tested using those war powers like FDR to take control completely
04:28of domestic businesses, again, testing what the courts would do while also trying to reform
04:33the military.
04:35The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
04:41I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis, broad executive
04:49power to wage a war against the emergency.
04:55I and so many other men and women of color who have served this nation in uniform owe
05:02so much to President Harry S. Truman.
05:05He used an executive order.
05:07Why not a law?
05:08Because you could not have gotten a law passed in the Congress of the United States in 1948.
05:16Colin Powell speaking about it personally, he's someone who, of course, served his country
05:20in many roles.
05:21And you heard the rationale there sometimes.
05:24You test and push the power.
05:26You know Congress won't give it to you.
05:28So you see if it's lawful in that case, talking about Truman integrating the military, what
05:34many see as a high point.
05:36It's a long ways from that kind of power and pushing boundaries for those kind of goals
05:41to what Trump is doing in the current strategy.
05:45And I say strategy based on the evidence.
05:47This is not just some legal blundering into a bunch of court losses.
05:52These aren't just mere PR tactics like so many Trump antics.
05:56This is not, based on what we know, just some executive order version of hulking out.
06:04And by the way, it's not just overwhelming everyone like Steve Bannon said.
06:07Remember, Bannon ran the winning 2016 campaign.
06:12He's strategic enough to know you don't announce the entire playbook while you're running the
06:16plays against the other team.
06:19And so let me show you what our reporting suggests about this strategy right now.
06:24This Trump executive order playbook is one, the rush of orders.
06:28Some standard, like I mentioned, some very questionable and many likely flatly unlawful
06:33under the current precedents.
06:35That's one.
06:36Two, and this is different, lean into these core challenges and fast track your appeals.
06:42The Trump administration has now been asking judges over these past seven weeks to do something
06:46most administrations do not do.
06:49Take the cases, rush the answers.
06:52Basically, they want this fight.
06:55They've been filing these emergency appeals, which I'll talk about more in a moment.
06:58Anything to speed up the cases that are, remember, challenging whether Trump even has these powers
07:03under executive orders.
07:05It's the opposite of Trump's entire legal strategy over the previous four years in his
07:10own criminal cases, where he tried to run out the clock and ask for more time and then
07:15got the Supreme Court to delay the biggest trial he faced so much that it didn't happen
07:19by the election.
07:21If you're hearing my voice, you probably follow the news.
07:23You probably remember that, all the delays.
07:25And some of his supporters said it's only fair.
07:27These were unprecedented cases.
07:29Many critics said it was a kind of cynical tactic to run out the clock, but certainly
07:32you remember the delay, right?
07:35Well now they've gone from delay to a sprint, often welcoming.
07:40What we can show you are now over a hundred legal challenges to many of those executive
07:44orders written by Trump to try to seize powers that are so extensive that often they're ripe
07:51for suing.
07:52With more on this, Kevin, walk us through what the judge said here.
07:56Yeah, and you do see the legal machinery working very quickly after the president signed this
08:02proclamation.
08:03Only a few hours ago, the judge had already blocked its use from deporting five specific
08:10migrants that the administration had been targeting.
08:13What he has done now is expanded that to include all undocumented migrants who are being held
08:19in custody for whom this proclamation could apply.
08:23And he said that it was necessary to move very quickly here because according to the
08:27plaintiffs in this case, some of the planes had already been loaded and ready to go to
08:33deport these people outside of the United States.
08:36And so this is on hold now for 14 days and a hearing has been scheduled for later this
08:41month.
08:42But what this act would do, it's the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
08:47It's a centuries-old law that would give the president sweeping authority to deport
08:52certain undocumented migrants.
08:53It's meant to be used during wartime.
08:56What President Trump says he wants to use it for is to deport migrants who are associated
09:02with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
09:05This law has only been used three times previously, during the World Wars and during the Japanese
09:10internment era during World War II.
09:13And I think it all comes against this backdrop inside the White House of frustrations on
09:17the part of the president and on the part of some of his advisors that the deportations
09:22he promised as a candidate are not happening quickly enough.
09:25And this law certainly would have allowed for sweeping authority to begin those deportations
09:30very quickly.
09:31But like so many else of the president's orders, it has now been blocked by a court and will
09:36move through the court system as the president and the Justice Department plan to appeal.
09:42Back with me, Von Hilliard, Mary McCord, Skye Perryman and George Conway.
09:46All right.
09:47I want you to play this out for me two different ways.
09:50What happens if there are folks inside DOJ who are willing to carry his water as he dictated
09:57today?
09:58And what happens if people just leave en masse?
10:02Well, I think there are, first of all, there already have been dozens and dozens who have
10:06left the civil division as of, I think, a week ago was down 30 percent and is probably
10:11down more.
10:12There will be people who see opportunity.
10:14Of course, there will.
10:15I mean, it's a big place with a lot of attorneys and some will say this is my ticket.
10:18But it is it is there's peril that comes with this, because I think there will be an accounting
10:24someday for lawyers who violated their ethical obligations and the rules of professional
10:29responsibility.
10:30And many of the things that Trump was promising today that his attorneys, his attorneys, not
10:36the United States's attorneys, but his attorneys would do would violate those professional
10:41responsibilities.
10:42And I think a lot of things that people are having to argue in court right now, because
10:45I think they've been told by the administration what to argue, are skating close to the line
10:50because they are objectively don't appear to be fact based.
10:53I mean, I understand when you're saying, you know, Elon Musk has no authority, that that's
10:58what you're being told to say.
11:00But again, I'm going to come back to we're not stupid.
11:02We can see what's actually happening.
11:04And that's why you've seen judges like Judge Alsop yesterday saying this is a sham.
11:10Again, guys, it's important to understand that Trump is taking these massive legal defeats.
11:16And this goes all the way back to a previous one, which is why I have that quote in the
11:19title that that Trump is not a king.
11:22Right.
11:23Remember when they said, like, you know, plaintiff is not a king.
11:26Plaintiff is not a monarch.
11:28He's not above the law.
11:29He was president and now he's no law.
11:32That was referring to this idea that Trump, because he was once president, had for life
11:36these sort of powers.
11:37What he didn't.
11:38And even if the president is to a degree, in some cases we've seen above the law, the
11:43Supreme Court has said to a degree, the president is a special person.
11:48The president is still not 100 percent in all manners infallible, like he's some kind
11:54of orange pope.
11:56Right.
11:57Like, we all understand this and what the judge said tonight, what the judges have been
12:01saying is they've been stopping Trump dead in his tracks, not just disagreeing, but issuing
12:07very sharp orders because one, because Trump's moves have been so egregious, it's easy for
12:14the judges.
12:15But two, because his actions cause so much chaos, the judges are forced to make these
12:23harsh immediate rulings to stop the chaos.
12:27So one of the rumors tonight, at least, was that the judge said, you know, you're trying
12:31to deport these people, but you need to turn the planes around because they understood
12:35that Trump is trying to do this immediately, just remove people.
12:41The judge says without authority and the judge is like, no, because what's going to happen
12:46is you're going to get rid of them and then you're not going to bring them back.
12:50Right.
12:51And so the judge knows Trump is bad faith.
12:53And so ordered him stricter than you might expect.
12:57The judges are not playing around.
13:00Republicans are saying that this is bad.
13:03Now, what they're actually saying is we want Donald Trump to be our king, but everything
13:11tells us that he's not a king.