Weekly Update: June 16
Your weekly rundown of the latest kleptocratic actions by the Trump administration.
The Never-Ending Emergency: How Trump is Turning Temporary Powers into Permanent Threats
Law-making by proclamation runs directly counter to the vision of our Founders and undermines the safeguards protecting our freedom. It is high time that Congress reclaimed the legislative power and restored constitutional balance to our system.
- Senator Mike Lee, Utah (Republican) (June 9, 2023)
The presidency was never meant to have monarchical power over the American people.
- Congressman Chip Roy, Texas (Republican) (June 9, 2023)
When Congress passed the National Emergencies Act in 1976, it imagined rare moments of crisis: war, pandemic, major disaster. What it didn’t imagine? A president declaring eight simultaneous emergencies, stretching the legal definition of “urgent.”
But that’s exactly what Donald Trump did in his first term. And he's doing it again. Since being elected, Trump has declared eight new national emergencies, beating his record for how many he declared by this point in the prior term.
Trump has not been subtle in his use of emergency powers. He declared a national emergency in 2019 to fund his border wall, after Congress had explicitly refused to give him the money. It was a political tantrum with legal teeth—rerouting billions from military construction to a campaign promise. Courts eventually slapped it down, but the wall got built anyway.
And thanks to Congress's inability to pass legislation limiting his power, Trump is at it again. Presidents are supposed to report to Congress and renew emergencies annually, but they rarely get questioned, let alone stopped.
What emergencies has he declared?
Energy emergency (January 20)
Designating cartels as terrorists (January 20)
A national emergency at the Southern Border (January 22)
Tariffs on Canada and Mexico (January 29)
Tariffs on China (February 1)
Sanctions on the International Criminal Court (February 6)
Mineral production (March 20)
Largest tariffs in a century (April 2)
Source: Axios (April 18)
The Big Picture
When a president declares a national emergency, they can expand their executive powers without immediate congressional approval. While Trump is not the first president to declare national emergencies to expand his authority, legal scholars say that he is exploiting such declarations to enact his extremist agenda. Regardless of one's political perspective, this is a troubling and unprecedented trend to an expanded presidency and an ever-weaker Congress. This is exactly the pattern we see in kleptocracies, where executives accumulate power and parliaments become rubber stamps.
Fortunately, this is one you can do something about. This isn’t only a Trump problem. It’s a problem with the rules. Congress gave presidents these emergency powers, and Congress can fix them.
Ask your elected officials for:
Sunset clauses with teeth. Every emergency declaration should automatically expire after six months unless Congress votes to extend it.
Stronger oversight. The president should be required to explain exactly what powers they're triggering—and what actions they’re taking—every 30 days, not just in vague annual reports no one reads.
Bipartisan bills called the REIGN Act (Real Emergencies Act) and the Article One Act were floated in the Senate a while back to address exactly these loopholes. (Contact your elected officials to ask them to revisit these key pieces of legislation. The Article One Act was introduced by Republican Senator Mike Lee, quoted at the top of this post—folks in Utah could ask him to reintroduce it.)
Until then, presidents will keep pushing the limits.
Meet the Sponsors: The Billionaires that Stand to Benefit from Trump's Birthday Parade
The America 250 Foundation is a Congressionally mandated nonprofit established to honor the 250th anniversary of American independence. It has been tasked with overseeing next year's festivities. This year, though, it has gotten numerous corporate sponsorships for the military parade, which, just coincidentally, falls on President Trump's birthday. While turnout for the "No Kings" protests dwarfed that of the military parade, it's worth checking in to see just who decided to donate early.
Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has been one of the President’s staunchest allies for at least 20 years. According to the New York Times, the company denied its direct sponsorship, saying that Mr. White had supported the program in his personal capacity.
The money links: Mr. White partnered with Anheuser-Busch to market Phorm, a new energy drink. The drink was being given away at the protests. The company has directly benefited from Trump's bully pulpit. After it aired an ad with a transgender person, Trump encouraged his followers to give Bud Light another chance. Anheuser-Busch donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inauguration and hundreds of thousands of dollars to related political action committees.
Palantir Technologies, a data analytics company co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, has come under increasing scrutiny for its deepening partnership with the Trump administration, particularly regarding the aggregation and analysis of vast amounts of personal data on Americans. The concerns span privacy, civil liberties, surveillance, and the potential for abuse of government power.
The money links: Most recently, the company received a $30 million contract to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to centralized data on migrants for purposes of tracking and deportation. Former Republican Congressman, Justin Amash stated, "The surveillance state...the police state...the deep state......are alive & well under Trump. He signed bills to extend & expand mass surveillance. Now he's building profiles' on millions of law-abiding Americans. It's an extraordinary threat to liberty."
Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading firm also sponsored the event. Coinbase donated $1 million to the inauguration, and the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a lawsuit against the company the next month.
The money links: The president is a massive holder of crypto assets. In March, he called for creation of a national crypto reserve, which would have the government purchase massive amounts of digital currencies, a boom to the financial tech industry.
Oracle, a database company, was also a sponsor. Its founder, Larry Ellison, is an ally of President Trump and appears likely to benefit significantly from the administration's decisions. Ellison, like White, was reportedly involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The money links: Oracle has been at the center of negotiations to manage TikTok’s U.S. operations. The administration has also intervened in a wage discrimination case, saving the company what some estimate to be well over $300 million. CNBC has also reported that the company has increasingly benefited from close cooperation with the administration, especially over AI.
Other companies and brands donating to America250 include Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Coca-Cola, Walmart, BNY, Goldman Sachs, Exiger, Lockheed Martin, and ScottsMiracle-Gro.
Weekly Wins
We the People...are Tee'd Off
On Saturday, June 14, "No Kings" rallies in cities and towns across the country offered a robust counterpoint to Trump's birthday parade. Coordinated by more than 200 political, environmental, labor, and other advocacy groups, organizers estimate that more than 5 million people participated in more 2,000 planned protests. Those who participated cited concerns about the country's descent into autocracy, the ongoing crackdown on immigration, and the message and resources—as much as $45 million—wrapped up in the military parade.
Source: Rolling Stone (June 18)
With the Trump administration's typical mix of hyperbole and lies, White House communications director Steven Cheung described the "No Kings" protests as "a complete and utter failure with minuscule attendance." But the numbers don't lie and history has demonstrated time and again that protests can be a powerful engine for political and social change.
As two governance experts note, "protest movements have long been the engine of democratic progress, pushing institutions to live up to their ideals. From women’s suffrage to the Civil Rights movement in the United States to pro-democracy protests across the globe, these claims for rights within the polity are not signs of dysfunction, but of democracy in motion. They reflect a deep commitment to participation and accountability, a refusal to let democracy drift into complacency or exclusion."
More positive acts of resisting kleptocracy
More links, more kleptocracy
Protection racket
Self-enrichment
‘Trump Inc.’: Filings Show Staff Profited From Being in the President’s Orbit - NYT
The Trumps Promote a New Crypto Venture: Bitcoin Mining - NYT
Trump Organization announces new ‘Trump Mobile’ phone service - The Hill
Cronyism
$75 Billion: That's the Size of the Carveout for a Private Credit Firm That's A Major Trump Donor - WaPo
120 Million Acres of Public Lands for Sale in New Legislation - Wilderness Society
Threats, intimidation, and surveillance
Top House Democrat asks Microsoft about DOGE code allegedly tied to NLRB data removal - NPR
Despite Favorable Ruling, California National Guard Orders Remain in Limbo - ABC 7
Executive power grabs
Weakening independent agencies
Military
Justice Department
Justice Department moves away from protecting voting rights to focus on low-frequency fraud - Minnesota Public Radio
Justice Department eliminates tax division - Bloomberg
Justice Department to lose 4500 staff due to resignation - Bloomberg Law
Civil service
Other agencies and local government
The Bureaucrat and the Billionaire: Inside DOGE’s Chaotic Takeover of Social Security - NYT
Trump Administration Abandons Deal With Northwest Tribes to Restore Salmon - ProPublica
Science Shattered: The Research Lost as Trump Targets NIH Funding - ProPublica
Senators Demand Transparency on Canceled Veterans Affairs Contracts - ProPublica
President Trump fires a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - NPR
When wildfire season coincides with threats to federal emergency support - The Hill
Watchdog Finds Trump Administration Broke Law by Withholding Library Funds - NYT