ArcaMax

Russell Vought is the ultimate Trumper. The head of the Office of Management and Budget just anointed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to wind down the U.S. Agency for International Development ("wind down" being one of his favorite words) had a new stunt to try out this week to subvert constitutional separation of powers. You remember -- Congress has the power of the purse. It must be on the citizenship exam. The answer should have an asterisk for President Donald Trump.

Trump's new trick this week is called the pocket rescission. The beauty of this one, unlike your usual rescission (of PBS funding, for instance) is that Congress doesn't have to do anything. The president just asks for the money to be rescinded -- which freezes it automatically for the next 45 days, and if that should coincide with the end of the fiscal year, the money goes poof! And Congress' power of the purse is rendered a nullity.

So sayeth Mr. Vought:

"Last night, President Trump CANCELLED $4.9 billion in America Last foreign aid using a pocket rescission," the White House Office of Management and Budget posted on X.

Even some Republicans spoke up. "Congress has the responsibility for the power of the purse," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the Senate Appropriations chair, said in a statement. "Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law."

The funds Trump canceled were largely intended for USAID, a global peacekeeping and anti-poverty agency that Trump has done everything he can to destroy; so it continues.

This was the script for the second term, and it is being carried out in every quarter. Accumulate power in the executive. Use it aggressively. Make of it a veritable show. Belittle and cast doubt on the courts and their authority. Undercut their esteem. Play chicken. And, of course, Congress. Play chicken and win.

Watching it, day-by-day, trick-by-trick, it is easy to miss the whole picture.

Is this what it looks like when a dictator moves in to take over?

Trump has been musing, aloud of course, about himself as dictator. "The line is that I'm a dictator, but I stop crime," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting, "So a lot of people say, 'You know, if that's the case, I'd rather have a dictator.'"

He later added: "Most people say ... if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants."

Not that Trump wants to be a dictator. He made that clear, sort of, the night before, albeit still fascinated with the idea that people might prefer dictators.

"'He's a dictator. He's a dictator,'" Trump said of his critics. "A lot of people are saying, 'Maybe we'd like a dictator.' I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator."

Really? Asking permission to rescind is all that it takes?

Russell Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist, had this same job at the end of the first Trump administration. He was a key contributor to Project 2025, which as you recall was all about this, and some of us didn't want to believe it then, so here it is again. He said then that his final goal of Project 2025 was to "bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will" and use it to send power from Washington, D.C., back to America's families, churches, local governments and states. He has said that he wants to "traumatize" federal employees. He comes from the Heritage Foundation.

Just this week's stunt. Just $5 billion in aid. I wouldn't bet against him. And I can only imagine what's next.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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