Lorne Gunter: Donald Trump’s talk of ’51st state’ rears its ugly head once again

Donald Trump’s at it again. Wednesday, he resumed his insults to Canadian sovereignty by offering us missile defence at such a high price that he thinks we might intimidate us to give up our independence — to become America’s 51st state — just to get under his Golden Dome.

It was less than three weeks ago that U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, said Trump’s taunts were “behind us.” Hoekstra told the National Post, “It’s done. From my standpoint, from the president’s standpoint, 51st state’s not coming back.”

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At the time, I wrote, “I’ll believe it when I don’t hear it.”

I was right to be skeptical.

Wednesday in his own social media platform, Truth, Trump said, “if they remain a separate, but unequal, nation,” the buy-in on missile defence would be $61 billion. But being protected would cost nothing, “if they become our cherished 51st state.”

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But it’s just possible that the influence of the blowhard-in-chief is coming to an end. Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade said what others in the U.S. Congress should have been saying all along — the U.S. president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to impose broad tariffs unilaterally.

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power to levy taxes, including tariffs.

In a 1977 law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Congress delegated a limited amount of its authority to the White House in times of emergency.

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That’s why it’s been so critical that Trump declared an economic emergency in the early days after his swearing in. In the absence of an emergency, he has no right to act as he has against Canada, Mexico, China and the rest of the world.

The IEEPA was designed to give the president limited room to take emergency action when the U.S. is threatened by another country. The IEEPA specifically authorizes the White House to impose sanctions and freeze foreign assets held in the United States. But it says nothing about tariffs.

To use the IEEPA to justify his “liberation day” tariffs of April 2 is just like Trump and his loyalists. They think all others are fools. They are so much cleverer. They see a clause in a law that allows Trump to take dictatorial action — a clause that before had been invisible to everyone else, because everyone else is dumber than they are.

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Mostly the tariff clause was invisible because it doesn’t really exist.

The Court of International Trade ruled that the “IEEPA does not authorize any of the worldwide, retaliatory, or trafficking tariff orders” issued by Trump against countries he has accused of flowing drugs into the United States or taking advantage of the U.S. on trade.

“The worldwide and retaliatory tariff orders exceed any authority granted to the president,” the court decided, while the “trafficking tariffs fail because they do not deal with the threats set forth” in Trump’s executive orders.

In short, Trump sought to expand the power of the presidency well beyond what the Constitution or Congress intended — to that of a king or dictator — and the court reined him back.

The White House has already announced it will appeal this ruling, but until the appeal can be heard by higher courts, the three-judge panel unanimously ruled that Trump’s tariffs “will be vacated and their operation permanently enjoined.”

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(On Thursday, a federal appeals court paused the trade court’s order until the higher court could hear arguments from both sides. For now, the tariffs are still in force.)

It’s about time the U.S. system of check and balances began to wall in Trump’s willful abuses of power. Congress should have slapped him down when he first started running roughshod over the powers given to them by the U.S. Constitution.

But since his Republican party controls Congress, and since Republican congresspeople and senators are afraid of Trump, they let him get away with being a vindictive strongman.

I expect the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold the trade court’s decision against Trump, if the case gets up to them. The majority on the court are strict interpreters of the U.S. Constitution.

Teddy Roosevelt called the presidency the bully pulpit. Trump seems to think it’s the bullying platform.

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lgunter@postmedia.com

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