The Constitutional Crises Posed by Trump as President

The national-security services are apparently coping with Donald Trump in ways that circumvent the president’s constitutional role as commander-in-chief.

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The military and intelligence agencies are learning new habits of disregard for presidential statements and even orders that those agencies deem ignorant or reckless. By and large, those agencies’ judgments are vastly to be preferred to the president’s—but that does not make these habits any less dangerous.

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Among other insights, Corker’s Sunday interview forces Americans to confront some tough questions: By what methods is the president being contained? Is he, for example, being denied sensitive information by agencies that remember how he blurted a closely guarded secret to the Russian foreign minister and the location of U.S. nuclear submarines to the president of the Philippines?

  Atlantic

This just highlights how dangerous this presidency is. This can't be good for either Republicans or Democrats, and yet they are all side-stepping the obvious remedy: removal from office.

Are allies and potential adversaries being signaled that presidential statements do not actually represent the policy of the United States government?

Of course they are. Especially when somebody immediately "interprets" what he just said for the press.

It seems incredible that the military would outright defy a presidential order. But not hearing it? Not understanding it? Not acting on it promptly? Holding back information that might provoke an unwanted presidential reaction? White House insiders told a reporter Monday that Vice President Pence had made a mistake in telling Trump he planned to attend a game featuring a tribute to Indiana football great Peyton Manning on Sunday: It was that casual remark that goaded Trump into ordering Pence to stage his walk-out stunt.* Whether the story is true or not, it reveals the preferred method of managing a distrusted president: Deny him information that could have unwanted effects.

This is actually General Kelly's stated mode of operation: all documents headed to Trump must pass by Kelly first for approval. People are no longer permitted to just drop in to the Oval Office.

The Constitution provides a way to remedy an unfit presidency: the removal process under the 25th amendment. Regencies and palace coups are not constitutional. I dare say many readers would prefer a Mattis presidency to a Trump presidency. But to stealthily endow Secretary Mattis with the powers of the presidency as a work-around of Trump’s abuse of them? That’s a crisis, too, and one sinister for the future.

A military coup d'etat without the fireworks.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.