Donald Trump’s latest executive order raised serious red flags for critics on social media, who feared its effect on the rule of law and warned it could signal a constitutional crisis.
White House secretary Will Scharf announced Tuesday at a press conference alongside Trump at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, that Trump was essentially bringing independent agencies under the control of the White House with increased supervision and therefore reestablishing “the long-standing norm that only the president or the attorney general can speak for the United States when stating an opinion as to what the law is.”
Legal experts and political opponents pushed back and argued that it was an unconstitutional move by the Trump White House, especially given how several of Trump’s executive actions from his first weeks back in office are now facing legal challenges.
Critics called the order “a full-blown power grab wrapped in authoritarian cosplay” and a coup.
Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega posted: “I’m sorry, but this just makes me want to laugh hysterically.”