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If Obama was the imperial president, what does that make Trump?
Remember when Republicans were dead set against sweeping executive actions? Remember when they called Barack Obama an imperial president, and worse, for issuing a string of executive orders, presidential memoranda and national security directives?
In his first 10 days in office, President Trump issued 20 executive actions, more than any incoming president in the modern era. And for the most part, Republicans have adopted a position of silence or support, conveniently forgetting their past practice of denouncing executive decrees as a threat to constitutional governance.
Obama, for his part, issued 18 president actions (executive orders, memoranda, national security directives and proclamations) during his first 10 days in office. Obama's actions included measures on government ethics, waterboarding and a move to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (an action he was never able to complete during his eight years in office).
Obama's most far-reaching executive order, announced in 2014, granted deportation relief to millions of undocumented workers. Democrats cheered the president for going around GOP hard-liners in Congress, but courts quite appropriately saw this as an overreach and struck it down.
Trump’s most controversial directive so far also has to do with immigration: It suspends refugee resettlement in the United States and entry by citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations. No duly enacted law has changed America’s immigration policy as much since the 1986 immigration reform act. Trump's order has stranded thousands of people abroad and been so jarring that leaders from close allies have taken the unusual step of denouncing it.
In addition to the immigration order, Trump needlessly damaged relations with Mexico with his wasteful order to build a border wall and his demands that Mexico pay for it. He also signed an order to cut regulation, a directive so poorly conceived that it could result in more confusion than regulatory relief.
All of this has happened with minimal input from the U.S. Congress. You'd think there would be resistance to a president who bypasses the supposedly separate and equal legislative branch of government. Think again.
Yes, Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have called the immigration order “a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism.” And a handful of other lawmakers have called it hastily executed or poorly vetted. But none has noted the obvious hypocrisy in a Republican president issuing so many sweeping executive orders after criticizing those from Obama.
As the new president's Oval Office signing spree continues, members of Congress need to show some more spine, not to mention more consistency.
USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature.
