Perfectly Legal and Undeniably Scandalous
Unlike his legally dubious attempt to fire a Fed governor, a lot of the president’s most irresponsible decisions are well within his authority.
Who’s going to disagree?
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP
One of the defining features of Donald Trump’s second presidency is an endless parade of legally dubious assaults on the foundations of American institutions. His administration’s attempt to destroy the independence of the Federal Reserve, with the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency rummaging through private mortgage filings to gin up bad-faith charges of misconduct to create a pretext for firing a member of the Fed’s board, is only the latest example.
But there’s a popular aphorism in Washington: The scandal isn’t what’s illegal, the scandal is what’s legal. So it’s important not to let certain pernicious yet permissible Trump moves get lost in the shuffle.