U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley defended President Trump's firing of former FBI director James Comey, saying that he can "fire anyone he wants."While it's true that Trump is the Chief Executive Officer of the country, he doesn't have the same kind of powers as an all-powerful corporate CEO, which is what Haley is implying.
"The president is the CEO of the country," Haley told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" Sunday. "He can hire and fire anyone he wants."
Trump cannot fire anyone fire anyone he wants. He can't fire Paul Ryan, a member of Congress. He can't fire Chuck Schumer, a senator from New York. He can't fire Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a Supreme Court justice.
Trump can't even fire any federal employee that he wants to -- they have civil service protections. Trump wants to be able to do this, to intimidate everyone in the government. He has asked Congress to give him this power, and some numbskull from Indiana has introduced a bill to do this, but it has so far not passed.
In fact, Paul Ryan, Chuck Schumer and the other members of Congress are the ones who can fire Donald Trump. Also, because of the 25th Amendment, the members of Trump's cabinet can also fire him -- though I'm sure when Trump finally realizes this his immediate reaction will be, "Not if I fire them first!"
Ryan, Schumer, Ginsburg and the rest of Congress and the Supreme Court can override Trump on any and every issue they care to. There's a system of checks and balances to prevent wanna-be kings and dictators from taking over this country.
Furthermore, Congress authorizes all spending, and without money Trump can't do a damned thing.
Trump cannot fire the legislature of New York; they're considering legislation that would put his tax returns online. That's not the same as firing Trump, but it could quite conceivably lead to his downfall when his connections to Russian oligarchs are revealed.
The main source of power Trump has is the fractiousness of Congress, and their general inability to agree on anything quickly. But if Trump keeps going the way he's going, and his poll numbers sink lower than Nixon's, even the most diehard Republicans will abandon him: they've already got Gorsuch, and they'll get Pence if they dump Trump.
Pence, at least, doesn't seem to be crazy (though he does seem to be pussy-whipped). What's not for them to like about getting rid of the man who's hellbent on destroying the Republican Party majority in the House in 2018?
Trump is not the "CEO" of America. He's not a mob boss who can bump off any schlub he doesn't like. He's not a dictator who can whisk anyone he chooses off to concentration camps. He's not a king who can behead his wife because he wants to marry another women.
Ultimately, Trump is a public employee. He serves at the pleasure of the people, and not the pleasure of all the people, not by a long shot. He lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by three million votes. Less than 20% of the population voted for him (62.9 million out of 324 million total US population). He won the presidency by only 80,000 votes in three states, because of the gimmicky way slavers forced the Founding Fathers to write the Constitution to protect their political power.
It's also likely that Republican voter suppression efforts in those three states handed Trump the election, which is why Trump is already working hard to ramp up efforts to suppress the vote with his phony electoral integrity commission.
Trump is supposed to be working for me and the rest of the American people. The other people who work for us -- our representatives and senators in Congress -- can fire Trump. They could do it in one afternoon if Trump did something egregious enough. And he really seems to be testing the limits.
Ultimately, the American people can fire Trump should he survive long enough to run for president in 2020.
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