We all know now that within 24 hours after Robert Mueller’s testimony to Congress, Donald Trump flexed his power by making the phone call to the President of Ukraine. Now, within 24 hours after essentially being told by the Senate Republicans that he could do anything he liked without any fear of negative consequences, he has again demonstrated his utter contempt for the law and fairness.
Access to the Department of Homeland Security’s Trusted Traveler programs has been suspended for all residents of New York State in retaliation for New York’s so-called Green Light Law, which permits undocumented immigrants to obtain New York State drivers licenses, and which bars DHS access to the state’s drivers license database.
This decision is nothing more than pure retaliation for New York’s temerity in passing a law that the Trump administration doesn’t like. The message is being sent to New York politicians that you either do what we want you to do, or we make life as miserable as possible for your citizens who do frequent international travel. There can be no real pretense that this is anything more than an attempt to extort New York legislators to do what the Trump administration wants.
If they can do this, there is no reason that can’t also, for example, decide to issue or withhold disaster declarations based upon whether the state requesting the declaration has acted in other ways that the administration desires — such has by reducing the number of polling locations in heavily Democratic areas. New York, not surprisingly, has vowed to fight this decision in court. Let’s just hope that the Trumpist desire to control the federal courts hasn’t yet progressed to the point that they are no longer willing to deal with this blatant abuse of executive power.