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Sunday, April 26, 2020

POTUS tweets as lawful orders

I haven't posted in a while -- life keeps getting in the, particularly now that I'm in a part time grad program, plus work, husbanding, parenting, etc.  But in order to get back on track, and energized by Gene's zoom call yesterday, I wanted to republish a piece here from Task and Purpose.

The discussion from a couple other fora have suggested I'm a Trump apologist.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  What I'm setting out is the proposition that 45, as POTUS, has certain constitutional authorities, that when he gives a public direction, no matter the forum, the military has a duty to understand that direction from the CINC as an order and, barring manifest illegality, to execute it, or at least to clarify it.  I keep hearing "that's not how orders work" -- and that's true, usually.  But it doesn't HAVE to work that way, as a matter of the President's Article II CINC power.  The order is complete the moment issued.

I left unspoken the obvious conclusion that this interpretation *should* serve as a warning to the President to be circumspect with his Tweets, because there are a million men and women under arms duty bound to carry out his orders.  This is why Presidents in the past have been very deliberate and disciplined with their communications -- to ensure the messages they desire to be communicated are communicated, with less potential for miscommunication or misinterpretation.

Here's the piece:  https://taskandpurpose.com/opinion/trump-tweets-military-orders

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