President Trump won the White House by running against the establishment, mocking the accepted positions and the approved rhetoric of both the political ruling class in Washington and the cultural ruling class in Hollywood. In so doing, he became the de facto spokesman of the forgotten Americans overlooked if not held in disdain by these coastal elites. All the while, he won the undying enmity of an establishment that see him as a mortal threat to their continued dominance.
Since the shock of Trump’s resounding electoral victory, that establishment has kicked into full panic mode and is resorting to increasingly desperate measures in a doomed attempt to reverse the election results. Much of the media coverage has been consumed by the unsurprising fact that Hollywood is still in liberal la la land and that the usual suspects in DC are feigning histrionics about Trump’s cabinet choices. But the real news about resistance to the president’s agenda is more troubling: that a considerable group of unelected bureaucrats in the federal agencies and in the federal judiciary have taken it upon themselves to frustrate the Trump Administration agenda by any means necessary.
Desperately clutching to the remaining vestiges of power they have left, they are resorting to leaks to destroy those who threaten the establishment agenda, foot-dragging in the confirmation of essential executive branch personnel, non-enforcement of executive orders and initiatives, and blatantly political rulings from the bench attempting to reverse presidential actions without any constitutional authority whatsoever.
Nowhere is this phenomenon more apparent than in the hand-wringing and subversion related to the executive order curtailing travel and immigration to the United States by citizens of countries known for their support of terrorism. First, we witnessed the public declaration of defiance by the acting attorney general, Obama appointee Sally Yates. She gave no coherent legal justification for her “moral” stance in refusing to enforce the directive (and was only in a position to inject herself into the controversy because of the Democrats’ insistence on delaying the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general). Then a succession of federal district courts issued stays on the order’s enforcement with constitutionally-flimsy and transparently political rulings. Strategic leaks to the press from various federal agencies, including the State Department and the intelligence community, followed, making it clear that major establishment policy players viewed the order as both illegitimate and counter-productive to national security.
Lost in all the fevered reporting on the “unprecedented” executive order were a few basic inconvenient truths. The president’s authority to determine policy with regard to immigration into the United States as it impacts to our national security is unquestionable. No “constitutional rights” have been violated, because the immigrants in question have none, as they are not citizens. Nor are any basic human rights being violated since there is clearly no universal right to immigrate to the United States — or for that matter, to immigrate anywhere.
The voters who put Trump in the White House can be excused for a bewildered reaction to the bold attempt to subvert the administration’s agenda and overturn the election result on the part of career bureaucrats and functionaries. They seem to believe that they are entitled to determine policy, regardless of the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box. Trump’s executive order stands in stark contrast to the priorities and mandates of the global elite, from whom the media, and the aforementioned careerist bureaucrats in Washington, take their marching orders.
Trump’s astonishing victory in November demonstrated that most Americans regard those globalist priorities as wrong, and wrong-headed. His sweeping electoral success, entirely unanticipated by the establishment, was due in large part to most Americans’ strong resistance to the notion that they should be happy to live in some amorphous global community in which their rights are subject to international treaties and laws. Most Americans also oppose the idea that the right of anyone in the world immigrate to America takes precedence over the right of American citizens to find a good job and to provide a reasonable standard of living to their family.
The president shows no signs of backing down from the position he has staked out on the travel ban and immigration restrictions, and reports are that the White House is poised to issue another executive order less vulnerable to makeshift attacks from a hostile judiciary. But make no mistake: The establishment is digging in for all-out war, and the president and his allies should be prepared to fight back.
Robert Wasinger, served in senior advisory and liaison roles in President Donald Trump’s campaign and transition team, after extensive experience on Capitol Hill. If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions.
