Trump Goes After Sasse After He Decries Executive Actions As ‘Unconstitutional Slop’
President Trump took to Twitter on Monday morning to scorn Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), who called his flurry of executive actions over the weekend “unconstitutional slop.”
Shortly after the President signed the executive actions during a press conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Saturday — which came on the heels of Democrats and the White House failing to reach a deal on a new COVID-19 relief package — Sasse tore into Trump’s move in a statement by characterizing the actions as “unconstitutional slop.”
In his statement on Saturday, Sasse wrote that former President Barack Obama did not have the authority to “unilaterally rewrite immigration law” with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The Nebraska senator then argued that Trump therefore “does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law.”
“Under the Constitution, that power belongs to the American people acting through their members of Congress,” Sasse said in his statement on Saturday, joining the chorus criticism from both Democrats and some Republicans over whether the President demonstrated executive overreach with his actions.
Two days after Sasse aired his grievances over Trump’s executive actions — which fall short both of what he’d previously hyped and what Congress was attempting to fulfill in a new COVID-19 relief package — the President accused Sasse of having “gone rogue, again” in a tweet.
RINO Ben Sasse, who needed my support and endorsement in order to get the Republican nomination for Senate from the GREAT State of Nebraska, has, now that he’s got it (Thank you President T), gone rogue, again. This foolishness plays right into the hands of the Radical Left Dems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020
Sasse, who Trump gave his “total endorsement” to the Nebraska senator in his bid for re-election, has gained a reputation for being one of the few Republicans on Capitol Hill willing to criticize the President.
In recent months, Sasse said he was against federal law enforcement using aggressive tactics to clear out peaceful protesters ahead of Trump’s infamous church photo-op near the White House — a move he argued “treats the Word of God as a political prop.” The Nebraska senator also criticized the President late last month for pulling U.S. forces out of Germany, characterizing the decision as “weak.”
Sasse’s office did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.