Leaders | The southern border

Don’t complain about Donald Trump’s powers, curtail them

For the president to declare a state of emergency is spurious. It may well also be legal

SINCE THE day he became president, Donald Trump has trampled political norms. He has cosied up to foreign dictators while traducing his own officials. He has demanded that the Justice Department investigate his adversaries and mused about pardoning himself. He lies so frequently that it seems like a tic. In declaring a spurious state of emergency on America’s southern border, has he at last gone too far and provoked a crisis?

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Imperial purple”

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