Opinion | Are We Giving Trump Too Much Credit?

We’re always talking about what Trump wants, what MAGA wants. And there’s this thing that happens where this observation about what they want becomes an assumption about their capabilities to accomplish and to do. It also becomes this strange assumption that they are the only ones with agency. And if what they want is X, Y and Z, then we should assume that they maybe have the capacity to do it, and that represents a clear and present danger. Let’s look at the use of ICE, right. The reason this is possible has less to do with any particular operational sophistication from Stephen Miller, and more to do with two decades of law and judicial settlement that gives the White House, gives the presidency broad immigration enforcement authority. So what we’re really seeing here is what happens when you give really broad authority to a president who wants to abuse it. It was the path of least resistance.