Does Trump Have the Power to Declare Economic War?

 Does Trump Have the Power to Declare Economic War?

By Aniedobe

Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution gives the US Congress the exclusive power to declare war, to organize army, navy and raise militia for national defense.

Article 1 was written when the only species of war was a bloody mess and it explicitly put the powers to engage in that bloody mess in the hands of the Congress and not the President.

Call Article 1 Section 8 the antiEmperor provision of the United States. It prohibits the Executive Branch from declaration of war.

But that was war in its atavistic sense. Today, there are many ways to attack and subdue a nation without firing a single bullet and the question is whether such ways come within the contemplation of Article 1, Section 8.

Texualists might offer an emphatic no, but I would suggest that any way to destroy or subdue other nations should come under the ambit of said Article.

Mind you, Article 1, Section 8, is not antiwar, it is merely antiEmperor in keeping with executive government minimalism that suffuses the entire US Constitution.

The drafters abhorred the notion of a powerful head of the Executive Branch constituting himself into an Emperor and subduing nations in his powerful wake without the approval and consent of the US Congress.

This antiEmperor orientation of the US Constitution implicitly commits it to consent and approve any which way the Executive Branch deigns to attack and subdue other nations.

One genre of war is information warfare and one can argue that it is no less potent and invidious than armed conflict. Many nations, particularly, less developed nations have been manipulated into self-destruction by disinformation and misinformation.

Another species of war is covert and overt economic warfare in all its ramifications and this is where many nations have been ravished by more powerful nations, the relentless plundering of African countries coming easily to mind.

But what strikes as aggrandizing powerplay that Congress should at least authorize is the economic aggression towards a trusted and friendly Canada. Mr Trump has suggested that he has Canada annexation in mind and intends to squash her sovereignty by economic warfare. Such naked aggression comes under the purview of Article 1 Section 8, one might strongly suggest.

While not prohibiting economic depredation of Canada, the United States Constitution provides for Congress to approve, consent, and control the process in order to contain any runaway ambition of the President as it pertains to Canada and other parts of the globe.

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *