Subject: Re: AOC’s thoughts on Taiwan
Not true.

Remove the current Supreme Court and replace it with a historic one and he would be losing all over the place.

Probably not true, and certainly not relevant. Trump recognizes that it doesn't matter if you eventually lose in the SCOTUS. The President has actual power that exceeds his actual authority. I have a stock speech that I give to clients all the time about the difference between power and authority when talking about what the zoning rules say, and what local governments can actually do. Trump's been losing a lot of these cases in lower courts, but by the time he's lost the case he's achieved most of his goals.

That's part of why I thought Trump would do so well in Game of Thrones. One of the themes that show explored was the difference between nominal authority and who actually held power. Trump has been very good at recognizing that there is a difference between what the nominal allocation of authority is and what the real allocation of power is.

For example, nominally the President has authority over everyone who works in the Executive branch. In reality, though, there's lots of real power centers and influence that pull on all those folks. Their decisions are shaped by the desires of Congressional budget chairmen, oversight committees, outside stakeholders, their own personal interests, etc. Which means that even though a President like Obama or W had authority over every single person that worked for them, their actual power over the bureaucracy was more diffuse. The way you wield actual power is by making sure that everyone in a decision-making role is loyal to you, and no one else - and that since you have the power to choose who occupies every decision-making role, you (as the President) actually have a lot more power over the Executive than past Presidents have chosen to use.

Again, the Westeros example - Tyrion Lannister essentially banishes Janos Slynt (the head of the government's security forces). Lannister is the Hand of the King, nominally in charge of the entire government. He has technical authority over Slynt, since he's the nominal chief administer - but he knows Slynt is loyal to another rival. So he purges Slynt and replaces him with a personal lackey. Because Lannister is smart enough to recognize that it doesn't matter what the org chart says - the person who has power over a subordinate is the person that subordinate is loyal to. A very Trumpian move indeed....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...