At a White House event earlier this week, Donald Trump boasted that he’d succeeded on multiple foreign policy fronts because he had “tariffs to throw around a little bit.” What the president neglected to mention was an underlying problem: He was referring to a power he’s not supposed to have.
In the American system of government, Congress has this authority, according to the Constitution. The idea that a president can unilaterally “throw around” tariffs, based on his own wishes and whims, is at odds with how the system is designed to work.
A day later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went a little further down the same path. Politico reported:
The Trump administration is planning to deploy millions of dollars in tariff revenue to tide over a critical nutrition program for low-income moms and babies during the ongoing government shutdown. … The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children was expected to run out of federal funding later this week. While the program, which funds infant formula, fruits and vegetables, has dipped into contingency funds during previous shutdowns, states have never had to triage participants or turn them away.
It is certainly true that the program, generally known as WIC, is facing a budget shortfall. Now, evidently, Team Trump intends to address that shortfall by redirecting tariff revenue.
“It’s not clear exactly how much money the White House intends to spend, how the process will unfold or if it is legal,” Politico’s report added.
It’s the “or if it is legal” part of the sentence that stands out for me.
Many Americans will likely learn of developments like these and see them as encouraging news. The White House has spent much of the year fighting for tax breaks for billionaires, but in this instance, it’s apparently looking for ways to help low-income families afford infant formula and groceries. Who’s going to argue against that?
There is, however, a broader constitutional issue. In the United States, the president can’t impose his own taxes without Congress, create his own pile of money that Congress never approved, and then start allocating the funds at his discretion to whichever cause he deems fit, without Congress.
The Appropriations Clause of the Constitution helps give lawmakers what’s known as the “power of the purse.” When Trump effectively responds, “I now have my own purse,” there’s a problem.
Am I saying that struggling WIC beneficiaries should simply go without? No. I’m saying that officials should follow the law and prevent an authoritarian president from treating Congress like a doormat (again) and moving around federal funds however he pleases.
