Impotent Force Meets Implacable Object

President Trump says they will announce new guidelines for reopening the country tomorrow.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 15, 2020

"You've seen the last 2 days, the president's mercurial nature on public display but privately our reporting shows that he has been adamant about that May 1st timetable and they've not been able to move him at all" - @PhilipRucker w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/rIFZtJ3EuW

— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) April 15, 2020

Trump could (with an assist from McConnell, naturally) pull the plug under Article 2 Section 3.

If Obama said this the GOP would be IN THE STREETS.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) April 15, 2020

McConnell would have to adjourn the Senate, and force Pelosi to refuse to adjourn the House.

This power has never been exercised. Would Trump do it now, to provoke a literal Constitutional crisis? First, he’d have to get McConnell to go along with it. Mc Connell pulled this stunt in reverse to block Obama from making recess appointments. Would an adjournment now be something the Court would force (because you know it would go straight there)? On what grounds would the Court decide they and the POTUS held that power over Congress?  Maybe if there was a national emergency. Oh wait, there is, and we need the Congress in session, not adjourned until Trump sees fit.

I don’t see even Gorsuch and Kavanaugh taking that responsibility. Imagine Pelosi calls Trump’s bluff and calls the House into session. Do the Supremes shut down the House? Hold Pelosi in contempt?

Yeah , I see “Never gonna happen “ written all over this. McConnell is Majority Leader because the other Senators say so. They won’t want that stink on them, either.

McConnell would have to go along -- by forcing a disagreement with the House over adjournment -- for Trump's idea of adjourning both chambers to work.

McConnell is also very aware that if this precedent is set, the next Democratic president could do the same thing.

— Ben Pershing (@benpershing) April 15, 2020

Trump wants to reopen the country because he cares about the economy more than public health. But he cares about the economy only because he cares about his reelection. And he cares about his reelection because he cares about not going to prison.

— Windsor Mann (@WindsorMann) April 15, 2020

A reminder amid the daily 'light at the end of the tunnel' briefing, nearly 2500 American deaths today, up from 2300 yesterday. https://t.co/GnZ9yXzeXl

— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) April 15, 2020