Democrats must defund Trump’s imperial war | David Sirota, Jared Jacang Maher, Laura Krantz and Ron S Doyle

Trump is wielding imperial powers created by a decades-long master plan. The only way to stop his war is to cut off the moneyDonald Trump has now ordered on more countries than any prior president. These assaults do not merely betray his . Launched without congressional authorization, Trump’s bombings and incursions also betray the constitution – an inherently anti-monarch document that exclusively vests warmaking powers in the legislative branch in order to prevent such grave decisions from being made by any one person determined to become a king.Trump clearly perceives himself in such royal terms – he’s . But as we show in the new season of our investigative podcast series , Trump did not create the kingly authority he is now employing. He is exercising powers concentrated in the executive branch by previous presidents and courts. And if history is any guide, the only weapon that can stop a mad king is Congress’s power of the purse – a power that Democrats once effectively wielded, but today seem hesitant to brandish, even amid a wildly unpopular Iran incursion that some fear is a precursor to the second world war.