George Conway predicted Monday that Donald Trump would run into trouble by claiming power that he doesn't actually have.
The president-elect has nominated loyalists to high-ranking positions that many say are less than qualified, which could provoke a showdown with the Republican-led Senate. The conservative attorney said Trump could also lose a power struggle with the U.S. Supreme Court on some of his plans to gather power.
"I mean, look, he's already talking about doing things that he does not have the power to do," Conway said. "The [Voice of America] director – okay, I was, like, looking at that and saying, 'Interesting, I didn't know that was a direct presidential appointment,' and looking at the statute, it takes 10 seconds in the statute to see there's a chain. He doesn't have direct control over the VOA.
"Now he may get what he wants anyway, but it's, like, okay – that doesn't work."
The Department of Government Efficiency, a quasi-government advisory board led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, could trigger additional legal battles as they attempt to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget.
ALSO READ: Inside AOC's plan for Dems to go after corporations — especially those tied to Trump
"DOGE or whatever that is does not exist," Conway said, "and to the extent it is ever made to exist, has to comply with various statutory provisions that, I don't know, maybe they have a plan for doing that – I don't know, and it's, like, you know, the thing is, one of the things we know about Donald Trump is he shops around for advice. He goes from lawyer to lawyer to say, 'Can I do this? I want to do this,' and one lawyer will say no. Well, that one is gone."
Trump has banished the more traditional conservatives, like former White House counsel Don McGahn, who served as guardrails during his first term and prevented him from taking some unlawful actions, but Conway said the former president may encounter obstacles he does not expect.
"Those people are gone," he said. "The Don McGahns are gone, and so, you know, he's going to be trying to do things that he may, you know, end up — I think probably will — end up losing. He didn't do all that well in the Supreme Court when he was president."
Watch the video below or at this link.
- YouTube youtu.be
