Trump has tried to use eminent domain in the past to further is business. He even spoke highly of it on the campaign trail. Based on that, needless to say, I didn’t expect him to have a healthy respect for property rights. Well, at least he’s consistent:
In a meeting with county sheriffs from around the country on Tuesday, President Trump jokingly (we hope!) threatened to “destroy [the] career” of a Texas legislator who proposed requiring the government to obtain a conviction before taking property allegedly tied to crime. As Nick Gillespie noted, Trump’s knee-jerk support for civil asset forfeiture is troubling, especially in light of a growing bipartisan consensus that the practice should be reformed or abolished because it hurts innocent property owners and warps law enforcement priorities. Worse, the White House transcript of the president’s remarks about forfeiture shows he literally does not know what he is talking about, which suggests this “law and order” president is happy to go along with whatever cops want, even if he has no idea what it is.
This should be a red flag for my fellow Wookie-suited travelers.
