The President’s Secret Powers
PEADs could hold the key to locking up American democracy for good
“I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.” President Trump March 12, 2020
We can’t be certain, but President Trump could have been referring to the presidential emergency action documents, or PEADs as it’s more commonly referred to. With an election approaching, many Americans are becoming concerned about President Trump’s access to emergency powers which could allow him the ultimate stockpile of power he craves.
On Sunday August 16, 2020, Ted Koppel of CBS investigated PEADs and discussed his fears with Elizabeth Goitein, who warned Americans about President Trump’s aggression toward liberal democracy over a year and a half ago.
In January 2019, Goitein, the co-director of the Brennan Center for Justice national security program and a writer at The Atlantic, wrote in her article, The Alarming Scope of the President’s Emergency Powers,
“As democracies around the world slide into autocracy, and nationalism and antidemocratic sentiment are on vivid display among segments of the American populace, Trump’s evident hostility to key…
