Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Why Trump's Orders Are Ringing Hollow

Jonathan Bernstein's morning links.

May 5, 2017 at 10:59 AM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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If there was a catch of the day Thursday, it would have to go to the ACLU for their reaction to Donald Trump's executive action on "religious freedom" issues:

While I and others have made this observation before, a lot of media outlets still haven't caught on that the bulk of Trump's executive actions so far have been little more than elaborate photo ops. Not all of them! But many have been things that other presidents would have done informally, with a public statement or with a private conversation to an executive branch department or agency. The other interesting thing is that Christian conservative groups, which did not get what they wanted out of Trump in this case, appear ready to play along with him. Perhaps they're just happy with his Supreme Court pick? It's not clear, but one important thing to watch going forward is how much leeway they and other Republican-aligned groups are willing to give this president.