Friday on CNN’s “The Source,” political commentator Van Jones said President Donald Trump knocking down a portion of the White House to build a ballroom without reviews was taking America down the path to “being a banana republic.”
When asked about The National Trust for Historic Preservation lawsuit against the ballroom construction, Jones said, “This unitary executive fixation that basically says the president can do whatever the president wants to do, and it’s not just Congress that passes the bill that you’re talking about, these are bills signed by Congress, passed by Congress and signed by presidents that say, you have to do these things a certain way. We have a lawless president and a Supreme Court that’s enabling him.”
He added, “I just think that this is what we often hear from our Republican friends is I like the outcome so the process doesn’t matter. That’s what happens in an authoritarian country. That’s what happens with a dictatorship. It turns out the process does matter in a democracy, rules matter and democracy has something called rule of law. If you want to make America great again, how did America get great in the first place? Rule of law, free markets, everybody welcome if you follow the rules. If you have a lawless country, meaning the executive branch, whatever it wants to, you’re on the path to being a banana republic. So it’s not that people— maybe this big golden ball thing with golden toilets, I have no idea what he’s doing, maybe people will like it, but if it’s that great, why not follow the rules.”
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