(C) South Dakota Searchlight
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For SD's congressional delegation, it’s enable and deflect instead of advise and consent • South Dakota Searchlight [1]

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Date: 2025-02-26

The second Donald Trump administration is barely more than a month old and it’s already exhausting. The flurry of moves made by the president are designed to “flood the zone” to keep his detractors from focusing on any one thing he does amid an avalanche of executive orders meant to dismantle the federal government. All of this is taking place while South Dakota’s representatives in Washington are enabling the president’s wishes with legislation, casting votes for questionable nominees or agreeing with his off-the-wall plans.

With so much going on in the Trump administration, a recent South Dakota News Watch interview with Rep. Dusty Johnson seemed outdated by the time it appeared. In the interview, Johnson tried to explain why he offered legislation that would allow for the purchase of the Panama Canal. In an earlier South Dakota Searchlight story, Johnson explained that his bill would allow Trump to arrange for the purchase of the Panama Canal “if he could get a good deal.” That particular flight of the president’s fancy seems like old news now, way back in the days when he was looking lovingly at welcoming Canada or Greenland into the Union. Now the former real estate mogul is fixated on turning war-torn Gaza into some kind of Middle Eastern Riviera.

Trump’s plan is to push out the Palestinians that live there, forcing them on Jordan and Egypt before making the area a playground for rich folks. He obviously doesn’t see the irony in forcing thousands of refugees into countries that don’t want them while he has Kristi Noem’s Homeland Security working overtime here trying to ferret out immigrants living in the country illegally.

Here’s hoping Johnson doesn’t come up with legislation opening the way for Trump to get a “good deal” on the purchase of Gaza. His original bill seeking a purchase of the Panama Canal is the kind of enabling of bad ideas that Congress is doing too much of as the members of the Republican majorities in the House and Senate try to stay on Trump’s good side.

Johnson isn’t alone in his play to stay in the president’s good graces. His Republican compatriots in the House deflect questions about the president’s actions with praise for the way he is using executive orders to reshape the federal government. They claim that he’s just watching out for our tax dollars. Again, there is more irony-impairment at play as they fail to see that Trump’s funding cuts in scientific research, education and agriculture come from the very bills that were passed by Congress. So much for Congress having the power of the purse.

As the leader of the influential Main Street Caucus in the House, Johnson should be standing up for the traditional, legal role of Congress, not offering legislation that enables Trump’s latest flight of fancy.

Over in the Senate, another South Dakotan is likely seeing the wisdom of the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for.” Sen. John Thune, as the new majority leader of the Senate, has been the overseer of a party caught in Trump’s double-barreled plan to surround himself with sycophants while insulting a revered institution.

With the exception of the doomed candidacy of Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Thune, South Dakota’s Sen. Mike Rounds and their Republican colleagues have proven that they live in an alternate reality where the likes of Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are worthy to run the Pentagon, oversee the nation’s security agencies and serve as the next guardian of the nation’s health care.

By putting forth such lackluster candidates, Trump is surrounding himself with people who will do his bidding without question. He’s also sending a message to the Senate, that he can nominate any clod as a Cabinet secretary and the Senate will have to back his play, or else. This sets a disturbing trend for the time when Trump gets behind a particularly egregious piece of legislation and wants the Senate to continue to march in lockstep to do his bidding.

As expected, Noem, as a Trump appointee, is embracing the president’s ideas, going so far as to agree with his estimation that FEMA should be dismantled. It’s hard to name a federal office that’s taken it on the chin more in recent times as the emergency management agency deals with a seemingly never-ending cycle of wildfires, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. If FEMA goes away, let’s hope there’s a plan for how the federal government will help the victims of natural disasters.

Trump’s dismantling of government is taking place with the Republican majorities in Congress either cheering him on or huddled on the sidelines in silence. So far, it has been up to the courts to tamper down Trump’s many plans. If the day comes when Trump decides he doesn’t have to abide by the courts’ decisions, maybe then Congress will get back in the game.

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[1] Url: https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2025/02/26/for-sds-congressional-delegation-its-enable-and-deflect-instead-of-advise-and-consent/

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