BILLINGS — President Donald Trump started his first day of his second term of the presidency by signing 26 executive orders. and that number has continued to grow.
It's a stark contrast to the first day of his first term in 2017 when he signed one executive order. The start of Trump's second term is also a departure from the beginning of the terms of his predecessors, who often saved their orders until later in their tenure.
“This is completely unprecedented. We've never seen anything even close to this," Montana State University of Billings political science professor Paul Pope told MTN News.
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Pope said an executive order is issued in relation to a law passed by Congress but cannot alter or "delete" a law.
“Executive orders are not in the Constitution and are not law. In fact, when a president issues an executive order, the only way it's legally functional is if it's attached to an existing statute, some law that already is out there,” Pope said on Wednesday. "He's offered zero legislation to Congress so far, and it's just been executive orders."
These orders can be overturned by Congress and the courts.
"They typically can be challenged in the courts. In some cases, it's even possible for civil servants to simply ignore them," Pope said. "Most of this stuff has to be fought out in the courts. So somebody files a lawsuit that is affected by these executive orders, harmed by them."
Alden Buck Elk is in his second year at MSU-Billings. He said he is keeping up with President Trump's orders as best as he can, because it impacts Buck Elk and his family.
“I care about our culture and our people,” Buck Elk said. “It's scary, like, you don't know what the future holds for us, none of us do.”
Buck Elk is Mexican and a Crow Tribal member. He has been carrying around his Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood card after multiple tribe leaders in Montana sent out guidelines on what to do if they are approached by law enforcement.
He also is concerned about what Trump's birthright citizenship executive order could mean.
“We don't know how far or how deep they'll dig into that birthright citizenship stuff. But if that goes away, my grandpa could be leaving, my mom could be leaving. I don't know about me,” Buck Elk said. “A lot of us are good people. Like I said, I'm from Crow, I moved up here and I love it. The last thing I'd hate is to be dropped out, kicked out, sent away.”
Pope said the birthright citizenship executive order is unconstitutional. More than 20 states have already sued to block it.
"Using the executive order to attempt to delete birthright citizenship from the 14th amendment. That is absolutely outside of the president's power in any sense. There's no legal standard that allows the president to do this. Article five of the US Constitution provides for the only ways we can modify the US Constitution. Executive order is not one of them," Pope said. "Part of our issue is Congress is not doing their due diligence in protecting their own powers."
Pope said the Constitution is clear on explaining that the president is not a lawmaker, and that legislation in an executive order is not a way that the Constitution can be modified.
"The freeze (of federal grants and other funding), if it was allowed to go forward, which it was obviously completely illegal to do in the first place, by Monday, Feb. 10, thousands of Montanans would have lost their job with no ability to recover their due pay for the work they've already done. Numerous nonprofits in Montana would have closed down," Pope said. "The president is constitutionally required to spend the money Congress has appropriated and spend it the way they have appropriated it. So any deviation from that is unconstitutional."
