Over the years, I have discussed the concept of our sloppy laws and Constitution. Congress is sloppy about writing laws and the Constitution itself have major sources of ambiguity. Also, because the English language tends to be imprecise, court decisions often leave room for varying interpretation. All of that fuels endless disagreements resolvable only by democratic compromise or authoritarian coercion or force. On top of that mess, humans in partisan politics mode are usually morally weak and more irrational than not. MAGA is the epitome of deceit-driven, irrational and immoral politics. That's little different from authoritarian fascism, communism and Christian theocracy were in their day.
A key hallmark of authoritarianism and kleptocracy is the rule of those in power instead of the rule of law. Dictators, theocrats and plutocrats all tell the world they obey the rule of law, but that is a flat out lie. They make the laws and enforce them as they see fit. A NYT article (not paywalled) discusses MAGA's tactic of disobeying court inconvenient decisions by finding or creating loopholes:
The Trump administration is systematically exploiting loopholes to effectively keep much of the president’s blanket spending freezes in place, accounts by officials and court filings show, despite restraining orders from judges who have told agencies to disregard the directives.
The administration’s strategy is to have political appointees embedded in various agencies invoke other legal authorities to pause spending, while posturing as if those officials had undertaken the efforts independent of President Trump’s original directives.
As we can all see, corrupt djt administration officials pay lip service to complying with the letter of the court orders while violating their spirit. This aggressive, nimble tactic shows allows the djt administration to keep funds blocked. Judge have to deal with enormous complexity when they try to compel the administration to release the money.
The NYT describes an example of djt's loophole tactic. This came in a declaration filed three days ago by MAGA thug Pete Marocco. Marocco is the appointee leading djt’s effort to get rid of the USAID by imposing a freeze on nearly all foreign aid spending. In the declaration Marocco said USAID officials were told not to enforce a court order releasing funds that had been frozen by djt. The money is still blocked because the agency’s payment system is nonfunctional. Thus it is impossible to keep humanitarian aid money flowing.
Corrupt MAGA thug Morocco
That is not a legal loophole in the court order to unfreeze the money. But it is a subversion tactic implemented by sabotage. Here, the djt administration made a way to blow off a federal court order. The MAGA excuse is that djt wants tighter control over federal spending and is implementing new payment procedures. That is why payments cannot be made. The same tactic is being applied elsewhere. Other domestic grant programs are now also broken because the systems that allow them to draw down on the funds have remained inaccessible.
The depth and breadth of MAGA's cynical authoritarian intent and insulting mendacity cannot be much clearer. The rule of law is under direct attack and federal judges are incapable of fighting back so far. Of course, some are secretly complicit.
