trump executive order
According to Jon Schwarz in The Intercept, "There's not a lot that's funny about President Trump's January 27 executive order temporarily banning immigrants and refugees from seven majority Muslim countries. " Well, I beg to differ. The histrionics that have ensued since Trump signed the executive order temporarily limiting immigration from 7 Middle Eastern countries are fascinating, and - to my dark sense of humor - hilarious in a number of respects, not least that it has shocked people despite Trump saying while campaigning that he would do something pretty much exactly like that.

Schwarz continues:
But you have to admit this is a little funny: Trump's executive order appears to brazenly violate another executive order about how the government should issue executive orders.

It's sort of like the Supreme Court declaring the Constitution to be unconstitutional.

Trump Muslim Ban Executive Order Violated Executive Order About Executive Orders
Am I the only one who has noticed liberals' departure from reality of late? The whole point of executive orders is that the next president can override them, including an order on how to make orders - otherwise, a sitting president could just write an order that there will be no more executive orders.

The Intercept, in the past, may have stumbled on a few salient points. The law of large averages basically ensures that if you bark long and loud enough, you'll say something right. Glenn Greenwald, one of the founding editors of The Intercept, may have been on the up and up when backing Assange and Snowden, but ultimately Glenn sold his soul to the eBay founder and 'philanthropist' Pierre Omyidar.

So what exactly is Jon Schwarz saying? It seems he's found a serious flaw in President Trump's executive order. Terry Gilliam would be proud, because what Schwarz suggests (without a jot of proof) is that Trump's Order maybe, could have, violated an order put in place by John F. Kennedy. Made on January 19, 1962.
Trump's violation of 11030 goes way beyond improper margins, however. Section 2 begins, "A proposed Executive order or proclamation shall first be submitted ... to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget," which is part of the White House. If the director of the OMB approves the executive order, it goes to the Justice Department and then to the president.

But there's no sign Trump's immigration executive order was routed through the OMB at the start, and lots of evidence it wasn't.

Trump Muslim Ban Executive Order Violated Executive Order About Executive Orders
How much is lots?
No one at the Office of Management and Budget responded at all to repeated inquiries about whether it was first office to receive Trump's draft executive orders. The regular White House press office also did not respond. Notably, the OMB did not produce a one-paragraph "budgetary impact analysis" of Trump's January 27 executive order until January 30.

Trump Muslim Ban Executive Order Violated Executive Order About Executive Orders
The truth is: Schwarz called the OMB, and they didn't answer. Truly overwhelming. The real point here is that Schwarz is using this article as a springboard to advertize his disdain for Trump's administration. Consider this:
Of course, given all the grave potential flaws in Trump's executive order, contravening Executive Order 11030 is the least of it. ... "This could go into a claim that the government didn't follow its own rules, and that makes it capricious."

Trump Muslim Ban Executive Order Violated Executive Order About Executive Orders
Oh heaven forbid! The American Government, appearing capricious? Never.

Now here's where Schwarz shows his hand - and it's what Trump has been saying, and many others, all along. Schwarz has taken the executive order completely out of context. Here is the actual wording of the subsection of 11030 that he is attempting to hang his BS theory on:
Sec. 2. Routing and approval of drafts.

(a) A proposed Executive order or proclamation shall first be submitted, with seven copies thereof, to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, together with a letter, signed by the head or other properly authorized officer of the originating Federal agency, explaining the nature, purpose, background, and effect of the proposed Executive order or proclamation and its relationship, if any, to pertinent laws and other Executive orders or proclamations.

(b) If the Director of the Office of Management and Budget approves the proposed Executive order or proclamation, he shall transmit it to the Attorney General for his consideration as to both form and legality.

(c) If the Attorney General approves the proposed Executive order or proclamation, he shall transmit it to the Director of the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration: Provided, that in cases involving sufficient urgency the Attorney General may transmit it directly to the President; and provided further, that the authority vested in the Attorney General by this section may be delegated by him, in whole or in part, to the Deputy Attorney General, Solicitor General, or to such Assistant Attorney General as he may designate.

(d) After determining that the proposed Executive order or proclamation conforms to the requirements of Section 1 of this order and is free from typographical or clerical error, the Director of the Office of the Federal Register shall transmit it and three copies thereof to the President.

(e) If the proposed Executive order or proclamation is disapproved by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget or by the Attorney General, it shall not thereafter be presented to the President unless it is accompanied by a statement of the reasons for such disapproval.

Executive Order 11030 -- Preparation, presentation, filing, and publication of Executive orders and proclamations
The context of the section merely outlines the order of offices an order is sent too before it can be submitted from a federal agency to the President. It says nothing about the President asking advisers to draft him an executive order. Nor does the order imply ANY burden on the President himself to submit the bill to the OMB first.

That's not even to mention the fuzzy area set out later in said order here:
Sec. 5. Proclamations of treaties excluded.

Consonant with the provisions of Section 12 of the Federal Register Act (49 Stat. 503; 44 U.S.C. 1511), nothing in this order shall be construed to apply to treaties, conventions, protocols, or other international agreements, or proclamations thereof by the President.
If you follow U.S.C.1511, it is so worded as to be obscure, but can be interpreted as stipulating that, in regards to international matters, Trump can do whatever he damn well pleases.

Schwarz ends up inserting lots of pro-Establishment talking points to tranquilize the readers and assuage their fears about it being the end of the road for American imperialism. Well - it's all over but the crying, and oh how the liberal salt mines have opened. You have been weighed. You have been measured.

Far from going too far, Trump's administration conspicuously didn't go far enough, and others have noted this, including Fox firebrand Tucker Carlson. Why isn't Saudi Arabia on this list? Now, an argument can be made that Trump is buying time before 'draining the swamp', throwing certain factions a bone by omitting the largest and most corrupt supporter of terrorism in the Middle East, not to mention being a human rights violating candy-land, but that argument is a bit weak as it looks like Trump may succumb to D.C. factions and compromise on his campaign promises.

It's hard to call this one, as Trump's 3 latest moves, 1) Omitting Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, 2) Blasting Russia over Ukraine via Nikki Haley, and 3) saber-rattling against Iran, can equally be seen as selling out (even though he was always heavy on Iran, his weak sanctions posture looks conspicuously like Obama Redux) or buying time. Half a month into his administration, it's simply too soon to call it.