Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley addressed concerns about the power and accountability in the White House during President Donald Trump’s term at a recent Lane County town hall. He touched on several state issues but mostly expressed the need for more bipartisan action in holding our government officials accountable.
Since taking office in 2009, Sen. Merkley has held town hall gatherings in each of Oregon’s 36 counties every year. At the Feb. 2 town hall, members of the public could ask a question or make a statement if their ticket number was randomly selected in a raffle.
Attendees expressed concerns about unchecked executive power and accountability now that Trump has taken office. One of the first questions addressed a fear that it may be the end of “the rule of law.” The rule of law essentially says that everyone, including government officials, must follow the same legislation.
Merkley said, “Let it not be so because we will resist.”
Merkley highlighted the way Trump poses a threat to the equal distribution of power in the executive branch. “Think about the fact that you have essentially a president who took an oath to the Constitution and hours later struck down the 14th Amendment birthright.”
Merkley continued, “Think about the fact that the law says that folks who are in an eight-year term on a commission cannot be fired, and the president fired them. Think about the fact the law says you have to give 30 days before retiring an inspector general, and they gave zero days, and on and on.”
In the press conference prior to the town hall, Merkley was asked what his main worries about the Trump administration are. He said, “My greatest fear is the authoritarian act. You wipe out the foundation of law, and that’s what’s happening right now… this is an extremely scary time because law is a framework that supports democracy from becoming autocracy, and that framework is being torn apart before our eyes.”
When asked what will be different in Trump’s second term, Merkley warned, “In the first term, President Trump had authoritarian inclinations, but he didn’t have a careful plan on how to implement that. Now, the think tanks have had four years to compile a very detailed plan on how to essentially create an authoritarian executive branch, authoritarian president.”
Project 2025 was written by The Heritage Foundation, a research institution promoting conservative public policy. It contains proposals looking to expand presidential powers and conservative agendas. Trump disavowed Project 2025 during his campaign, but several executive orders have already aligned with its agenda.
Merkley said, “So this very detailed plan, Project 2025, the plan that President Trump says he knew nothing about, is exactly what he knew everything about. It is the blueprint. It is the road map, and it is why Trump’s been able to issue 100 or so executive orders within a two-week period and take all kinds of other actions.”
One of Trump’s many executive orders overturned the ICE Sensitive Location Policy, originally signed in 2011. This policy limited Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from conducting enforcement actions in areas such as schools, hospitals, places of worship, public demonstrations, social service establishments and places where children gather, like playgrounds.
“We need to push back on that. We need to say, ‘Hell no.’ We don’t want ICE in our school lobbies and in our places of worship and so forth,” Merkley said. “And we also need to say we will stand by Oregon’s Sanctuary Law.” Under Oregon’s Sanctuary Promise Act, law enforcement can’t ask about immigration status or work with federal immigration authorities without a warrant.
Merkley warned the crowd about Russell Vought, “the architect for Project 2025,” who’s now director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was director of OMB during Trump’s first term.
“He is kind of the chief pusher of the idea of the power of the purse being transferred from Congress to the president. The president can only fund, and can fund only the programs the president wants, and not the ones Congress tells him or her to fund,” Merkley said. “So this is a very, very dangerous man, and I hope we can get members across the aisle, Republican colleagues, to join us to block his nomination.”
An audience member expressed worries about Elon Musk’s control over the new organization DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump created in an executive order on Jan. 20. According to the executive order, DOGE was established to “modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
Since being established, the organization has already unlawfully gained access to highly restricted government records on millions of government employees, as well as sensitive treasury data, including Social Security and Medicare.
“I do believe there are people who want to preserve the separation of power and the checks and balances. I also believe that my Republican colleagues right now are extremely cowardice. There is a sense of in the human spirit, of often trying to be part of the team,” Merkley said. “The president has created a very intimidating sense when he lined up those billionaires behind himself at the inauguration, and then he proceeded to tell Republican colleagues that if you’re not with me, Elon Musk will fund a massive primary against you.
“We need the partnership of people across the aisle to put the brakes on this out of control imperial presidency,” he said.
Merkley told the media, “An imperial presidency is not what our founders had in mind or not what our Republicans cultivated. It’s extraordinarily dangerous because an imperial presidency is just one small step away from being an authoritarian government, and no longer government by and for the people.”
Suzanne Leduc, a local veterinarian, says that she is aware that a part of the Trump administration’s plan is to create hopelessness, but after attending so many marches, she still isn’t sure if she is making a difference. Leduc asked, “What can we do? We’re here because we want to fight.”
After the audience’s applause died down, Merkley replied, “I think the only way we really derail this trade is for the public outcry to be so strong that a bunch of moderate Republicans say, ‘I feel comfort in joining the resistance.’”
Sen. Jeff Merkley’s next town hall meetings are 10 am Feb. 22 in Tillamook County, followed by a 2 pm town hall in Clatsop County, both with co-host Rep. Suzanne Bonamici. That will be followed by his independent appearance at a Columbia County town hall at 5 pm.
This story received support from the Local News Initiative at the Catalyst Journalism Project, based at the University Of Oregon School Of Journalism and Communication. For more, see CatalystJournalism.uoregon.edu.