Federal judge delivers serious blow to Donald Trump’s acting DHS chief Chad Wolf
Yesterday Palmer Report noted that even Acting DHS boss Chad Wolf, a notorious Trump loyalist, was suddenly defying Donald Trump’s order to fire a DHS official who admitted that voting machines had not been hacked. We wondered what had gotten into Wolf.
Now a judge has ruled that Trump’s appointment of Wolf as Acting head of DHS was illegal to begin with, and struck down Wolf’s anti-immigrant policies accordingly. This doesn’t automatically boot Wolf out of office. But it does lay the legal groundwork to invalidate any move he makes going forward.
Perhaps Chad Wolf saw this ruling coming, and didn’t see a point in firing the DHS guy, when the courts would merely end up ruling against him again, and reinstate the guy. In any case, it appears Wolf is now unwilling and/or unable to do Trump’s bidding between now and January 20th.
Now comes the question of whether Trump will fire Wolf, having no further use for him. But in such case Trump would be legally blocked from simply installing another stooge from outside the line of succession as acting DHS head, and would likely get stuck with an honest broker as DHS head instead. Trump may have to stick with Wolf, neutered as he may be.
