Gray Area - Rex Jones & Tim Tompkins - How the Executive Powers Silently Grew

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Nov. 5, 2025 - Gray Area - Rex Jones & Tim Tompkins

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How the Executive Powers Silently Grew | Gray Area LIVE

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rex jones

14:07

tim tompkins

19:49

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		An executive order isn't a law, but it can carry the weight of one.
		An executive order is something the president issues without consultation or permission from Congress.
		They are, however, enforced like laws and are subject to judicial review by the court system to make sure they're within the limits of the Constitution.
		That means the courts have the power to invalidate any executive decisions that they determine are an overreach of the president trying to assert power.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Oh, they do.
unidentified		President leaves office.
unidentified		If his or her successor wants to eliminate the executive order, they can do so.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		They never do this.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Trump did it to Biden a lot.
unidentified		When does a president use an executive order?
		Sometimes a president feels the need to exert power without working with Congress.
		And in times of crisis, quick decisions can be justified.
		But most executive orders are not responses to emergencies.
		They're often directed towards agencies in the federal government in order to expand or monetize their power.
		Others determine the extent to which legislation should be enforced.
		And sometimes a president may use an executive order to clarify and help implement a policy that needs to be easily defined.
		Some of the most famous executive orders have changed the course of American history.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		The thing that is the biggest of them all is the executive order, right?
		Executive order is essentially, you know, what most presidents have used in order to set the standard for whatever things that they want.
		As you can see on this chart, guys, this is the executive orders within the first 100 days of office.
		Now, Trump really set a record with this guy, okay?
		When he came in in 2025, I think the number was something crazy.
		I don't remember what the exact number, but I think it was over 100 executive orders.
		Now, he didn't pass as many as FDR, but he enacted them very, very quickly.
		And you look at the first time in 2017, he didn't really try to, you know, push the needle too much.
		I think he was just focused on doing things and figuring things out.
		Americans expect presidents to fix everything.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Right.
		You've got gas prices when things happen with gas prices.
		They're like, go do something about it.
		When we talk about natural disasters, you know, that's the president.
		That's the president trying to step in.
		And it's the pressure, it's the pressure that we create from these situations that say, okay, we need immediate action.
		And so that's where, you know, we've given agency to the presidency to be like, okay, well, you said go do something about it.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Here's my answer.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Right.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		So you wanted me to fix it.
		I had to pass the law taking everyone's rights away.
		I had to do it.
		They wouldn't let me do it any other way.
		Let me tell you, I said, Donna, can I do it any other way?
		And she said no.
		So I had to do it.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		That was so good.
		Dude, the little last ending.
		Oh, I love that.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Dude, I mean, I had to do it.
		It's a fact.
		People, they get upset at me.
unidentified		They say, Donald, why did you have to strike the person in the boat?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		And I said, he had drugs.
		He had the fentanyl.
		He had fentanyl that was so big.
		Such a big fentanyl he had.
unidentified		And we had all right, guys.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		You know, I love doing these.
		I love our props.
		I really do love our props.
		All right.
		So this one is going to be about the rise of the presidency and the executive branch.
		Okay.
		So here's the thing.
		We all know we've had these crazy things happening like the no kings protest and years people about the overreach of branch and about it is, you know, which side of the aisle it is.
		The founding father didn't want another king.
		And whatever Trump, I still, you know, I don't, I have my own opinions, but overall, I did vote for him.
		So, you know, ultimately, the founders, they didn't want another king and they wanted a leader who could act fast, but never rule alone, which is why we had the first government that built the presidency strong enough, but just weak enough in order for us to, in order for them to be stopped.
		So we're going to look at this first picture here.
		This is going to be the second article in the Constitution that lays out the executive branch.
		And I'll do like a quick summary.
		We're not going to read all of this, but this gives you a breakdown of what the founding fathers had intended for this.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Let me read it real quick.
unidentified		Yeah.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Clause one, there shall be an executive branch of the government.
		This power for this branch is held by a president of the United States.
		His term of office will be four years, and so will the term of the vice president.
		This is how he will be elected.
		Clause two, each state will have a number of electors to choose the president.
		The number of electors for a state is equal to the total number of senators and representatives the state has in Congress.
		Senators and representatives may not be electors.
		Also, no one who holds an office of trust or profit with the United States government may be an elector.
		This is interesting because like everyone's like, oh, I know this.
		The president's in there for four years.
		Let's actually read what this says.
		Even if it's a little bit on kind of the boring side, it's still very important for us to go through and know.
		Only a person who is born in the United States, sorry, Ted Cruz, may become president of the United States.
		The president must be 35 years of age or older.
		He must have lived inside the United States for at least 14 years.
		Clause six, the vice president shall have the powers of the president and do the president's jobs in case the president is removed from office.
		Hello, JD, or he dies or resigns or is unable to do the job.
		Congress may make a law saying we shall do the president's job and have his powers in case both the president and vice president are removed from office, die or resign or aren't able to do the job.
		The person shall act as president until the president is able to do the job or the vice president is able to serve as president or until a new president is elected.
		Clause eight, the president shall take an oath of office before he takes over his job.
		That's the oath.
		President should be in charge of the army, supreme, like commander in chief.
		President shall have the power to make treaties.
		President shall appoint ambassadors.
		Okay, it's good.
		I didn't know like the letter of the law of all that stuff.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, so I mean, you've covered some of them, but the overall thing that people need to understand, what's laid out, president is commander-in-chief.
		They declare, they direct military, but Congress is actually the one that declares war.
		They have the pardons and reprieves so they can forgive or delay punishment.
		A reprieve is a little bit different than a pardon.
		A reprieve, it's not used as much, but essentially, like if somebody's on death row, a president can come in and say, okay, well, you know, we can extend that out so that the death penalty doesn't happen within the timeframe, but it doesn't exonerate them of the crime.
		It just delays it.
		You've got treaties and appointments, negotiations.
		You know, they are doing that, but the Senate's approval for those treaties.
		State of the Union, they report to Congress and they recommend action.
		Veto power, that's a very big one where they can block bills, but then Congress, if they get enough votes, can override that.
		You've got, you know, take care clause, which they must faithfully enforce the laws.
		Impeachment.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		I am the chosen.
unidentified		Yeah.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		And they include that.
		And then they include the impeachment clause where they can be removed for abusing power.
		That one's been used a little bit loosely within the last two decades, depending on which presidents, you had the Clinton situation.
		You had obviously Trump try to get impeached while he was in there the first time.
		But ultimately, there's a bunch of tools that the president was given.
		And so let's pull up this next chart here.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		You got it.
		Oh, well, boy, isn't that nice?
		It seems like the job has changed.
		It seems like they have a Ukrainian flag.
		You know, that's how little it is down on the left for before 1939.
		And then 1940 beyond.
		I mean, look, we had to do World War II.
		The president had to have more power.
		Oh, Vietnam, really bad.
		Korean war, really bad.
		President has to have more power.
		And then on and on and on and on.
		That's crazy.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, the number is insane.
		That is going to be the last thing we cover.
		That's the executive agreement.
		And you have hit the nail on the head with that one.
		But on the left side, pay attention to this list because these are the things that the tools that the president is able to use these days.
		So you have what's called the bully pulpit.
		Not a lot of people talk about this, but it's essentially like the direct communication that became power.
		So like from FDRs, fireside chats to social media, presidents can use Congress, can use the social media to essentially pressure Congress and shape opinion because they have the ability to speak out to the audience.
		And so, you know, it's really about whatever the president wants to talk about, especially with the agenda setting.
		The president can decide what the country talks about.
		They have the ability to form the state of the union and give daily news cycles and the national congress.
		I mean, and they're able to set the national conversation before Congress even acts on something.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
		And even more than that, now we've seen that applied to crypto and like things like the global market.
		You know, it's a whole new dimension to it that was never really possible before because our economy is so stock market and market based, ultimately, the president is able to go out there and just move things around.
unidentified		Right.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Because you saw like the tweet he makes and then crypto crashes like 10 or 15 percent from him saying, I'm going to give tariffs.
		Now, here's the thing about that.
		If you look at Congress, you know, you've got a couple famous people like AOCs and the, you know, Cruz.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		But most people don't know who their Congress people are.
unidentified		Right.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
		Guys, there's hundreds of congressional people and most people don't know who they are and they don't know.
		They don't really have social media presence.
		So ultimately, people go to get their news on what's going to happen in the government from the executive branch.
		And it's basically whatever he says or whatever he tweets out on Truth Social and not just Trump, but all presidents, people pay attention for these things.
		And that's one of the things that they use for power.
		So another thing is, is they are the de facto leader of their party, right?
		So the president becomes the commander and center for both political parties.
		So they're really in charge of that fundraising, endorsements, messaging.
		And the biggest thing is that party loyalty.
		So even though you have Congress, they still get in line because the president is ultimately the leader of that party.
		And if you have both the House and the Senate, what can you do?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
		And this is why, you know, like European countries, they have a parliamentary government and they have a bunch of major and minor parties and the seats are all kind of sprinkled around.
		But here in America, the legislative is supposed to be a check on the executive.
		But the way it ends up working out, like you're describing, is you have the party leader.
		And as long as the party has the majority, there is no check or balance.
		It's just approval.
unidentified		Right.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		And the thing that people don't realize is the president behind closed doors, he's going when a vote goes to the floor that he wants passed, he's making calls to other people.
		He's making calls to this representative.
		Oh, you're not going to vote for us?
		Well, you can kiss Jimmy going to college.
		You know, there's things like that that happen behind the scenes that people don't see.
		And there's the aggression because everyone is scared of, you know, the president has some real power when it comes to making decisions from the cabinet perspective as well as different agencies.
		So the last one is the executive agreements.
		Now, look at that right side of the chart there.
		You can see that top portion, that orange is what we were paying attention to.
		And so essentially what an executive agreement is, they deal with another country and essentially skip Congress.
		And essentially, it acts as almost like it covers defense, trade, environment.
		You know, it can all be directly signed by the president.
		And so think of it as like a mini treaty, essentially.
		It's the same thing.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		But it's unilaterally done.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		It's unilaterally done.
		Exactly.
		And the thing is, you look at the 13,000 agreements on the right versus the 800, you know, that were passed in 1940.
		I mean, it's dramatically different.
		Before it was a little bit more balanced, and now it's just like treaties don't even exist.
		And that's because presidents see it as like a fast and flexible and easy way.
		And you know what's crazy?
		These executive agreements are rarely overturned.
		Right.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		So what's the process of that happening?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Another president has to go in there and reneg on the deal?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, he can do that.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		I mean, you think about what China, the situations with China and agreements that we had with that during Biden, Trump rolls those back.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		This is the whole problem with government is that past presidents and past administrations and past legislative bodies, they make these deals that have, you know, decades and decades and decades long ramifications.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		It's like, well, we were trying to do this, but now we're trying to do this other thing.
unidentified		Right.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		And then we're trying to do this other thing.
		And in the meanwhile, every time they've pushed themselves further away from that one thing and they push themselves further away on another thing.
		And then you have this discombobulated government, right?
		Where, you know, I hear about this talked about a lot on the war front.
		It's like we operate tactically instead of strategically.
		Like we're playing checkers, they're playing chess sort of thing.
		It's just like, what is the next move of this like crazed animal that is the United States government?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Exactly.
		The thing that is the biggest of them all is the executive order, right?
		Executive order is essentially, you know, what most presidents have used in order to set the standard for whatever things that they want.
		As you can see on this chart, guys, this is the executive orders within the first hundred days of office.
		Now, Trump really set a record with this guy.
		Okay.
		When he came in in 2025, I think the number was something crazy.
		I don't remember what the exact number, but I think it was over 100 executive orders.
		Now, he didn't pass as many as FDR, but he enacted them very, very quickly.
		And you look at the first time in 2017, he didn't really try to push the needle too much.
		I think he was just focused on doing things and figuring things out.
		But let's watch this clip that shows us how the executive orders, what they are, how they work, because it's nice to understand what they actually are because we don't really talk about these things.
		And everyone kind of spews out the word executive order.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		I'm closing these.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		And they don't actually really dive into what is that ability and what is it laid out in the Constitution.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		So let's pull up the clip number one there.
unidentified		The framers of the American Constitution made the power of the executive order available to the executive branch.
		But what exactly is this tool?
		How does it work?
		And what is the extent of its power?
		Well, an executive order isn't a law, but it can carry the weight of one.
		Passing laws involves a fairly lengthy process.
		First, a member of Congress proposes a piece of legislation in the form of a bill.
		After many committees and revisions, if the bill is approved by a majority of votes in Congress, that is, both the House and Senate, the bill is then sent to the president for signature.
		If the president signs the bill, it then becomes a law.
		An executive order, on the other hand, is something the president issues without consultation or permission from Congress.
		They are, however, enforced like laws and are subject to judicial review by the court system to make sure they're within the limits of the Constitution.
		That means the courts have the power to invalidate any executive decisions that they determine are an overreach of the president trying to assert power.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Oh, they do.
unidentified		And once the president leaves office, if his or her successor wants to eliminate the executive order, they can do so.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		They never do this.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Trump did it to Biden alone.
unidentified		So when does a president use an executive order?
		Sometimes a president feels the need to exert power without working with Congress.
		And in times of crisis, quick decisions can be justified.
		But most executive orders are not responses to emergencies.
		They're often directed towards agencies in the federal government in order to expand or monitor their power.
		Others determine the extent to which legislation should be enforced.
		And sometimes a president may use an executive order to clarify and help implement a policy that needs to be easily defined.
		Some of the most famous executive orders have changed the course of American history.
		FDR issued an executive order to establish the Works Progress Administration, which helped build thousands of roads, bridges, and parks throughout the country.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		And we still see those today.
unidentified		Executive orders have often been used in positive and inclusive ways, but they've also been used to exclude and divide.
		One of the most notable examples being FDR's 1942 executive order.
		He gave the military authority to target predominantly Japanese as well as German internment and Italian Americans regions across the country.
		This executive order also any or all of those people military zones known as internment.
		Beginning in the early 1960s, each president has issued roughly 300 executive orders, but FDR issued over 3,500.
		At the other end of the spectrum, William Henry Harrison never issued an executive order, probably because his presidency only lasted 31 days.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Rip Bozo.
unidentified		The U.S. Constitution is somewhat ambiguous on the extent of the president's power.
		And that's resulted in executive orders expanding over time.
		For instance, since Lyndon Johnson, presidents have begun issuing orders to create faith-based initiatives, establish federal agencies, and remove barriers for scientific research.
		There are checks and balances in the U.S. Congress can pass laws.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		I'm not sure.
		I'm not sure if it was an executive order or something.
		It was something they got through Congress.
		It may have been a combination of both or Trump heavily helped or whatever, but people that were basically terminally ill, right?
		And like the treatments that were available weren't working.
		They did a bunch of like experimental treatment stuff during the first Trump administration.
		I remember that pretty well.
		But yeah, I mean, it's set up this way.
		And we have FDR come in and we have him say, okay.
		No, I will in a second.
		This one?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		The executive chair.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, that one.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		I got you.
unidentified		All right.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Keep going.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Well, here, I'm just going to go to it now because that's what you want.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		So if you look at this graph and it's misleading, don't pay attention to that.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		143.
		So the 143 here, it's just showing like how quick how many executive orders were passed.
		Now, Trump hasn't been in for four years, right?
		So he has passed 143, and this is up until April.
		So the number looks massive compared to FDR's 3,700, but the chart is, you know, we're looking at this also.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		FDR wasn't also, wasn't the only big boy.
		It looks like Herbert Hoover passed over a thousand.
		It looks like Calvin Coolidge or one of them, like over 500.
		Like there have been instances where there's been a president that's like, yeah, I'm really going to utilize this system to do what I want.
		And, you know, Herbert Hoover was considered a giant disappointment and like they had a bunch of stuff on them.
		And it was a real, real crazy time.
		But Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, that's around the time some of the intelligence agencies start to form.
unidentified		Right.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yes.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		And that was directives by them.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
		So you see those larger numbers.
		And that has a lot to do with it, in my opinion, because that's when we first started seeing that modern infrastructure be built versus passed.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		And there was controversial stuff like over the Hoover Dam.
		I really need to do a deep dive in this.
		When I went to Vegas a couple of weeks ago, you know, I just started looking up like, you know, Hoover Dam.
		I went to it.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		It was pretty cool in the desert.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, it was the Hoover Dam was cool, but like there was a lot of people that died and there was like a lot of controversies around it.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		So that's one thing I want to do in a deep dive.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		But that 37, a ton of people made money off of that.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		For sure, man.
		The thing is massive.
		And the amount of like infrastructure that you need for that.
		I don't even know how we did it.
		But that 3,700 amount is a real number, guys.
		FDR, you know, he became president during the Great Depression.
		So this was when like Congress was frozen and they had all of these programs and, you know, they weren't able to pass things.
		So he comes in and he's like, you know what?
		I'm just going to start passing executive orders.
		And also, he also did the same thing during later during World War II.
		Now he did die very early on, but he served four terms, guys.
		And this was before the two-term law was passed.
		But he was our president for like over 12 years.
		Right.
		So, you know, that spike is just absolutely insane.
		But it just really goes to show, you know, the thing about Congress is, you know, that process where you got to get a bill in front of the people, go through the committee.
		That's only a bill.
		And I'm sitting in a capital hill.
		Well, I'm along.
		Yeah, like you watch those videos.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Impressive.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Dude, my mom used to play those on a replay.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Who else rock is really good?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Who else rock?
		Yeah, that's a classic.
		But the whole point of that is it takes forever for laws to get passed.
		Right.
		So the reaction time from when you need, you know, relief money, like I understand the concept of what they were trying to do with the presidency of like, okay, somebody needs to be able to act quickly and we need to not take, you know, going through the T's and C's and taking, you know, six months to solve an issue that needs to be solved like tomorrow, right?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		But then it just kind of, you know, they say, oh, there's a check on the executive orders, but do you know you still have to go through the same voting process and have a majority rule against that executive order, which also takes forever, not to mention Supreme Court, right?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		How long do Supreme Court take cases take?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		A long time.
		And it can take even a longer time for them to hear something because it'll go to a lower court first and then it's got to go through the whole process.
		And that's how the whole game is played.
		So even if something is struck down or deemed illegal, it takes months and months to do it.
		And at the point of, you know, the thing being a rapid response to some issue or problem that's been created, the deed's already been done.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		It's already been done.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Back retroactively, like this is now illegal, but it's already been done.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Right.
		And so you think about the implications of what happened every time you make a huge executive order.
		Let's say he president throws out a hundred.
		How long do you think it's going to take for those hundred to get legally vetted to see what we can overthrow?
		It's just sheer numbers.
		You overwhelm the system with whatever you want, and there's going to be some things that are just going to stick, essentially.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		That's an excellent point.
		Overwhelming the system, and that's what we look at with this executive order per day thing.
		You know, we've got massive numbers of them before, but you know, before FDR, Great Depression, a whole lot of governmental agencies being set up, including the intelligence agencies.
		That makes sense for that time period.
		But he's just kind of flooding the zone, as they say.
		He's making it so, hey, these courts, you're going to get me with them.
		I don't think so.
		I'm going to do so much stuff that there's no possible way for you to even do anything about this since it's almost out of time.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		He's coming out with an executive order over one a day, right?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Like one point.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		I like this one.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		This one is good.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		And here's the thing: there's so many that are coming out with each president.
		You guys got to understand, you don't hear about 99% of the executive orders that are released, right?
		So you only hear about the really controversial ones, but you don't hear about the ones that are a little hush-hush under the table that just passed something.
		Now, there are some really good ones.
		You know, like Clinton did one in the 90s, which allowed people who had medical care from the government, they used to have to go to these like shitty, basically like parenthood, parenthood, you know, just for welfare and minorities.
		They couldn't go to the ones that actually had good doctors.
		And so he passed an executive order that allowed, like, I was part of that program.
		Like, I was able to go to like the pediatrics that was around the corner from my house.
		That was a really good one because of something executive order.
		So I can't whack at the whole system, but it's just gotten out of control.
		And then also, the wars.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Any other thing to show him?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, this is going to be the next one that we're going to go.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Let's watch the second video, which is commander-in-chief was never supposed to be allowed to declare war without Congress, but we've been doing a lot of these little mini, mini escapades.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Let's learn about the war powers.
unidentified		The year was 1973.
		Richard Nixon was president of the United States, and U.S. troops had been fighting in Vietnam for nearly 18 years, all without an official declaration of war.
		This prompted Congress to pass the War Powers Resolution of 1973, preventing any future president from involving the U.S. in an undeclared war.
		Congress had traditionally declared war or authorized the president to use military force against enemies beyond its borders, a power granted exclusively to them by Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
		The War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, these were all declared by Congress.
		But after World War II, things got a bit fuzzy.
		Some presidents started taking military liberties with their role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, a power also granted by the Constitution.
		In 1950, President Harry Truman sent U.S. troops to help defend South Korea against North Korean invaders.
		He called it a police action.
		So technically, it wasn't a war.
		In 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent supplies and military advisors to South Vietnam.
		Less than a year later, U.S. troops were fighting in the Vietnam War, including in the Gulf of Tonkin, all without that official declaration.
		And then in 1969, President Richard Nixon began bombing Cambodia in secret, hiding missions from both Congress and the American people.
		It took more than a year for this information to leave to the public.
		And it wasn't until 1973 that Congress ordered an immediate end to the bombing raids.
		But at this point, Congress realized more needed to be done to check the power of the president when it came to war.
		So on November 7th, 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution.
		The idea was to ensure that Congress and the president agreed on war actions before committing troops into hostile situations.
		There are a few key parts to the war powers resolution.
		First, the president must consult and report to Congress before sending troops overseas, though he or she can initiate sending troops in the case of an attack.
		Second, if the president initiates a hostile action, it can only last for 60 days plus a 30-day withdrawal period.
		Then, Congress has to vote on whether it can continue, unless Congress can't meet because of an attack on the U.S. mainland.
		And finally, if forces have been deployed that aren't acting on a declaration of war, the president must remove them at direction of Congress.
		Although the War Powers Resolution had broad bipartisan support, it didn't pass without a fight.
		After they voted to pass the bill, President Nixon vetoed it.
		Nixon argued that it violated the constitutional powers of the president and that the only way to limit the president's role as commander-in-chief would be to amend the Constitution itself.
		But Congress voted again and overrode the veto.
		The war powers resolution became law.
		Despite the resolution, presidents in Congress have still been at odds when it comes to military action.
		In 1981, President Ronald Reagan deployed several U.S. military advisors to El Salvador without reporting to Congress.
		Some members of Congress filed a federal lawsuit, but the court dismissed the case.
		In the 90s, President Bill Clinton sent forces to Kosovo, and troops remained there for more than the 60-day limit.
		This resulted in another lawsuit from members of Congress, but once more, the federal court refused to intervene.
		So while the war powers resolution has limited the president's ability to send troops overseas, the branches of government still wrestle over their powers, which is exactly what the nation's founders intended.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		You tell me, you think it's working now?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Definitely not.
		I think what's happened now is we fucked around and we found out because it's up to the president pretty much unilaterally now to decide what happens.
		And that war powers act, I guess, you know, maybe we can't do something directly, but we can pass the money to get the thing through and just have other people do it.
		Right.
		So that's where we're at now.
		And, you know, I wonder like if he'll issue an executive order regarding the Venezuela situation for, you know, the targeted military objective.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, because the justification is the emergency of the drugs, right?
unidentified		Yeah.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		The emergency of the drugs, it's killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
		We have to go in and I have the authority to go in, but it's going to be a limited thing.
		And then we get into a full war type situation and then Trump literally just throws his hands up and goes, I didn't know it was going to happen like this.
		I didn't know.
unidentified		But it was supposed to be just a military voice.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		This is worse than we thought.
		That's what he'll say.
		He'll be like, this is worse than we thought.
		It's a really bad situation.
unidentified		Really, really bad.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		People are saying it.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		I'm not the only one saying it.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
		Just to answer you, Pat, yes, we are live streaming on Rumble on YouTube and Rumble.
		You can find those links on the gray area link in the bio.
		If you click on Rex's, you'll see that gray area talks.
		Go look in the bio.
		You'll see those live streaming there.
		So you can watch off X if you need to.
		But ultimately, to wrap this section up, you know, the reason why the powers keep growing is, you know, crisis creates permission, right?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Ooh, yes.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		You know, every national emergency since the Great Depression, you have 9-11, you've got COVID.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		It gives presidents a reason to act first and then ask questions later.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
		And then the country basically, it's basically forcing the nation, forcing the U.S., whatever governmental system is in charge.
		Like when you get into an armed conflict and there are Americans dying, it's like, well, you know, like, what are you going to do?
		Yeah.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Are you anti-American?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Do you not want to protect our country?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		And then some old congressperson come out and go, our boys are dying down there.
		They're dying in that.
		They're dying against this damn Venezuelans.
		And, you know, they're bringing the fentanyl here.
		And we won't pass this declaration of war through the Congress because the Democrats are weak.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Well, and the thing about Congress is they willingly hand away power, right?
		Modern laws are often delegated to like broad authority to the executive branch.
		Yes, it allows them to fill in the details and let these agencies decide what to do with it.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Exactly right.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		And like we were talking about earlier, also another reason is the courts usually defer as well.
		You know, like you saw in that clip, you know, they ruled, hey, you can't just declare this war.
		Federal court strikes it down and says, ah, he can do this.
		There's nothing you can do about it.
		But ultimately, the Supreme Court rulings since the Cold War have expanded to executive privilege.
		They're essentially justifying a lot of these actions.
		And so the judges are hesitant to intervene with like, you know, during political wartime, especially as we've identified a true enemy, essentially.
		And so then also the other thing about the president to keep growing media amplifier.
		So we've gone from radio and television that's 24-7.
		Any statement, tweet, every address moves markets.
		It moves policy before Congress even has a chance.
		You know, the AOC could be sleeping in her bed at like midnight and Trump tweets something out.
		And then suddenly, you know, we're all the way out in the middle of this expedition trying to do something over there.
		And then none of these people have the ability to actually react.
		AOC is a bad example because I don't really like it.
		But it's just the whole point.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Well, I take your point and it makes a lot of sense to me.
		Ultimately, we're living in an age of access journalism, never before imagined, where you're able to take like these cable news hosts or, you know, kind of just like even the people on Twitter, people that got those Epstein files that weren't real.
		You're able to take them and then essentially make them a part of the political party.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yes.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
		So then the media becomes party affiliated and it's all one big giant thing.
		Whereas before, I don't know, like the president goes on one of the three channels and makes an announcement.
		But in the modern age, it's not even a president going to like the truth social.
		Yeah.
		It's it's the constant posting done by the people, quote unquote, on the team.
		They even say this.
		They're like, well, you know, we're on the team.
		And like, what does that mean?
		Like, what, what team are we on?
		We're on the American people side.
		Yeah, yeah, of course, of course.
		But, you know, the Republican Party is very important, son.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Right, right, right.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		You're like, oh, okay, all right.
		But like, how are the Republicans any different than the Democrats?
		They're both spending money and leading us to ruin in various wars.
		Both sides are warlike.
		And they go, well, look, you know, there are some things that have to happen because we have special interests.
		You know, we have these people that helped us out and, you know, we care about them and they care about us.
		And you wouldn't want to put Americans out of jobs.
		Would you, son?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		No, you wouldn't, son.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		That's exactly what they say.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		And then it's just like, oh, well, you know, I guess it's okay to push the narrative because it's for the good of the country.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Right.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		When in fact, ultimately, it's all about the checks and balances on government.
		And the people that are supposed to cover such news are just, you know, high-fiving and clapping and applauding for the current situation that's going on.
		You know, media and journalism in this country has always been controlled to a degree and the government's always been heavily involved in that.
		But living in an age where people consider reality to be what's on the phone and considering the people that are posting all the time are paid to post, not necessarily in money, but in access to the team, the Cool Kids Club.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		That's that's what you hit the nail on that.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		And that's why, Tim, that's why they treat them with such utter importance, right?
		Like, why is Benny Johnson right on the plane with Trump?
		Well, because Benny Johnson inspires millions of people to vote for Trump.
		So, you know, Benny Johnson isn't setting policy.
		He's not making any big decisions.
		But at the end of the day, he's building that popular support.
		He's farming it for Trump to be able to do these things.
		And dozens of other people are doing this, by the way.
		And, you know, a lot of things get done for these people.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, it's one big circle jerk because here's the thing.
		No matter which side you're on, you know, if you go where the power is, there's always some monetary compensation on the back end or some type of power that comes from just being associated.
		Because imagine the rooms that Benny Johnson is in now, right?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Where people are like, oh, you have somewhat of a direct communication to the president.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		You must be very important.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Let's give you deals.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Let's give you money.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Let's give you access.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Hear about this crypto thing.
unidentified		Yeah.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Like, I mean, look, we're not making any accusations.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		It's all speculation.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Speculation.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		There are tons of people like this.
		Basically, anyone that held up the binder with the Epstein stuff that wasn't real and there is no right.
		So we're going to give you all a bunch of binders on a person that we're then going to say never trafficked anyone.
		And like that was the narrative.
		But look, those people will do their job and they'll do their job well because it's so nice.
		You know, like you are, get to play hero, get to act like a soldier or something when in fact you're just a politico.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Right.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		And, you know, the cable news people have more honor and nobility than those people because at least the cable news is like, I'm an institution and I support XYZ.
		But then you literally got a dude like Cat Turd on his phone.
		And just because he can farm engagement money, just because he can get paid off of what he posts, the beauty of it is the president doesn't even have to give him any benefit because he's benefiting off of the engagement of the president.
		And this is why the Trump time is so unique.
		And I think we're going to look back at this time in like half a decade or a decade and be like, wow, that was real magic in the air because these things that are going on, they won't exist in the time of JD Rubio, AOC Bernie.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, let's kind of go back to the more proper sense of that.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Well, I mean, Trump has just drawn everyone to the internet all the time.
		No one has a neutral opinion of the guy.
		You can't find a single person who's like, eh, Trump, kind of, you know, uninteresting guy.
		Everyone loves him or hates him.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		I'm actually one of those people that's in the middle, though.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Well, it's the gray area.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		It is the gray area.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		But at the end of the day, most people aren't like you in that regard.
		Most people are very passionate one way or the other about the dude.
		And me personally, I'm sick of the dude.
		I wish the dude would do his job and shut up and go away.
		But we're stuck with what we have now.
		But my point being, someone like Cat Turd that's probably making this speculation, maybe like high hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars off of his association, which is being the pro-Trump guy, when the MAGA goes away, they'll try to revive it.
		They'll try to keep it the same, but they're going to run just a MA-flavored campaign with an establishment Republican, and people are going to eat it up and they're going to love it.
		And they're going to be like, this is the same thing for a thousand years.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		I'm numb.
		No migrants.
		Nom.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Eating the slop.
		And then all the while it'll be run even worse.
		And that's what, that's the deal Trump made is he said, hey, as long as I get to be the leader of this political party and I take it over and I win, whatever that means, not the country winning, not Americans winning, not American prices going down.
		If I can win and just be the guy that everyone likes now because I'm a part of the system and the system accepts me, he really is the perfect fit for it.
		The only problem is he's too old.
unidentified		Yeah.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		And the thing about the whole aspect of everything when it comes to the presidency and the power that they're given, a lot of it comes down to also the public, too.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		We're also partly responsible for giving up power because Americans expect presidents to fix everything.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
unidentified		Right.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		You've got gas prices when things happen with gas prices.
		They're like, go do something about it.
		When we talk about natural disasters, you know, that's the president.
		That's the president trying to step in.
		And it's the president, it's the pressure that we create from these situations that say, okay, we need immediate action.
		And so that's where, you know, we've given agency to the presidency to be like, okay, well, you said go do something about it.
		Here's my answer for it.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		So you wanted me to fix it.
		I had to pass the law taking everyone's rights away.
		I had to do it.
		They wouldn't let me do it any other way.
		Let me tell you, I said, Donna, can I do it any other way?
		And she said, no.
		So I had to do it.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		That was so good.
		The little last ending.
		Oh, I love that.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Dude, I mean, I had to do it.
		It's true.
		It's a fact.
		People, they get upset at me.
unidentified		They say, Donald, why did you have to strike the person in the boat?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		And I said, he had drugs.
		He had the fentanyl.
		He had fentanyl that was so big.
		Such a big fentanyl he had.
		And we had so big.
unidentified		Yeah.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		I mean, like, look, they're going to do this for a while because it's going to keep working.
		But we talk about it on the Grey Area.
		You talk about it on the show.
		The economy is incredibly unstable.
		We're trending towards major recession/slash depression.
		The point of these powers, can he just, according to your research, can he just give money to whatever he wants, basically?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I mean, technically, the Congress is supposed to have the power of the purse, right?
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		But then if you think about it, I don't know you.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		But if you think about it, the federal government has a budget and a lot of these agencies have budgets that are dedicated to them.
		And normally the president is in charge of a lot of these agencies and appointing these people.
		And Congress, of course, approves the people that he puts in front of these agencies.
		But like, think about it.
		An agency that's run by the government, they're given a budget, right?
		The Congress says, here's this amount of money that goes to this agency.
		They have a lot of money where, you know, not all of it's line-itemed out of what you're supposed to do with that money.
		So it actually becomes like a little mini private piggy bank for you to use in that agency to go do whatever you need to.
		Like that's why we can fund transgender in what was it, Ecuador or something like that, like drag shows.
unidentified		Yeah.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Gender research in Pakistan, millions of dollars.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
		It's like, you know, the agency has all this money.
		So yeah, technically, you know, the president doesn't have the money, but the agencies do.
		So you control the agencies, you control the money.
		And that's what it comes down to.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Well, I mean, at the end of the day, you get what you pay for.
		And it seems that that used to be the case, like these executive orders, they had very big effect.
		But now, I mean, our money is inflated.
		There's the money printer is under question at least.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		$5 trillion printed during COVID.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		My ass.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Is that executive order?
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Was that the comment?
		That was an executive order.
		That was an emergency declaration.
		Oh, he had to do it.
		And it was also a combination.
		It wasn't just the presidency.
		It was also the federal, it was also the Federal Reserve.
		But of course, Biden influences the Federal Reserve to go do something about it.
		And it's that bully pulpit where you have the ability to speak to the masses and you say, we can't have this crash happen.
		Make something happen because I appointed you.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		Right.
		We got to get things done.
		That's why you elected us.
		That's also what they say.
		It's like, we're just trying to get things done for Americans.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		That's why I respect Powell sometimes when he was pushing back on dropping the interest rates.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		Because luckily, the federal government, the Federal Reserve is technically separated.
rex jones ▲ ● ▼		It's private.
		And it's so crazy.
		The old thing is like the Federal Reserve, man.
tim tompkins ▲ ● ▼		It said federal.
		But they're not in bed.
		That's why Powell, that's why Trump was like, we need to fire this man.
		We need to figure out a way to get rid of him because he's not dropping the interest rates.
		But Powell knew exactly what was going to happen if he just drops them too fast.

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