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00:00Hello and a very warm welcome. If you're just joining us, you're watching Daybreak here on France 24.
00:08And one main story this hour this morning, it's the 100 days of Donald Trump,
00:13during which he's alienated allies, sent stock markets into freefall,
00:18ignored court orders and threatened judges with impeachment.
00:21He's also dismantled, possibly illegally, a number of US federal programs, including USAID.
00:27Donald Trump marking 100 days in office with plummeting popularity, according to the latest polls.
00:46He's alienated his allies, sent stock markets tumbling, publicly admired dictators.
00:52Donald Trump threatened to take over Canada and Greenland, ignored the US Supreme Court and fired tens of thousands of federal workers.
01:01At a rally in Michigan, his largest political event since returning to office,
01:04he dismissed concerns that he too was acting like an authoritarian leader, saying that he's only getting started.
01:10We're here tonight in the heartland of our nation to celebrate the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country.
01:22And that's according to many, many people.
01:24This is the best, they say, 100-day start of any president in history, and everyone is saying it.
01:32We're just, we've just gotten started.
01:35You haven't even seen anything yet.
01:37It's all just kicking in.
01:39And week by week, we're ending illegal immigration.
01:47We're taking back our jobs of protecting our great American autoworkers and all of our workers, frankly.
01:53We're protecting all of our workers.
01:55Well, the Trump administration faces dozens of lawsuits from state and local governments,
02:03from employees and a number of organizations fighting the destruction of a variety of programs.
02:09US judges blocked Trump's deportation of migrants without due process,
02:14his dismantling of the Department of Education and other federal agencies, among other cases.
02:18Siobhan Silk and James Fasina take a closer look at the legal side of Trump's 100 days.
02:25It's a fundamental principle of U.S. governance.
02:30The checks and balances structure is designed to prevent any one person from wielding too much power.
02:36But in the first 100 days of his second term as president,
02:40Donald Trump has largely succeeded in outplaying this system.
02:44He got into action on his very first day,
02:47signing, as he'd promised throughout his campaign, a large number of executive orders.
02:51He's written directives instruct government to take specific actions,
02:56and in 100 days he's signed well over 100 orders.
03:01Among his first was the blanket pardoning of 1,500 insurrectionists convicted for the attack on the Capitol.
03:08Some of his orders have been taken to the Supreme Court.
03:11Birthright citizenship is about slavery.
03:15Such as his directive to end birthright citizenship,
03:19which is the part of the Constitution that declares anybody born on U.S. soil to be a citizen.
03:25Trump is seeking to ban automatic citizenship for children whose parents are in the country illegally,
03:31but his order was blocked by federal district courts in three states.
03:35And Trump has ignored certain rulings, including one from the country's highest court
03:40that ordered the government to help Kilmer Abrego Garcia return to the United States
03:45after he was erroneously expelled and sent to his home country of El Salvador.
03:50Another decision by a federal court forbid his administration
03:54from banning the Associated Press News Agency from the White House,
03:58but the president has yet to act on this too.
04:00Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have also threatened to impeach judges
04:06going against his agenda, such as James Bozberg,
04:10who Trump labelled a radical left lunatic,
04:13after the judge ordered a temporary halt to the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
04:19Meanwhile, two judges have been arrested by federal authorities,
04:23accused of interfering with the administration's immigration agenda.
04:26And several investigations into Trump, started during the previous administration,
04:33have been halted.
04:34Career Justice Department lawyers have been fired without explanation.
04:38Dozens are fighting their dismissals,
04:40some of whom had worked on investigations into the attack on the Capitol.
04:46But he hasn't just gone after civil servants.
04:50Private law firms are also in his sights,
04:52with Trump's executive orders placing restrictions on four major law firms
04:56that have represented clients who've challenged his policies in court
04:59or represented people who've previously investigated him.
05:03Some companies have stepped into line by agreeing to provide
05:06hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free legal services
05:09to initiatives that Trump supports,
05:12this to avoid sanctions.
05:15The American Bar Association,
05:17which the White House labelled a quote,
05:18Snuti organization,
05:20said that the Trump administration is attempting to tip the scales of justice.
05:27We can speak now to a Hungarian-American human rights lawyer and prosecutor,
05:32former assistant U.S. attorney for the state of New York,
05:34Reid Brody.
05:35Thanks so much for your time.
05:37I'm going to start by asking you,
05:38Donald Trump is attempting to tip the scales of justice.
05:41We heard there in that report.
05:43Will he be able to do as much?
05:44Well, he's certainly trying.
05:49I mean, you know,
05:49nothing is more sacred in the United States
05:53than the right of the people
05:56to criticize the government,
05:59to disagree with the government,
06:01and to challenge the government in court
06:05when the government is doing something illegal.
06:08And when you're trying to be a dictator,
06:11which is what Donald Trump is doing,
06:14you attack all of those levers.
06:18You attack all of the possible focus of opposition.
06:25Demonstrators, college campuses,
06:29universities, the press,
06:31but especially judges and lawyers.
06:36And what Trump is seeking to do here
06:39is to neutralize all opposition.
06:42And that's what autocrats do in many other countries.
06:46They look for where the opposition might come,
06:49the press, the universities,
06:51the nonprofit sector,
06:52the judges and the lawyers.
06:54And these attacks on,
06:56in particular on lawyers and judges,
06:59are probably the most pernicious.
07:02I mean, you talked about the law firms.
07:05I mean, if you're engaged in an effort,
07:08as Trump is,
07:09to violate legal restrictions,
07:11lawyers are a problem.
07:13Because when you do something illegal,
07:15lawyers sue you
07:16and challenge your violations.
07:20And what Trump has done,
07:23let's start with the lawyers,
07:26and then we'll talk about the judges,
07:29is he's looking at law firms.
07:30And he's saying,
07:32okay, this law firm represented immigrants
07:34and challenging border policies,
07:36or this law firm represented transgender people,
07:39or this law firm hired lawyers
07:42who were involved,
07:43like former prosecutor Robert Mueller,
07:46in attacking my previous administration.
07:49And on the basis of those actions,
07:53he has imposed really crippling restrictions.
07:57These executive orders that say,
08:01you can't do any confidential classified work
08:04involving the government.
08:06You're not allowed to go into federal buildings.
08:08You can't go into federal court.
08:10Now, these are clearly unconstitutional attacks
08:15on First Amendment freedom of speech rights,
08:21on the right to counsel,
08:23on the right to due process.
08:24And the law firms that have challenged these
08:29have immediately won
08:32because these orders are illegal.
08:35The problem, though,
08:36is that many of the law firms
08:39have made a calculation
08:41that they can't afford
08:43to be fighting with the federal government.
08:45They can't afford
08:46to be losing their big corporate clients.
08:49And so what we see
08:50is that he is weaponizing
08:51the power of the federal government
08:54to attack, in this case, lawyers.
08:58And as you've said in your setup,
09:03the principal challenge right now
09:06to Donald Trump's assertion of total power
09:09are the courts.
09:10And so he's attacking the courts as well.
09:12And how independent,
09:13how solid are those courts
09:15and those judges
09:16that are also coming in for attack?
09:18I mean, he's threatened to impeach them.
09:19Well, that's right.
09:23I mean, fortunately, so far,
09:25you know, the courts have held up.
09:28But we will, you know,
09:29the other principle
09:31that is so entrenched
09:35in the American Constitution
09:38is the right to due process.
09:41The right.
09:42And since 1215,
09:44an Anglo-American jurisprudence
09:46and the Magna Carta,
09:48the right to habeas corpus,
09:50the right to challenge
09:52the legality of your detention,
09:55the right to challenge
09:57unfair government action.
09:59And what has happened
10:01in the case of Abreu Garcia
10:03and others
10:03is that people have been
10:05taken off the streets
10:07of the United States
10:09and end up with
10:12and just put on a plane
10:14and end up
10:15in a Salvadoran gulag
10:17without
10:18any kind of process.
10:21And Donald Trump has said
10:22that he would like to do
10:24the same thing
10:25with American citizens.
10:26And once you accept the idea
10:28that a non-citizen
10:30can be taken off the street
10:32without due process,
10:34I mean,
10:35what is to prevent
10:35a citizen?
10:36Because actually,
10:39I mean,
10:40with certain exceptions,
10:41the Constitution
10:42of the United States
10:43applies to every person
10:45in the United States.
10:46It applies,
10:47obviously you don't have,
10:48non-citizens don't have
10:49the right to remain
10:50necessarily in the country,
10:51but they have the right
10:52to free speech.
10:53They have the right
10:54to due process.
10:55You cannot take anyone,
10:57citizen or not,
10:59off the street,
11:01put them away,
11:02and export them
11:04without due process.
11:05As you mentioned,
11:08the United States
11:09Supreme Court
11:10has,
11:10in the case of
11:11Abrego Garcia,
11:13ordered the administration
11:15to facilitate his return.
11:17And the administration
11:19has said no.
11:21They haven't said that
11:22to the court yet,
11:23but they've said that
11:24in social media,
11:25they've said that
11:26in meetings
11:28in the White House,
11:29that this man
11:29is not coming back
11:30to the United States.
11:31The Supreme Court
11:32has ordered the U.S.
11:33to facilitate his return.
11:36So,
11:37unfortunately,
11:39the Constitution
11:41of the United States
11:42is set up
11:44on the idea
11:45of checks and balances.
11:48And those checks,
11:49but for those checks
11:50and balances
11:50to work,
11:52they have to be respected.
11:54The Founding Fathers
11:56assumed that
11:57if a president
11:58tried to assert
12:00unconstitutional powers,
12:03that the other branches
12:05of government,
12:05particularly the Congress,
12:07would step in
12:08and try to impeach him.
12:09What the Founding Fathers
12:10did not see
12:11was one man's control
12:13of a party
12:13which would control
12:14the Congress
12:15and which would not act.
12:17Mr. Brode,
12:18stay with us,
12:19but I'd just like
12:19to take a closer look
12:20at what you've just been
12:21talking about there,
12:23what Donald Trump
12:23has been doing
12:24when it comes to
12:25due process
12:25and notably
12:26migration.
12:27In March,
12:28the U.S. president
12:29ignoring an order
12:30from U.S. district judge
12:31to turn a plane
12:32of migrants
12:32heading to El Salvador
12:33around,
12:34a staggering act
12:35of defiance of the law.
12:36Since he came to power,
12:37Trump has revoked
12:38residency permits
12:40from Venezuela
12:40and born residents
12:42whom he says
12:43are part of a criminal gang
12:44without proof.
12:45Some of those deportees
12:46were sent to Guantanamo Bay,
12:48others to high security prisons
12:49in El Salvador
12:50left in legal limbo.
12:52One man spoke
12:53to France 24
12:54after his deportation.
12:56Here's a listen.
12:58Daniel Herr
12:59is one of the 171 Venezuelans
13:02sent to Guantanamo Bay
13:03by the Trump administration,
13:05accused without proof
13:06of belonging
13:07to the trendy Aragua gang.
13:12We were chained up
13:12all day long,
13:13our wrists,
13:14our ankles
13:14and at the waist
13:15with another chain
13:16linking our hands
13:17to our feet.
13:18And we had to walk
13:19around Guantanamo like that,
13:20to the doctor,
13:21to the toilets,
13:22everything,
13:22every day.
13:24Daniel Herr
13:25came to the U.S.
13:26in 2023
13:27where he worked
13:28as an Uber driver,
13:29until the day
13:30he was arrested
13:30and detained
13:31for giving an undocumented
13:32migrant a lift.
13:34Then,
13:34just days before
13:35his expected release,
13:36he himself was deported.
13:38He never imagined
13:39his next stop
13:40would be a prison
13:41for terrorists.
13:42It was traumatic.
13:44There's no one
13:44to talk to.
13:45The only people there
13:46were soldiers
13:47and they speak English.
13:48They offer no support
13:49and they don't pay attention
13:50to you
13:50because you just don't
13:52speak their language.
13:53They're there to take care
13:53of you.
13:54Keeping you alive
13:55is their job.
13:56More than 130 kilometers away,
13:59Carlos Oliveros
14:00is readapting
14:01to his home country,
14:02but without his family.
14:03His wife and daughter
14:06stayed in the U.S.,
14:07but serving an eight-month sentence
14:09over a road accident,
14:11Carlos himself
14:12chose deportation
14:13over prison.
14:15It's no good saying
14:16take your daughter
14:17out of school
14:17and bring her over.
14:19No, I won't do that.
14:20Look what life's like here.
14:22It's hard.
14:24Daniel Herr and Carlos
14:25were returned
14:26to their country of birth,
14:27but 252 Venezuelans
14:29deported without trial
14:31are still in isolation
14:32in a high-security
14:33El Salvador prison.
14:34Their families
14:35are fighting
14:35to see them released,
14:36if not to the U.S.,
14:38to Venezuela.
14:42Since Trump's return
14:43to the White House,
14:4410 deportation flights
14:46have left the U.S.
14:47carrying Venezuelans,
14:49further straining relations
14:50between Washington
14:51and Caracas.
14:54Well, Hungarian-American
14:55human rights lawyer
14:56and prosecutor,
14:57former assistant
14:58U.S. attorney general
14:59for the state of New York,
15:00Rie Brody,
15:01is still with us.
15:02Mr. Brody,
15:03you were telling us there
15:03that it's a clear break
15:04with the Constitution
15:06in the U.S.
15:06We have had the courts
15:08calling on the U.S. administration
15:10to reverse course.
15:12But what recourse
15:13do these people
15:14that have now been deported
15:15actually have?
15:16What can they do?
15:19Well, I think, you know,
15:20they may not have
15:21legal recourse.
15:24We've seen
15:24an American congressman
15:26and several congressmen now
15:27and several people
15:28go to El Salvador
15:29to stand up.
15:31But what the administration
15:32is doing is so pernicious.
15:34Remember, George Bush
15:35put people in Guantanamo
15:37because he thought
15:39that would be outside
15:40of the court's remit.
15:43And the U.S. Supreme Court
15:44said, no,
15:45if you're in Guantanamo,
15:46you have the right
15:47to habeas corpus.
15:48You are protected
15:50by the Constitution.
15:51What the administration
15:53is doing here
15:54is much more devious.
15:56They're sending them
15:57to a foreign gulag.
15:58And obviously,
16:00you know,
16:01the courts can tell
16:02the U.S. government
16:03to facilitate his return.
16:05And obviously,
16:07the U.S. could get
16:08these people back.
16:09I mean,
16:09Donald Trump has shown
16:10that he's not,
16:11he's very willing
16:13to put billions
16:15of dollars of tariffs
16:16or take billions
16:17of dollars from universities
16:19in order for them
16:20to bend to his will.
16:21He can obviously
16:22get these people back
16:23from El Salvador
16:24so that they can
16:25have due process.
16:26But he's choosing not to.
16:29And it's going to be
16:30very difficult
16:31for the courts
16:32to force.
16:35I mean,
16:36the U.S.,
16:36the judge
16:37in the Venezuelan case
16:39is likely to hold
16:40the United States government
16:41in contempt
16:42for refusing
16:44to cooperate.
16:46But the judiciary's power
16:47to order the government
16:49to do something
16:50is very limited.
16:52I mean,
16:52these are existential threats
16:55to the separation
16:57of powers
16:58and to civil liberties.
17:01Mr. Reid Brody,
17:02unfortunately,
17:03we've run out of time.
17:04We'll have to leave it there.
17:05But thank you so much
17:06for your time
17:06and speaking to us
17:07here on France 24.
17:08for it.