In Yates versus Trump, the Constitution wins

Washington

THE Monday night massacre as President Donald Trump's firing of acting Attorney General Sally Yates was inevitably called - lacked the grand madness of Richard Nixon's famous firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox on Oct 20, 1973, which prompted the resignations of the attorney general and the deputy attorney general.

Trump's peremptory dismissal of Yates for refusing to enforce his executive order on immigration came symbolically at the beginning of his presidency, not with the end in sight, as in Nixon's case.

But Trump's action was nevertheless redolent of self-destructive bravado, much like Nixon's. While technically within the authority of the executive, both actions revealed the instincts of a president who believed that he could get away with firing a subordinate to avoid the embarrassment of government institu…