Trump Broke Federal Law by Giving an Interview Inside the Lincoln Memorial

It’s called 36 CFR § 7.96, and it’s the federal law that governs how federal monuments in the District of Columbia can be used. President Donald Trump broke that law when he granted Fox News an exclusive interview inside the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday.

By law there is one event and one event only that can be held anywhere above the steps of the Lincoln Memorial: the annual Lincoln’s birthday commemoration.

President Donald Trump was granted an “exception” to the law by his Secretary of the Interior, although it’s unclear if the Secretary has the power to do so. But it did allow 4 million people across the country watch Trump serve up an evening of highly-partisan attacks and grievances months before Election Day.

“Citing the ‘extraordinary crisis’ of the coronavirus, the interior secretary relaxed the rules so the president could hold a Fox News interview in one of the nation’s most hallowed spaces,” The New York Times reports, calling it “one of Mr. Trump’s preferred places to add a prime-time touch of drama to his presidency.”

That federal law is extensive. It even covers parking, and the operation of “any taxicab or hack” within the National Capital Region.

“Demonstrations and special events are not allowed in the following other park areas,” the law reads. Under that “not allowed” section it specifically mentions the Lincoln Memorial, “which means that portion of the park area which is on the same level or above the base of the large marble columns surrounding the structure, and the single series of marble stairs immediately adjacent to and below that level, except for the official annual commemorative Lincoln birthday ceremony.”

The Times adds that “on Sunday, when the president sat down with two Fox News anchors at Lincoln’s marbled feet during a coronavirus-focused virtual ‘town hall,’ it was because a directive issued by David Bernhardt, the secretary of the interior, had allowed them to do so.”

Bernhardt is “a former oil lobbyist whose Senate nomination was contested by Democrats who pointed to multiple accusations of conflicts of interest and ethical violations, ordered the memorial temporarily closed for the event, citing the coronavirus.”

“Given the extraordinary crisis that the American people have endured, and the need for the president to exercise a core governmental function to address the nation about an ongoing public-health crisis,” Mr. Bernhardt wrote in an order issued Friday, “I am exercising my authority to facilitate the opportunity for the president to conduct this address within the Lincoln Memorial.”

President Trump used that “extraordinary crisis” to deliver an attack on the nation’s free press, insisting he’s been treated “worse than Lincoln,” who was tragically assassinated.