FOREIGN POLICY/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump signed legislation on Wednesday [8-2-17] imposing sanctions on Russia and limiting his own authority to lift them, but asserted that the measure included ‘a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions’ and left open the possibility that he might choose not to enforce them as lawmakers intended.
The legislation, which also includes sanctions on Iran and North Korea, represented the first time that Congress had forced Mr. Trump to sign a bill over his objections with bipartisan, veto-proof majorities. Even before he signed it, the Russian government retaliated by seizing two American diplomatic properties and ordering the United States to reduce its overall staff in Russia by 755 people.
But a signing statement released by the president raised questions about how he would observe the requirements in the measure.
In particular, he objected to Congress interfering with the president’s power to set foreign policy by imposing waiting periods before he can suspend or remove sanctions and by effectively subverting his right to recognize foreign governments, including their territorial boundaries, clearly a reference to Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.”
-Peter Baker, “Trump Signs Russian Sanctions Into Law, With Caveats,” The New York Times online, Aug. 2, 2017