This morning I was re-reading my second book, The Liar’s Ball, published in 2014 about the world of New York real estate – about which Trump tweeted ““Just finished reading a poorly written & very boring book on the General Motors Building by Vicky Ward. Waste of time!” This was actually pretty helpful in terms of marketing.

In fact, I am not critical of Trump in the book; if anything: perhaps the Middle East leaders mulling the proposed “Riviera” in Gaza should take notes from it: his love of building and construction is readily apparent. No question he created value. And he made money.

But, in the book I do point out an unavoidable fact, which is that Trump lost the chance to buy the prestigious General Motors Building for very little, given that its owner, his partner, had gone bust. For this he blamed the 9/11 attacks, which rendered the offices of his lender, Deutsche Bank, out of action.

I was re-reading my book chiefly, because I suddenly remembered a small detail which now doesn’t feel so small – which is that, according to a senior executive who worked for Trump, one of Trump’s frequent guests at Trump Tower was Richard Nixon. Trump even wanted the Nixons to live at Trump Tower.

That strikes me as particularly relevant given Trump’s impounding of USAID – and much else.

In the 1970s it was President Nixon who told Russell Train, the administrator of the EPA he did not want to spend funds appropriate by Congress on an anti-pollution project in New York. But New York City turned around and sued Train. The Supreme Court settled it, saying, essentially if Congress has appropriated the funds, the president cannot simply impound them – which led Congress to pass the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

So: Does Trump think this Supreme Court, the background of which I have made an entire podcast series about and you can listen to here, might rule differently over USAID? That the court will agree that Trump should have the power over funds that Congress has already appropriated?

Read on at Vicky Ward Investigates