Trump’s latest target — the judiciary — has been described by constitutional scholars and historians as perhaps the most alarming power play to date.
Trump’s latest target — the judiciary — has been described by constitutional scholars and historians as perhaps the most alarming power play to date.
President Donald Trump called for one federal judge seeking basic information about his deportation efforts to be impeached amid mounting concern about a constitutional showdown.
Another judge found that Trump’s efforts to shut down a federal agency probably violated the Constitution and stripped Congress of its authority.
The president was accused of overstepping his executive authority yet again in firing two Democratic commissioners from an independent trade commission.
And that was just Tuesday.
Nearly two months into his second term, Trump is trying to consolidate control over the courts, Congress and even, in some ways, American society and culture.
His expansive interpretation of presidential power has become the defining characteristic of his second term, an aggressive effort across multiple fronts to assert executive authority to reshape the government, drive policy in new directions and root out what he and his supporters see as a deeply embedded liberal bias.
“We’ve never seen a president so comprehensively attempt to arrogate and consolidate so much of the other branches’ power, let alone to do so in the first two months of his presidency,” said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, has ceded some of its core duties to Trump, handing off elements of the legislative branch’s spending authority to the White House and standing aside as congressionally chartered agencies are shuttered. The president has threatened to “lead the charge” against the reelection of the rare Republican who dares challenge his agenda, and the party has bent to his will at every turn.
Trump has dismantled independent measures of checks and balances, fired inspectors general and installed loyalists at the Justice Department willing to carry out his campaign of retribution. He has targeted private law firms with connections to those he views as political enemies and cowed previously skeptical or hostile business leaders into pledging public support, even as he has imprinted his “MAGA” stamp on the private sector by trying to dictate hiring practices.
His efforts to reshape institutions in his image have not been limited to the government and policy. Trump has tried to spread his influence through the arts, as well, by making himself chair of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
But Trump’s latest target — the judiciary — has been described by constitutional scholars and historians as perhaps the most alarming power play to date.
