The story of President Donald Trump ago the first seven months ago is the consolidation of power.
He bulldozer the obstacles that were often held on his way in his first mandate and constantly tested the borders, in an almost resolved prosecution of more authority.
That you thought it is a good thing (because that is what the country needs) or a bad thing, it is objectively the situation. Trump has had his contempt for the limits of his power for years, and he governs accordingly.
In recent days only, he and his administration have taken major measures on this front.
One is its federalization of the DC metropolitan police department and its deployment of the National Guard to the National Capital to face what it says is an uncontrollable crime. The first step is unprecedented, and the second is extraordinary – since the guard is generally called only for generalized disturbances such as riots.
Another step concerns the politicization of government data by Trump. After the president dismissed the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics on a job report he did not like, the question was whether the financial markets could trust the government’s data in the future, given the message that Trump sent. But rather than to appease these fears with a choice of renowned consensus, Trump chose a loyalist Maga.
And finally, there is the number of surveys on the snowball on Trump’s political opponents – who, last week, grew up with a quick clip.
Given all of this, this is a good time to browse the most important and most consecutive Trump power seizures of his second term.
These are the kinds of things we could one day go back as re -eating the balance of power in the American government and pushing us in a more authoritarian direction.
If there is an inclination of Trump who concerned most of the best military and defense officials during his first mandate, it could have been his desire to send troops to American soil.
And Trump is increasingly a reality. He not only deployed the goalkeeper to DC, but he deployed the goalkeeper and the navies in Los Angeles two months ago in another extraordinary way (given the lack of general violence).
Trump is also talking more and more about moving these efforts. This week he also spoke of also deploying soldiers in active service to DC and expanding his approach to other cities in a way that would militarize the American homeland like never before. And he suggested that he could extend the effort in a way that seems to go beyond his legal authority, by declaring emergencies.
Trump’s senior officials were concerned about politicizing the army, using it to target American citizens, and perhaps even using it to keep power.
Although the tariff saga now resembles a reality of our daily political life, it is also a major game of power.
After all, it is the president claiming emergency powers on a prerogative that the Constitution gives the congress and constantly moves the terms in order to negotiate with other countries. It actually exerts a constantly evolving level of taxation on American companies and consumers.
The courts still sort if he has exceeded his authority, the American Court of International Trade judging initially that he had done so. But perhaps more than any other problem, it is the one on which Trump sterilized the congress and directed the country as an all-powerful framework.
Legislators have the power to brake it. And the Republicans do not traditionally like prices. But the Congress controlled by the GOP apparently does not want any part of the standard bearer of their party.
The Trump administration has already launched investigations or taking investigation against key figures for four highly publicized efforts to examine Trump: the investigation in Russia, his first indictment, the investigations of January 6, 2021 and his personal criminal and civil affairs.
The rewarding nature of these efforts is only reinforced by the fact that Trump has personally pushed many of these probes – a break with a longtime practice. At the start of his mandate, he even signed an executive decree explicitly calling for investigations on two criticisms.
It remains to be seen if one of these probes would be equivalent to something. GOP’s attempts to dismiss the president of the time, Joe Biden, never did it, and we have not seen substantial evidence in these surveys.
But even if they do not lead anywhere, a message will be sent to any other person who could whistle or investigate Trump: if you scrutinize it, we will continue. It is a recipe for people who are silent.
Although it may seem relatively small, Trump’s maneuvers with BLS could have large -scale implications.
Again, this is the message he sends to others that could provide bad news to Trump. And by appointing a loyalist in the economist of the heritage Foundation EJ Antoni for the new BLS commissioner, Trump further erodes the expectation of the independence of these officials. (Indeed, the commercial secretary, Howard Lutnick, this week, called the concept of independence of “absurd” federal statistics.))))
It looks very much like Trump’s long -standing efforts to dismiss civil servants and non -partisan childcare dogs, and relying on the president of the federal reserve Jerome Powell to reduce interest rates by threatening on several occasions to shoot or investigate him. It is simply something that the presidents do not do, because it adds the spectrum of political pressure in the functions of the apolitical government.
Trump does not seem to have any qualms about looking like his thumb on the scale – even in circumstances where it could come back to bite him, like BLS and the Fed.
Trump made extraordinary efforts to use his intimidation chair and his executive powers to demonstrate his domination over these powerful institutions, with great success.
These institutions, which have made remarkable concessions to its administration, seem to make the calculation that it is simply better not to be on the wrong side of Trump. This cannot help defining new previous ones who may have an impact on other institutions and buggers it.
And the president was happy to rejoice.
“You see what we do with the colleges, and they look and say:” Sir, thank you very much. We appreciate it “,” he told the White House in March. “No one can believe it, including law firms that have been so horrible, law firms that no one would believe that, simply saying:” Where should I sign? Where should I sign? “”
Nothing sums up Trump’s contempt for the legislative branch – and his acquiescence – like Tiktok.
The Congress has adopted a bill with enormous Bipartisan majorities demanding that the social media platform is deposited with its Chinese property or be prohibited, legislators citing urgent national security problems. The Supreme Court unanimously supported this law. But Trump continues to ignore this and give extensions of Tiktok, even if it is quite obvious that he does not have authority under the law.
There are practical reasons for which he has been authorized to do so. Democrats, for example, do not want to be the bad guys following the ban on such a popular application. And it is not clear that would have a legal position to continue Trump on this subject.
But just because these practical problems do not mean that it is not a power game. It is a president who effectively chooses not to take into account the law because he can. And he does it despite these supposedly very urgent national security problems concerning the sensitive data of the Americans of the Chinese government – Trump’s concerns have expressed themselves.
It is also part with Trump’s repeated efforts to simply ignore expenditure appropriate by the congress.
7. Pinir of a regular procedure and the rule of law deportations
Trump’s efforts to increase deportations have included a number of power catches. In particular, this has taken the form of a regular procedure and the rule of law.
Trump invoked what was traditionally a war authority – the Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies – to try to quickly expel undocumented immigrants. His efforts have led to a number of unjustified evictions and attempted expulsion that were blocked by the courts. At one point, the administration clearly ignored an order of the court to transform planes holding migrants.
Many Trump allies argued that these migrants were not entitled to legal protections. And this has put democrats in the politically uncomfortable position to defend the rights of these migrants.
Perhaps nothing has questioned the authority of the rule of law and the courts, with a lot of blows and shoots of Trump and his administration to force the question.
This is an area where the courts intensified and seemed to check Trump. But it is surely not the end of the power struggle.
