How will Trump deal with — and perhaps transform — presidential power? | Donald Trump news

Washington DC – US President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in just five days, in a stunning completion Reverse luck Which made him rebound from defeat after his bid for re-election in 2020 failed.

Trump’s second term in the White House, which begins Monday, will be the latest test of his forceful approach to presidential power.

How he would act could transform an office that, despite its constitutional design as a balance between the legislative and judicial branches of the US government, has for decades grown in power and effectiveness.

Indeed, Trump’s sweeping claims to presidential power – both in his norm-busting first term and in the years since – have caused alarm among experts who wonder what might come in the next four years.

A second Trump presidency has the potential to fundamentally change the operations of federal agencies that oversee health, safety, water, climate and labor, said Marjorie Cohn, a professor emeritus at Thomas Jefferson Law School.

She also told Al Jazeera that Trump’s personal desires — and rivalries — could blur the boundaries of what federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies are allowed to do.

“He (Trump) has called for ‘televised military tribunals’ to imprison his critics, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Liz Cheney, and Mike Pence,” Cohn said.

“He may also enlist the military to target Americans participating in legal protest — against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and for the rights of women, workers, and LGBT people.”

The direction of expansion of power

Predicting what a volatile Trump might do is certainly a risky exercise.

But the next four years are likely to reveal where Trump’s tough-talking style disconnects from his actual goals, according to Michael Sullenberger, a professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn who has written extensively about presidential power.

Trump may be vocal about his enthusiasm for power, but Sullenberger makes clear that contemporary presidents have, for years, laid the groundwork for expanded executive power.

This, in turn, has reinforced Congress’s caution in rolling back those powers.

“We are in a relatively unique era of this kind of ‘presidentialism’ or governance that is centered around the presidency,” Sollenberger told Al Jazeera.

He has argued that Trump’s first term saw the same “escalation” of presidential powers as many of his predecessors who over the past 100 years increasingly relied on executive orders, presidential prerogatives, and political czars to enact their agendas.

There are limits, Sullenberger added. One turning point came under President Richard Nixon, whose belief in expanding presidential powers served as the basis for a secret bombing campaign during the Vietnam War and eavesdropping on political opponents.

When these actions became public, they sparked widespread backlash, and Nixon resigned in 1974.

However, subsequent presidents have also sought to expand the reach of the White House.

In 2001, for example, former President George W. Bush oversaw the passage of the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF), which allowed him to use “necessary and appropriate force” to pursue the so-called “Global War on Terrorism.” .

Critics say this authorization allowed Bush and his successors to override the authority of Congress as the only body capable of declaring war, justifying a wide range of presidential military orders.

Sollenberger added that the extent to which Trump himself can push presidential power will be determined by the “give and take” policy between Trump, Congress and the judiciary.

Trump enters office b Republican majority In both the House and Senate, as well as a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, including three appointees from Trump’s first term.

Dictator for a day?

Trump’s recent statements have only exacerbated concerns about his second term — and whether he will expand the constitutional power granted to the presidency.

During his re-election campaign, Trump referred to the 2024 election as “our last fight,” at one point telling his supporters in Florida that they “would never have to vote again” if he won.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Truth Social account shared a video referencing the “Unified Reich,” a German word meaning “world” often associated with Nazi Germany.

His political opponents also took advantage of his strongman tendencies to criticize him and described him as a “tyrant.” For example, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, called Trump “a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.”

Trump has leaned into protest, with the comments seemingly aimed at wagging tongues.

Responding to criticism in 2023, for example, he told Fox News that he would be a dictator if elected but “only on day one,” focusing on executive actions he hoped to take when he took office.

Since winning the November election, Trump has nominated a slate of candidates Loyalists To his next administration, which echoed his desire to suppress his critics.

Among his more controversial picks is Kash Patel, a former federal prosecutor who has indicated he might use his office as FBI director to prosecute journalists.

“We will go after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, and who helped Joe Biden rig the presidential election,” Patel said in a podcast, repeating Trump’s false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election.

Project 2025

Trump also expanded the appointment of so-called political “czars,” who do not need Senate approval, to oversee areas including border security and artificial intelligence.

Some of these appointments have brought the lead architects behind the 2025 project, namely A very conservative political road map It was developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Trump has largely disavowed Project 2025, but his staff picks suggest some of its principles may become part of his presidential agenda.

“Border czar” Tom Homan, Deputy Chief Policy Officer Stephen Miller, and Russell Vought, Trump’s pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget, all participated in the 2025 project. Vought even authored the chapter on presidential power.

An analysis of the document by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning policy institute, warned that Project 2025 “aims to demolish the system of checks and balances and reimagine an executive branch free from any shackles.”

He warned that the presidency could gain “unfettered power to control the country and control the lives of Americans.”

The analysis highlighted seven areas of expanded presidential authority outlined in Project 2025.

They include weaponizing the Justice Department, using the Insurrection Act to stifle dissent, and politicizing independent agencies and civil servants.

The report added that many of these goals actually overlap with Trump’s stated goals or past actions.

Trump has repeatedly said he will do so Ask for retribution Against political opponents and prominent critics.

In the case of fellow Republican Liz Cheney, it is he asked His followers took to social media to express whether they would like to see her jailed: “Come back if you want televised military trials.”

Media reports indicate that his transition team also questioned civil servants during job interviews about who they voted for.

All in all, the analysis finds that Project 2025 would constitute a “radical philosophy of governance, at odds with the traditional separation of powers (and) giving presidents near-total control over the federal bureaucracy.”

Presidential immunity

Cohen and other analysts have argued that Project 2025’s ideology is consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling last July that gives presidents the right to vote. Broad immunity For official acts.

Trump’s legal team had used the ruling to fight criminal cases against him, including a federal indictment accusing him of seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

The indictment highlights Trump’s actions during the attack on the US Capitol January 6, 2021When his supporters used violence to temporarily stop the certification of the election.

While the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling raised more questions than answers, it is widely expected to embolden Trump during his second term.

“Trump got away with inciting the January 6 insurrection because the Supreme Court gave him a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Cohn said.

Analysts also point out that Trump has managed to avoid any serious repercussions from the four criminal indictments he faced while out of office.

The two federal cases he has faced since his re-election have been dropped, with officials citing the Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents. A third case, also related to election interference, was stopped in the state of Georgia.

And in New York, Trump’s conviction on charges of falsifying business records led to a rash Toothless sentence “Unconditional release,” without the imposition of prison sentences, parole, or fines.

Sollenberger noted that the federal case regarding election interference was not necessarily based on legal merits because of its legal merits.

But prosecutors Maintained Trump could have been condemned for using “lies as a weapon to defeat the federal government’s essential function of the democratic process in the United States.”

The case portends how Trump may once again test the limits of the presidency, according to his critics. But these boundaries are still far from clear, according to Sullenberger.

“There is still a gray area as to what is a presidential duty and what is not,” Sullenberger said.

The question remains: how do we analyze this?