Through executive actions, possible illegal actions, ignoring court decisions, and the bullying of Congress, Trump has vastly expanded the power of the U.S. presidency. He is creating a much more authoritarian presidency. This is not good for the long-term survival of our democratic system, because those actions are setting precedents that could (probably would) be followed by future presidents.
Our democracy is not yet completely gone, but it has been seriously damaged. It no longer exists in the same form it did before Trump took office for his second term.
Can our democracy be saved? Can we reestablish a balance between the three branches of our federal government and take back some of the power Trump has claimed for himself? I honestly don't know. It's going to be hard to reclaim any power back from a president determined to be a dictator.
The first step would be to elect a Congress in 2026 that will fight for the powers they are supposed to have (according to the Constitution). That would have to be a Democratic Congress, since the Republicans have shown they either cannot or will not rein in Trump's worst actions.
Here, from Axios.com, are some of the ways Trump has expanded the power of the presidency and set precedents for future presidencies:
1. Executive power: Trump has declared nine national emergencies in his first eight months in office, stretching the definition of "emergency" in creative and aggressive ways.
New precedent: Future presidents can use loosely defined "emergencies" as a routine tool to bypass Congress and unlock extraordinary powers governing trade, immigration, mineral extraction and foreign disputes.
2. Free-press crackdown: Trump has waged the most aggressive government campaign against mainstream media in modern U.S. history — stripping funding from public outlets, pushing the FCC to revoke broadcast licenses over negative coverage, and personally suing CBS/Paramount, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times while in office.
New precedent: Future presidents can use lawsuits, regulatory threats, and funding pressure to bring independent media to heel.
3. Seizing congressional purse strings: Trump has tried to freeze or redirect billions in congressionally appropriated funds, from public health to foreign aid to university research.
New precedent: Future presidents can treat Congress's "power of the purse" as optional, withholding or redirecting funds to pressure states, institutions or foreign governments.
4. Tariffs: Trump has effectively seized the authority over tariffs that the Constitution gives to Congress, wielding tariffs to reshape global trade and punish countries for political or economic disputes.
New precedent: Future presidents can bypass Congress to unilaterally set tariff policy, erasing one of the legislature's core constitutional powers.
5. Overriding the Constitution: Trump issued an executive order seeking to eliminate birthright citizenship — a right guaranteed in the 14th Amendment — for the children of unauthorized immigrants.
New precedent: Future presidents can attempt to nullify core constitutional rights through executive orders rather than constitutional amendments or legislation.
6. Purging watchdogs and civil servants: Trump has fired inspectors general en masse, dismantled independent agencies, and ordered loyalty-driven purges across the federal workforce.
New precedent: Future presidents can eliminate internal checks and turn civil servants into political operatives who serve the president rather than the public.
7. Eroding DOJ independence: Trump has declared himself the country's "chief law enforcement officer" — a title typically reserved for the attorney general — claiming the right to personally dictate prosecutions and order investigations of his political opponents.
New precedent: Future presidents can claim direct authority to launch or block investigations, erasing the long-standing norms separating the White House from the Justice Department.
8. Eroding Fed independence: Trump tried to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook as part of an extraordinary campaign to pressure the central bank to cut interest rates.
New precedent: Future presidents can treat the Fed as an arm of the White House, undermining the principle of central bank independence that has anchored U.S. economic stability for decades.
9. Wartime powers in peacetime: Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members without hearings, ordered maritime strikes on alleged drug traffickers without congressional authorization, and deployed the National Guard to D.C. and Los Angeles without the consent of local authorities.
New precedent: Future presidents can stretch wartime authorities to bypass Congress and due process for military operations on both domestic and foreign territory.
10. Pay-me capitalism: The Trump administration has secured a "golden share" in U.S. Steel, taken a cut of chipmakers' foreign sales and a stake in Intel, and scored companies on their loyalty to Trump's agenda.
New precedent: Future presidents can use the power of the state to extract equity, revenue and political concessions from private companies as the price of doing business.
11. Targeting Big Law: Trump punished firms that represented political adversaries by stripping contracts and security clearances, extracting multimillion-dollar pro bono deals.
New precedent: Future presidents can weaponize government power to intimidate lawyers, deterring them from representing clients who challenge the administration.
12. Punishing universities: Trump withheld billions in federal funding from schools such as Harvard and Columbia — citing their handling of pro-Palestinian protests, campus antisemitism, and DEI policies — and used the leverage to force changes in curricula and leadership.
New precedent: Future presidents can use federal dollars to police academic speech and independence, reshaping universities to align with partisan agendas.
13. Rewriting health and vaccine policy: Trump fired career health officials, slashed funding for public health research, and gave political allies broad control over FDA and CDC decisions.
New precedent: Future presidents can subordinate public health to partisan agendas, treating life-or-death scientific guidance as another lever of political control.
14. Profiteering: The Trump family is believed to already have made billions of dollars during his second term, including through massive foreign crypto deals, real estate ventures and brazen access plays.
New precedent: Future presidents can treat the White House as a platform for personal enrichment, including in nascent industries for which the U.S. government is writing the rules.
15. Jan. 6 pardons: Trump issued blanket clemency to more than 1,500 people charged in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including violent offenders and far-right extremists.
New precedent: Future presidents can use the pardon power to shield their political movements from the rule of law, granting impunity for crimes against the state.
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