Trump's vanishing guardrails challenge Washington
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President Trump and Elon Musk promised to break Washington. No one thought it would look this easy.
Why it matters: Trump 2.0 has already laid waste to democratic norms, precedents and even some laws. Paralyzed by the breadth of disruption, many of the president's demoralized critics have been left sputtering: "He can't do that."
- And yet he is.
The big picture: With a popular mandate, unified control of Congress, a pliant Republican Party, a struggling opposition and the resources of the world's richest man, there are few guardrails to curb Trump's maximalist agenda.
- Short of a court order, Trump's opponents have so far failed to stop him from bending and breaking the limits of presidential authority.
Zoom in: The extraordinary empowerment of Musk, who spent at least $288 million to help elect Trump, has triggered new fears over the administration's lack of accountability to Congress.
- This weekend, Musk's allies orchestrated a physical takeover of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), ousting security officials who tried to stop them from accessing classified spaces.
- With USAID employees locked out of their accounts and Musk vowing to shutter the "evil" agency, Secretary of State Marco Rubio took over as acting administrator and notified Congress of a "potential reorganization."
Democrats reacted furiously, holding a press conference outside USAID headquarters to sound the alarm over what they called an "illegal" takeover of an independent agency authorized by Congress.
- "We don't have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
- "You cannot wave away an agency that you don't like ... by literally storming into a building and taking over the servers," said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who vowed to stall Trump's State Department nominations in protest.
- Trump, meanwhile, disputed that shutting down USAID would require an act of Congress — arguing it would be justified because the agency is rife with "fraud."
Between the lines: Beyond rhetoric, Democrats have limited recourse to slow Trump's agenda — especially with the party still grappling with an identity crisis in the wake of the disastrous 2024 election.
- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) unveiled a plan Monday to try to stop Trump from freezing or diverting congressionally appropriated funds, namely by using leverage in government funding negotiations.
- But Democrats are fundamentally limited by life in the minority. Even if they reclaim a majority in the 2026 midterms, history suggests Trump officials will have no qualms about blowing off subpoenas.
- "We'll speak out. We will open investigations, and we will demand accountability," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Monday. "The one tool we do not have is the majority in this Congress. So that means our Republican colleagues have to say enough."
Reality check: So far, there's no sign Republicans will put up any resistance. In Trump's first two weeks in office, his administration has:
- Temporarily frozen all federal grants, loans and financial assistance, signaling a desire to challenge Congress' power of the purse.
- Offered "deferred resignations" to roughly 2 million federal workers, promising to pay them through September even though the government hasn't been funded past March 14.
- Fired at least 17 independent agency watchdogs, openly defying a statute requiring an explanation to Congress 30 days in advance.
- Fired federal prosecutors involved in Trump-related investigations and hinted at an additional purge for thousands of FBI agents.
- Signed an executive order directing the attorney general not to enforce the law Congress passed requiring TikTok to be sold by its Chinese parent company or face a U.S. ban.
What to watch: The courts acted swiftly to block Trump's most audacious Day One executive order: terminating birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
- Still, the judicial branch is inherently a slow-moving, last line of defense — one that Democrats can't always count on to curb Trump's executive encroachment.
Challenges to the U.S. government's checks and balances are likely to continue in the coming weeks, months and years.
- Trump officials are now discussing an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, fulfilling a longtime conservative goal, the Wall Street Journal reports.
