Behind the Curtain: Trump's power play
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President Trump seethed when the Supreme Court stripped away his unilateral tariff authority, the first real check on his presidency.
- Then he set out to impose his will on every remaining vector of American power — smashing norms and shrugging off Congress in a historic, 14-day show of executive force.
Why it matters: Over the past two weeks, Trump launched a massive Middle East war, blacklisted the hottest AI company on the planet, ordered new global tariffs, and presided over the biggest media merger in two decades.
- He did it all unilaterally — without passing a single law, and without pretending he needed to. Axios' Zachary Basu narrates this epic fortnight:
The tariffs: On Feb. 20, hours after the Supreme Court ruling, Trump imposed a new 10% global tariff under a separate emergency law — daring the courts to stop him again.
- By sidestepping the court's ruling rather than accepting it, Trump sent an unmistakable message: No institution — not Congress, not the judiciary — would constrain his ability to reshape the global economy.
The merger: On Feb. 26, Netflix walked away from the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery — handing Trump allies Larry and David Ellison control of CNN, HBO and Hollywood's two most storied studios.
- Paramount's David Ellison privately assured Trump officials last year that he would make sweeping changes to CNN, a network despised by the president, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- The Ellisons' emerging media empire — CBS, TikTok and soon CNN — gives Trump allies unprecedented influence on what Americans watch, read and scroll.
The blacklist: On Feb. 27, Trump ordered every federal agency to stop doing business with Anthropic after the $380 billion AI startup refused to give the Pentagon unfettered access to its technology.
- The Pentagon then designated Anthropic a "supply chain risk" — a label typically reserved for adversarial foreign companies, and one that a former Trump AI adviser called "attempted corporate murder."
- "I fired Anthropic like dogs," Trump told Politico.
The war: On Feb. 28, Trump did what no president before him had dared — launch a full military assault on an Iranian regime that has tormented the United States since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
- Some U.S. officials have been careful not to call it a "war" — a label that connotes congressional approval — or admit that "regime change" is the goal. The president hasn't bothered with either pretense.
- On Thursday, Trump told Axios he must be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader just as he was in Venezuela, where interim President Delcy Rodríguez has become a compliant conduit for U.S. interests.
- In the same interview with Axios' Barak Ravid, Trump demanded that Israel's president pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — seeking to simultaneously pick Iran's next leader and shield his war partner from criminal prosecution.
The big picture: Trump has spent his second term systematically testing how much power a president can seize without Congress, the courts or public opinion stopping him. The answer, so far: almost limitless.
- Trump has signed fewer laws than any modern president at this stage — because he doesn't need them. Executive orders, military force and the bully pulpit have proven more efficient.
- Trump's advisers say he's content using unilateral powers, and congressional Republicans — with rare exceptions — have cheered him on at every turn.
Between the lines: What's all the more remarkable is that Trump is doing this with most of America opposed to his performance in office — and to these specific actions.
- A Economist/YouGov poll conducted as the Iran war began found Trump's disapproval at 59% — a second-term record. His net approval, according to Nate Silver's average, sits at -13.
- An January poll by CNN found 58% of Americans say Trump has already gone too far in using presidential power — a figure collected before the most aggressive stretch of his presidency.
Go deeper: "The most unprecedented presidency in 250 years."
