Name: How Trump Is Testing the Boundaries of Presidential Power
Uploaded: 2025-02-11T05:01:00Z
Duration: 7 min 18 s
Description: In his first weeks, President Trump has pushed the government’s checks and balances designed to limit executive power. Here’s a look at how the system works, what’s happening now, and when it would become a constitutional crisis.

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In his first weeks, President Trump has pushed the government’s checks and balances designed to limit executive power. Here’s a look at how the system works, what’s happening now, and when it would become a constitutional crisis. Photo Illustration: Madeline Marshall

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250211/fddc12fe-d3ff-44af-975b-5a8fc1094e8d/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

In his first weeks, President Trump has pushed the government’s checks and balances designed to limit executive power. Here’s a look at how the system works, what’s happening now, and when it would become a constitutional crisis.

How Trump Is Testing the Boundaries of Presidential Power

Narrator: In just three weeks in office, President Donald Trump has done a lot.

That's a good one. Birthright.

Firing at least a dozen Inspector Generals.

The sweeping freeze on all federal grants.

USAID, run by radical lunatics. Could you imagine Biden doing this? I don't think so.

Narrator: And he's using that fire hose of action not just to move quickly on campaign promises but to test the traditional limits of presidential power.

He is testing the boundaries, the boundaries that are established by Congress and the boundaries established by the courts.

President Trump is paying no attention to laws that limit his power or to the Constitution that limits his authority.

Narrator: The Constitution set up checks on the president's power. Here's how those checks are working now and what would have to happen for it to become a constitutional crisis. Let's look at USAID as an example, since that's the first agency the Trump administration is attempting to dismantle. But this system applies to all agencies, from the Department of Education to the Environmental Protection Agency. It all starts in Congress. They draft legislation that directs what the agency should do and how much money they should get for it. For example, here's the law introduced by then Senator Marco Rubio, who may be in charge of USAID now? More on the legality of that in a minute. During Trump's first term. It gives direction to USAID to provide education for displaced children and build those institutions in coordination with private and civil society organizations. The employees of USAID then take that direction and budget from Congress and do the work of actually making it happen. But like all federal agencies, it's managed by the executive branch, so the president oversees these employees and how they spend the money through the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB. The president also oversees the US Treasury, which handles the distribution of congressionally mandated money. In his first three weeks, Trump has tried to essentially take over these parts of the system from Congress. He ordered the money for federal programs be stopped. He let Elon Musk's DOGE access sensitive payment systems. And with USAID, he's ordered it to be moved under the State Department led by Secretary Marco Rubio.

Reporter: Sounds like you're going to wind down USAID.

It sounds like it.

Narrator: He also fired hundreds at USAID and ordered every employee on administrative leave.

If there's gonna be a reduction in the funding of allocated funds for USAID, Donald Trump, the president, should work with his Republican majority in Congress to accomplish that.

Narrator: So, how can Congress check this? Their role is to set this framework in the first place, not so much enforcement, impeachment being the main thing.

There's the possibility that Congress could refuse to confirm, say, cabinet nominees that the president wants. Congress could pass laws that further limit presidential power.

Narrator: Like they did in the 70s when President Nixon tried to freeze federal funds. Congress reaffirmed the legality of it with-

The Impoundment Control Act from 1974 that says if the president doesn't wanna spend it, he has to let Congress know and Congress could choose to approve not spending it in 45 days. But the President has no unilateral authority to refuse to spend money.

Narrator: Republicans who have majorities in both houses seem uninterested in checking Trump.

So far as I'm concerned, Chad, this is not a usurpation of authority in any way, it's not a power grab. I think they're doing what we've all expected and hoped and asked that they would do for for years.

Narrator: They also confirmed Trump's chief architect of this strategy, a Project 2025 author, to run OMB after the attempt to freeze funds.

The president ran on the notion that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional. I agree with that.

Narrator: The main check is really the responsibility of the federal courts after there's been a challenge to the law. There are dozens of lawsuits already filed and in some cases the courts already ordered injunctions against the administration. They immediately stopped Trump's order to freeze federal funds and later stopped DOGE's access. President Trump even tried to order that birthright citizenship was unlawful. Courts immediately stopped that too.

They're going to lose that litigation in the courts, they already have in the lower court.

Narrator: And as for USAID?

He's claiming as president that he has the right to fire anyone in the executive branch of government. The Supreme Court has previously rejected that argument. It's another place which is the blatant violation of the law. Many people have been fired illegally in violation of federal law. I expect that they will sue in court and that they will win.

Narrator: A federal judge appointed by Trump stopped USAID's employees from being put on leave, at least temporarily.

There are problems in USAID, but there's a way to address it. Have the Inspector General address the corruption and the conflicts of interest, have Congress have hearings, and do it the way the Founders intended.

Narrator: A lot of what Trump is doing is causing uncertainty, but legal experts say a lot can be stopped or reversed through the legal system. But that's a slow process, and what it would take to undo the damage at USAID is uncertain. Those experts also think these actions are a test to see if the courts might give the executive branch more authority than it has in the past, especially at the Supreme Court where three Trump appointees sit.

They are hoping to test some boundaries with respect to some Supreme Court precedents and they think this current court might be willing to grant more power to the presidency than has been granted to the presidency in the past.

Narrator: Like with Trump's executive order to abolish birthright citizenship.

In the Supreme Court, I think we're gonna win that case, and I look forward to winning it.

Narrator: And especially with the freezing of federal funds.

Eventually part of it will have to be resolved at the Supreme Court. The theory that the appropriations, which is statutory because it comes in that bill, is a ceiling, and his executive and chief executive officer has a wide range to actually make a determination, if it's not fulfilling the program or if the program is off-kilter, he has the ability in the impoundment to impound the money and go take it.

He's pushing the envelope bill across the board to see what he can get away with and how much presidential power he has.

Narrator: This entire system of checks and balances also assumes the president will follow the court's orders.

The court has no power really to enforce its own judgments against the other branches of government.

Narrator: Still, presidents have typically listened to court rulings.

President Trump in his first term didn't like a lot of the court orders but he complied with it.

Narrator: In his second term, his administration is questioning the judges. Immediately after one ruling, Vice President Vance said, "Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."

No judge should frankly be allowed to make that kind of a decision. It's a disgrace.

Narrator: If Trump decided to ignore a court order, experts agree that's when it would become a-

Both: Constitutional crisis.

The sort we've never seen before.

Narrator: If Trump's bet is successful and he is able to go unchecked at dismantling USAID, he could use the same playbook to try it again with the long list of other government agencies he's already set his eyes on.

Some days the high-speed news cycle can bring more questions than answers. WSJ’s news explainers break down the day's biggest stories into bite-size pieces to help you make sense of the news.

How Trump Is Testing the Boundaries of Presidential Power

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