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Next up for the US: Constitutional crisis?

February 20, 2025
Stephen Maher
beige concrete building under blue sky during daytime
Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash
As Donald Trump draws the United States closer to Vladimir Putin, he is continuing to signal that he intends to govern in a more autocratic style than any recent predecessor.

On Tuesday, he issued an executive order that would give him direct control over regulatory agencies that Congress established as independent. The order is designed to “ensure Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch,” including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board.

The move would change the longstanding balance of powers, giving Trump unprecedented authority, which legal scholars see as part of a long-term strategy by conservative legal activists to weaken the regulatory state.

The order also creates the possibility that Trump could use the agencies’ regulatory powers to reward or punish companies that get on his wrong side, alarming critics who already fear presidential overreach. Trump did not give them comfort on Saturday when he pithily expressed his view of his legal authority with a Napoleon quote: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”

Trump’s many executive orders are being tested in court. The big question looming over that process: If they rule against him, will he yield, or will the United States face a constitutional crisis?

For more on this, read our GZERO Explains piece on it here.

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