Trump opens up another front in his war on America’s system of checks and balances

This is an adapted excerpt from the Feb. 22 episode of “Velshi.”

At first, the unfolding scandal involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the Justice Department was seen mostly as a local issue, having little significance beyond the city’s five boroughs. The same could be said for the drama surrounding the city’s congestion pricing, which President Donald Trump said he would abruptly terminate last week in a very public showdown with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, or Adams' decision, after a meeting with Trump's border czar, to allow federal immigration authorities to operate on Rikers Island.

Now, it’s easy to downplay all of these maneuvers as a local political spat that just happens to involve the president of the United States, himself a native New Yorker. But what Trump and his administration are doing goes far beyond New York. Trump is opening up another front in his war on America’s system of checks and balances, targeting the separation of powers between federal, state and local authorities and the very principle of state sovereignty as outlined in the 10th Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

For many Americans watching this dramatic showdown between Trump and New York officials, there’s a mix of amusement and disbelief. After facing backlash for his fights with New York, in which Hochul described him, derisively, as acting like a king, Trump declared on social media, “LONG LIVE THE KING!” His administration further trolled the American people by using official White House channels to post a fake magazine cover depicting Trump wearing a crown. The whole thing reads like a joke but this is real life. This is the nation’s president declaring himself king as he bullies first a city, then a state, into submission.

Every crack in the armor of federalism, the philosophy around which this country was formed at its independence, brings us closer to autocracy. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to now imagine the federal government declaring any policy it doesn’t favor as an emergency that must be solved by them. Or a federal government that doesn’t just cut apparent quid pro quo deals with a mayor or override a state governor, but one which deploys federal troops to our cities to crush state opposition and solve whatever it deems to be an emergency.

If you think this is a stretch, I want you to zoom out for a moment and consider what’s happening in the broader context of Trump’s strategy. He has defunded federal programs, sicced the Justice Department against his critics and used it to protect his supporters, and, potentially illegally, frozen billions of dollars in spending approved by Congress.

Trump is systematically toppling the dominos of checks and balances: Usurping Congress’ power, delegitimizing the judiciary and rejecting federalism — all things that were designed by the framers to prevent absolute executive power.

Just last week, Trump escalated his seemingly unconstitutional power grab by signing an executive order that claims the authority to seize control of independent federal agencies — agencies that were specifically set up to be insulated from political pressures. This includes the Federal Election Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board. 

The order is sure to face a legal challenge as an overreach of presidential authority — but breaking the law might very well be the point. Trump’s sweeping power grab is designed to advance a radical legal doctrine called the “unitary executive theory,” which envisions vast executive authority for the president, free from interference by Congress or the courts.

Every move on the chessboard is aimed at consolidating absolute control in Trump’s hands. Trump is deliberately setting the stage for a Supreme Court showdown, where he knows he has a receptive audience among its ultra-conservative justices.

According to the Brennan Center, the unitary executive theory “is a fancy way of saying that a chief executive can rule over the executive branch like a monarch.” Prominent legal historian Frank Bowman called it “an open declaration of dictatorship.” As one analyst put it, the only difference between what Trump is doing and a monarchy is that kings inherit their power. 

And don’t think the 22nd Amendment, which limits a president to two terms, isn’t next on the chopping block. Already, at least one conservative judge has given credence to the idea of overturning presidential term limits, despite the overwhelming legal consensus that it would be unconstitutional, and antidemocratic, to the core.

While Congress appears to have consented to this broader takeover, and some judges appear ready to hold the line, the American people have stepped up, building organized resistance in all 50 states.

We are in the eye of the storm but generations before us in America have weathered their own storms. America’s story, above all, is a struggle against tyranny, an underdog’s fight against Goliath. Time and again, it was “the people” who redeemed America’s soul, from suffrage to the Stonewall riots to the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, where ordinary Americans risked their physical safety to confront injustice. From the Underground Railroad, when ordinary Americans stationed across the republic and with the help of their Canadian neighbors, risked everything to lead enslaved people to freedom. To Gettysburg, where thousands fought to preserve the Union and end slavery for good. All the way back to the nation’s first revolt against tyranny, the Boston Tea Party, when grassroots resistance rose up against the English monarchy, two years before the Revolutionary War officially repudiated rule by a king.

This country has grown more inclusive and more democratic with each passing generation, and now, as democracy stands on the brink, the question is not whether history will repeat itself, or whether the people will rise to the moment —  they already are. The question is who will stand with you against injustice, for liberty and in defense of democracy. When the dust settles, when this moment becomes just another chapter in America's story, another hard-won victory for freedom, whose names will be remembered for standing on the right side of history?