Trump Is Testing Our Constitutional System. It’s Doing Fine.
The president’s flurry of illegal actions have been stopped by the courts. That’s how it is supposed to work.
He likes the chaos he creates.
Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
The Trump administration is subjecting the US constitutional system to a stress test. We’re on the treadmill, with instruments recording everything that’s happening.
Nearly every day since taking office, Trump has done something unlawful that makes the treadmill go a little faster. He has purported to ban birthright citizenship; fired 17 inspectors general; briefly frozen federal spending; and most recently, taken steps to shutter the US Agency for International Development. That’s not counting the tariffs imposed on Mexico, Canada and China, which would probably-but-not-definitely be upheld by the courts as a lawful exercise of power delegated by Congress.