4 major ways Trump is testing the limits of presidential power

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Presidents expanding their powers is an American tradition. Many commanders in chief have tried. Franklin Roosevelt reorganized the government during the Great Depression. George W. Bush and Barack Obama stretched wartime powers after 9/11. Donald Trump and Joe Biden activated emergency authorities during the COVID pandemic.

But Trump is now pushing beyond where his predecessors — and he in his first term — stopped. Today’s newsletter explains four big ways in which Trump is stretching his powers and which seem most likely to succeed.

Trump, who pledged to shrink the government, is attempting to deliver in two ways: dismissing federal workers en masse and firing specific officials. So far, courts have been skeptical of the administration’s mass firings. Federal judges have ordered it to rehire tens of thousands of workers at more than a dozen agencies.

But many of Trump’s efforts to fire specific officials may work. Trump has dismissed inspectors general — internal watchdogs who investigate claims of waste, fraud, or wrongdoing — without giving Congress required notice. He’s also ousted Democratic appointees from the Federal Trade Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and other independent agencies despite a 1935 Supreme Court ruling that such officials can be fired only for cause.

The administration’s argument, that presidents have sole authority over who works in the executive branch, may appeal to the current Supreme Court. During Trump’s first term, its conservative majority let him fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without cause. Trump now seems to be betting that the court will overturn its own 1935 ruling.

“This is the court that might change its mind,” said Andrew Rudalevige, a Bowdoin professor who studies presidential power.

Trump has also refused to spend money that Congress authorized, freezing federal grants and slashing foreign aid.

In the civics-class version of this story, Congress appropriates and the president spends. In truth, Congress sometimes gives presidents leeway. But after Richard Nixon impounded billions of federal spending he didn’t like until courts stopped him, Congress passed a 1974 law blocking presidents from doing so unilaterally.

Trump wants to reopen that debate, arguing that the 1974 law is unconstitutional. Courts have disagreed so far, ordering the administration to unfreeze spending and rejecting its efforts to halt foreign aid.

The clash is about more than line items on a ledger, says Genevieve Nadeau, counsel for Protect Democracy, a legal nonprofit that aims to defend the rule of law. “We think about spending and impoundment as this narrow issue, but it’s actually behind everything the government does,” she said. “If the president has absolute control over what is done with funding, that’s the government.”

Trump has also attempted to dismantle agencies that Congress created, including USAID and the Education Department.

Amid pushback, he seems to have moderated his approach. Despite pledging to abolish the Education Department, the executive order Trump signed last week preserves its core functions. A judge ruled that efforts to shutter USAID likely violated the Constitution.

Other lawsuits are ongoing. But the harm, from canceling contracts or cutting staff, may already be done. “Dismantling agencies, it’s hard to put them back together,” Nadeau said.

Trump is also stretching powers Congress has granted to presidents in moments of national crisis by invoking them outside the circumstances in which they were meant to be used. Trump’s creative use of the law has in turn tested his obedience to court orders, which presidents cannot defy.

To help deport undocumented immigrants en masse, Trump invoked a 1798 law called the Alien Enemies Act. The administration is now in a standoff with a federal judge over its use of the law, which is supposed to be used only in wartime or during an invasion by another country, and whether it defied his order not to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members. (Some of the deported Venezuelans’ attorneys and family members have also disputed that they have gang ties or even criminal records, and the administration hasn’t produced proof of its claims.)

The administration argues that the judge’s order blocking the deportations came too late, despite contrary evidence, and that the judge overstepped his authority, courting a potential constitutional crisis. An appeals court is set to hear the case today.

Trump’s efforts to expand his power matter beyond his term. The presidency is like a wool sweater; once stretched, it doesn’t easily regain its old dimensions. Yet there are examples of Congress pushing back. After Nixon, lawmakers reformed campaign finance and passed protections for civil servants.

So far, most of the Republicans who control Congress haven’t criticized Trump, let alone stopped him. The longer it takes, the more emboldened he may feel. “Some of these moves are, I think, intended to really press to see what will the courts let him do? What will Congress let him do?” said Nadeau, of Protect Democracy. “The more he’s allowed to get away with, the more he’ll do it.”

🧩 1 Down: Solo | ☔ 44º Precipitation

Boston and New England

• Immigration raids: Across Massachusetts, federal agents are targeting criminals and non-criminals alike. In Chelsea, they arrested an undocumented Salvadoran man without a criminal record. In Fall River, a US citizen from Puerto Rico said they blocked her in until she showed three different forms of ID.
• Dubious distinction: Boston’s MBTA had the most derailments of any metro public transit system in the United States in recent years.
• Protests: Hundreds demonstrated outside Boston’s Turkish Consulate General against the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, a rival of Turkey’s president, on charges seen as politicized.
• Mall shooting: Two teenagers were fatally shot in a parking lot outside a Brockton mall on Saturday night, apparently during a fight. Police are investigating.

Trump administration

• Not your grandmother’s egg roll: The administration is soliciting corporate sponsors for this year’s Easter Egg Roll. Ethics experts worry about corporate branding on White House grounds. (CNN)
• Feuding: Trump is demanding that Maine Governor Janet Mills apologize to him personally after they clashed last month over transgender athletes. He falsely claimed that the state had already apologized. (Maine Public Radio)
• Detention stories: Immigrant women detained by ICE described being chained for hours, held in crowded cells, and told to urinate on the floor. (USA Today)
• Goodbye to all that: A growing number of Americans, fed up with political turmoil, are seeking dual citizenship.
• Roasted: Comedians mocked Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center at an event there that honored Conan O’Brien with the Mark Twain Prize for comedy. (Deadline)

The Nation and the World

• Defiant: Chuck Schumer said he won’t step aside as the top Senate Democrat, rejecting calls from Democrats who criticized him for helping pass a GOP spending bill. (NBC)
• New Mexico shooting: Police arrested four suspects after a shooting at a park in Las Cruces killed three people and injured 15. (KTSM)
• Russia-Ukraine war: Russian drones killed several people in Ukraine ahead of US-mediated cease-fire talks in Saudi Arabia today. (Kyiv Independent)
• Israel-Hamas war: Israel said it killed a senior Hamas official in a precision airstrike on a Gaza hospital. (Times of Israel) Hamas said the strike also killed a 16-year-old boy and injured other patients. (Al Jazeera)

By Teresa Hanafin, Globe Staff

📆 Free Boston events: Comedy shows, Latin rhythms, ancient games, a “Wicked” screening, and more.

🫠 The world is melting: From Timothée Chalamet’s red carpet “fit” to KitchenAid’s new mixer, butter yellow is the hot color right now. (Eater)

💌 Love Letters: LW keeps wanting hubby to be perfect and wonders: Why can’t I just enjoy him?

🐟 Ding-dong: Fish waiting to pass through a river lock in the Netherlands can be prey for bigger fish. So officials installed a doorbell. For you, not the fish. You “press” it via a live feed when enough fish are backed up and a worker will open the lock. (AP)

⚾️ Can’t believe it: Baseball season is back, but at least one fan says it won’t be the same without longtime broadcaster Joe Castiglione.

🗣️ They: As AI bots get better at “empathetic” communication, more people are relying on them for emotional support — to the dismay of experts. (Axios)

🩺 Credible or a crank? When it comes to your health, should you believe social media influencers, Dr. Oz, or even RFK Jr.? Here’s how to evaluate advice. (AP)

🍿 Popping off: The founder of Pirate’s Booty Snacks is trying to seize control of a tiny New York village even though he lost the mayoral race. (NBC)

Thanks for reading Starting Point. Have a great start to the week.

This newsletter was edited by Teresa Hanafin and produced by Bill Geshwender and Diamond Naga Siu.

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Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.