On Inauguration Day, “First Buddy” Elon Musk posted a screenshot of President Donald Trump’s @POTUS X account juxtaposed with his previously suspended personal account with the caption: “The Return of the King.” This president and his associates have a rather tiresome habit of referring to him with monarchical and divine terminology, especially frustrating when one considers that he leads a nation founded by religiously persecuted people fleeing a tyrannical king — but hey, Trump derangement syndrome plagues too many of us.
Now more than two weeks into this administration, Musk’s words feel almost prophetic to me. The actions we have borne witness to since then — actions that trample constitutional amendments and rule of law — suggest that this president and this administration intend to pay little heed to provincial notions like democracy. This is a time when checks and balances and ingrained aspects of democratic oversight are being systematically dismantled, brick by brick, and in rapid succession to fuel our disorientation.
On his first day in office, Trump issued, among others, an executive order that rejected the long-held constitutional principle of birthright citizenship. As per the order, automatic citizenship would exclude children of undocumented immigrants, as well as those of individuals here on temporary work or student visas.
Regardless of your political beliefs, birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment, clear as day. Immigrants who pay taxes and are accountable to U.S. laws, documented or undocumented, undoubtedly are “subject to the jurisdiction” of this nation. It was a Ronald Reagan-appointed federal judge that blocked this order, saying that he “can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear.”
Equally troubling was Trump’s sudden mass purge of over 15 inspectors general across various federal agencies. Inspectors general were established in the wake of Watergate, meant to function as independent checks on abuse of power. Presidents are required to give Congress 30 days’ notice and reasons for firing these individuals. Even if Trump had legitimate justifications for terminating them — justifications beyond wishing to replace them with political sycophants, that is — trampling federal laws to achieve his own ends is indicative of a pattern of grave executive overreach.
It doesn’t end there. Last week, the Trump administration froze trillions of dollars in federal funding in a rather vague memo. The order thrust the nation into panic with universities, nonprofits, welfare beneficiaries and others unsure of how they'd be affected. It is not up to the executive branch to withhold funds that Congress has appropriated and usurp the “power of the purse.” The administration rescinded the freeze order roughly two days later, after two federal judges blocked it.
A few days later, Trump dismissed Senate-confirmed Democratic members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and one of the National Labor Relations Board — paving the way for the EEOC voting majority to swing to Republicans. These actions were similarly irregular. The EEOC members had several years remaining in their terms, and NLRB commissioners can only be removed, with notice, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, neither of which were cited as justification.
These actions do not constitute a wave of personnel changes catalyzed by the “mandate” that voters have given Trump. Those mentioned in this piece are a scarce few of the avalanche of executive actions and orders, but these are the ones that blatantly defy the law. Taken together, these orders paint a picture of an administration intent on eroding the structures of our democracy to serve its own ends.
Every news cycle seems to bring 10 new funerals for democratic institutions. It’s difficult to remain attentive, to keep record and to sustain hope in this environment. Among executive actions I did not mention are the United States' withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreements, elimination of federal DEI programs and freezing federal hiring — with exception for immigration enforcement and U.S. military positions.
