In his second term, President Donald Trump has embarked on a sweeping campaign to consolidate and expand his executive authority, alarming critics who warn of a “sprint toward autocracy.” From gutting federal agencies and freezing funding for Democratic states to deploying the National Guard and ICE agents en masse, the 79-year-old president has trampled long-standing American institutions and norms at a breakneck pace.
Supporters argue that Trump is rightfully reclaiming control from an entrenched class of unelected bureaucrats. However, experts say his actions reveal a consistent trend of concentrating power within the executive branch, a trend they describe as a blow to the constitutional system of checks and balances.
Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told The Update Desk that the past year has been “a sprint toward an autocracy.” Trump has issued a record-breaking 124 executive orders in his first 100 days, several of which were deemed unconstitutional by critics and courts. He has also aggressively wielded his pardon power, granting clemency to thousands, including nearly all 1,600 people charged in the January 6 Capitol riot.
The president has also publicly pressured the Department of Justice to investigate his political adversaries, a notable break from presidential norms. In September, he berated Attorney General Pam Bondi over the lack of charges against “guilty as hell” ex-FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Senator Adam Schiff. Soon after, both Comey and James were indicted on charges of making false statements and other offenses by federal grand juries.
Trump has also deployed the National Guard to multiple U.S. cities and significantly ramped up ICE operations, particularly in blue states. These actions, often done without the support of state or local officials, have scant historical precedent, according to The New York Times.
Yuval Levin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, struck a more contrarian note, telling The New York Times that while the administration has shown “a lot of action,” it has produced little “durable policy change.” However, many critics have sounded the alarm over Trump’s frequent threats and unilateral military actions, warning that he is steering a conflict-weary nation toward more forever wars and imperiling long-standing alliances.
So far, these dramatic measures have been weakly opposed, if not outright endorsed, by the Republican-controlled Congress. Ornstein said, “The Republican Congress has held no oversight hearings on any of the outrages that have taken place, and that includes the threats to invade our NATO allies, the clear war crimes taking place with the attacks on Venezuela or the abuses of ICE.”
The Supreme Court has also moved cautiously, ruling in the administration’s favour in multiple instances. But with a series of high-profile decisions expected in the coming months, and the uncertainty surrounding the midterm elections, whether the court and Congress will impose meaningful constraints on the president remains unclear. As the nation approaches the final three years of Trump’s second term, the future of American democracy hangs in the balance.