US President Donald Trumpshows an executive order he signed in the Oval Office of the White House on January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
US President Donald Trumpshows an executive order he signed in the Oval Office of the White House on January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
Most presidents want as much power as they can get. And it’s not unusual to see them claim authority that they don’t, in the end, actually have.
We saw it just last term, when former President Biden tried to unilaterally forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in federal student loans.
Or when he announced, days before leaving office that the 28th Amendment, on gender equality, was now the law of the land.
So are the opening moves of Trump’s presidency just a spicier version of the standard playbook or an imminent threat to constitutional government as we know it?
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org
Email us at considerthis@npr.org
This episode was produced by Marc Rivers and Connor Donevan.
It was edited by Courtney Dorning.
Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
