Media Allege Trump Accumulating Unchecked Power

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Monday argued on the network’s “New Day” program that President Donald Trump is a danger to democracy because he is “systematically, relentlessly” undermining the American system of checks and balances.

Zakaria made a similar allegation on his own CNN show Sunday and said impeachment is the only possible check on Trump’s power. When he repeated the sentiment Monday, it was remarkably just hours before a federal appeals court in Seattle heard arguments about a Trump executive order that a district judge had blocked.

Zakaria, who worries about Trump being a danger to democracy, mocked him in February for achieving nothing.

Zakaria complained about Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, his criticism of the media, and his verbal broadsides against the judiciary.

Even if Trump’s most vicious critics are correct that he has authoritarian impulses, any American president would find it impossible to acquire dictatorial powers in the vein of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Here are some of the ways Trump is checked:

The courts. The court system is a coequal branch of government, and it has not been shy in exercising its power over the decades — and, in fact, arguably has exercised a greater degree of power than the founders initially envisioned.

Although Trump’s critics fear he might defy federal judges, he so far has obeyed rulings he dislikes. Judges have held up both his original and his revised executive orders temporarily barring travelers from certain terrorism-compromised countries.

A federal judge also curtailed Trump’s authority to punish “sanctuary” cities and counties that fail to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

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Even if Trump were inclined to ignore court rulings, it is hard to see how he would accomplish it. Take the travel ban. It would take more than him and a small cadre of White House advisers to defy federal judges. It would require the cooperation of thousands of federal employees at consular offices and customs stations around the world. Those employees would have to be willing to put be their own careers on the line and risk contempt orders personally directed at them.

This has left Trump to tweet his displeasure and insult judges in speeches. This may be unpresidential, but it is a far cry from a constitutional crisis.

Congress. Then there is the other coequal branch of government. As Trump quickly discovered, even a House and Senate in the hands of his own party is no guarantee of legislative success. Aside from a few bills rolling back regulations imposed during former President Barack Obama’s administration, the president has precious little to show for his first four months.

GOP leaders in the House embarrassingly had to pull legislation to repeal Obamacare in March. Even though the House ultimately passed a bill this month, it faces a long road in the Senate.

Although in the minority, opposition Democrats retain a number of tools to slow down or kill legislation. Trump could not even get his entire initial slate of Cabinet nominees confirmed. The White House had to withdraw the nomination of Andrew Puzder to be labor secretary.

Most legislation needs at least 60 votes to overcome filibusters, and many observers believe congressional Democrats rolled Trump in negotiations over a bill to fund the government through September. The measure included no money for Trump’s signature proposal, a wall on the nation’s southern border.

Zakaria, who worries about Trump being a danger to democracy, mocked him in February for achieving nothing.

Some dictator.

The bureaucracy. The vast majority of federal employees do not serve at the pleasure of the president. They have full civil-service protections, meaning they can be fired only for cause. This insulates them from the wrath of a president, even a hypothetical one with dictatorial desires.

Such employees include the career FBI agents running the counterintelligence investigation into possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

It is one of the reasons why federal employees are unlikely to follow Trump if he were to insist they defy a court order.

Aside from their civil-service protections, there is strong evidence that federal workers are hostile to Trump, ideologically. A Government Business Council-GovExec.com survey in October indicated that 53 percent of federal workers planned to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, while just 34 percent backed Trump. Campaign finance records also show that federal workers donated almost exclusively to Clinton.

Trump won just four percent of the vote in the District of Columbia and lost all of the counties surrounding the capital city.

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Trump’s own administration. Officially, the Constitution vests all executive power in the president. In practice, political appointees from the White House to the Cabinet agencies wield a great deal of power, and they won’t always align with Trump’s populist vision.

The administration is filled with Russia hawks who have steered U.S. policy toward confrontation with the Kremlin. Trump agreed to strike Syria after the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons, despite the president’s skepticism toward military action in the Middle East. In addition, Trump — at the urging of aides — has backed off plans to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement, and has not taken the hard line against Chinese trade abuses that he promised on the campaign trail.

And some of those administration officials have been leaking like the Titanic to the media.

The states. Part of the genius of the Constitution is not just that it diffuses power throughout the federal government. It devolves it to the states as well.

Trump cannot fire governors or state legislators, and Democrats have discovered a newfound love of federalism since January 20. It was legal action by states that blocked the travel ban and part of Trump’s sanctuary-city executive order. Trump has railed against the murder rate in Chicago but can take only limited action without the cooperation of local officials.

Trump’s attorney general has ordered U.S. attorneys to prosecute crimes to the fullest extent, but that applies only to the small fraction of crimes tried in federal court. The vast majority of crimes fall under state jurisdiction, and the officials there remain free to pursue sentencing reforms that result in shorter prison sentences. They can also fund Planned Parenthood and take other actions contrary to Trump’s wishes.

The media. Finally, there is the Fourth Estate, which is as aggressive and robust as ever in the Trump era. Studies by the Media Research Center indicate that the coverage Trump has received is historically negative.

A real dictator never would endure the coverage Trump has received. He would shut down opposition newspapers, yank broadcast licenses, and jail journalists. Trump has done none of that and could not do so even if he wanted. No court would allow it.

What Trump has done is send tweets about “fake news,” dishonest journalists, “failing” news organizations, and “low-rated” cable news shows. That may offend elite journalists, but it does not impede the First Amendment.

The ballot box. Elections are the ultimate check on presidential power. If the people dislike the way Trump governs, they will have a chance at a course correction next year. If Democrats win control of one of both branches, it will only strengthen the checks on Trump. They will be able to shut down his legislative agendas and appoint all the special commissions they want.