You can put the whole Trump 2.0 “shock and awe” agenda of right-wing policies into two baskets. There are things that Donald Trump pretty clearly has the power to do (e.g., tariffs and revoking policies set by Biden executive orders) or a Republican-controlled Congress can do via the upcoming budget reconciliation bill (or bills) that Democrats cannot stop. And then there are things Trump and his underlings are doing that rely on exotic and dangerous theories of imperial presidential powers that Richard Nixon could have only dreamed of possessing. These include the Office of Management and Budget’s aborted “federal funding freeze” and the guerrilla campaign that Elon Musk and his Geek Kiddie Corps is undertaking by physically seizing control of “choke points” for government operations. Democrats obviously can’t do anything about those executive actions, other than to point and shout and encourage the courts to intervene.

But there is a steadily increasing possibility that the Trump offensive could go so far........

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