American democracy is bracing for some seismic shifts. President-elect Donald Trump ran on a platform that included mass deportations of immigrants, investigations and prosecutions of perceived political enemies and presidential pardons for those criminally convicted in connection with the riot and carnage of Jan. 6, 2021.

Since Trump left office, the Supreme Court has reshaped the core authority of the presidency by manufacturing immunity for presidents who commit crimes using the powers granted under Article II of the Constitution — including control of the military and federal law enforcement. Bear in mind that this massive enhancement of the “belt and suspenders” of the presidency would not have happened but for Trump and his behavior in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

As we approach Trump’s historic second term, at least two threats to the Constitution create new cause for concern.

The first is the mythological Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as its purported dual department “heads.” Although DOGE amounts to a pure legal fiction at the moment, Republicans in Congress and the mainstream media have been treating it as if it’s real, debating their plans to “slash federal spending by $2 trillion” in some detail. A number of GOP senators have already formed a “DOGE caucus,” which Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) characterizes as “‘bite’ to partner with the ‘bark’ of Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.” After she boasted on........

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