If We Are Living in a Post-Constitutional Era, Are the Guardrails Gone?

  

Trump Proudly Holding up

      an Executive Order

Now that Donald Trump has finally embraced what he denied during his campaign – that the hundreds of pages of Project 2025 are in fact the guiding light in the restructuring of our government – many of the contributors to that absurd, rightwing document, openly discuss how pragmatism, efficiency and strict adherence to MAGA doctrine (as interpreted by Ayatollah DJ Trump), literally the “result” of the 2024 election “mandate” (Trump won 1.5% of the vote), offer a modern replacement for our archaic Constitution. The three separate but equal branches of government – legislative, judicial and executive – are unable to adapt to the vagary and changes of the modern world, they claim.

The Supreme Court has literally tied its own hands behind its judicial back by granting the president virtually total immunity for his/her actions with a colorable claim to “official acts.” There is no basis for that decision in the Constitution, but that ruling falls under the “give them and inch, and they will take a mile” axiom… and inspired Trump, the entire MAGA movement and the framers of Project 2025 as open field to remake America as they wish. The MAGA-majority in both houses of Congress, quiver in fear at the power of Trump should they even question his “mandate”… the tsunami of Trump’s executive orders, his outsourcing of the “Power of the Purse” (a constitutional power delegated solely to the House, but to be voted on by the Senate) to an unelected mega-billionaire and his unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Thus, with an ultra-conservative Supreme Court majority, that literally handcuffed itself, and a Congress unwilling to act as the legislative body it was designed to be, Co-Presidents Trump and Musk have every reason to pursue governance by decree. Sure there have been some stumbling blocks along the way – a couple of federal trial courts issuing restraining orders or injunctions against a litany of overreaching executive orders (from citizen birthrights to wholesale efforts to trim the federal payroll and shut down entire federal agencies, to name a few) – but most of the retrenchment of the Trump/Musk administration resulted from the reactions of cadres of MAGA followers, international reactions and simple failures to achieve the desired result.

Tariffs on Mexico and Canada, delayed and presented by Trump as a negotiating strategy, did not happen. Even the automobile manufacturing sector noted that multiple border crossings of essential parts among and between the US and these countries, in virtually every car “made in the USA,” would kill sales, throw thousands of American out of work. Hamstrung between younger progressives and older, geriatric “moderates” in redefining what the Democratic Party should be, the Dems have only been able to muster popular rallies against obvious overreaching by the MAGA-controlled branches of government.

Trump remains wildly popular with his base, unconcerned about constitutional limits. While the Trump/Musk administration has received at best mixed reaction from our traditional allies, his popularity in Russia is exploding, beginning to eclipse the sacred image of Vladimir Putin. “On January 27, Repost, an independent Russian digital newspaper, published an article headlined ‘The Kremlin is concerned about the popularity of Trump and his ideas among Russians.’” Newsweek, February 6th. Mainstream EU nations evidence more concerns over this apparent American transition from democracy to autocracy. Want a staggering inciteful metric in the two largest EU countries: Tesla sales in Germany have plunged by 59%, in France by 63%.

As the MAGA House majority prepares its “whatever Donald Trump wants” proposed going forward budget, in anticipation of the expiration of the stopgap debt ceiling rise on March 14th, expect a Congressional bloodbath, with the House totally focused on cutting social programs and what is viewed as unnecessary government (e.g., paring 10,000 person USAID to about 300 and moving its operations as a small offshoot of the Department of State, culling the civil service payroll regardless of the consequences, shutting down the Department of Education and seriously defunding the Environmental Protection Agency and maybe even FEMA).

Eliminating waste and increasing government efficiency, as they promise – and there is always room for cutting the unnecessary – or simply making room for Trump’s clear commitment to his billionaire oligarch cronies of what would be the largest cuts to the rich (who get over 95% of the benefits of such tax cuts) in recent memory. Otherwise, that tax cut would, by most credible estimates, add $5 trillion to our aggregate federal deficit. But even as MAGA-House is in slash and burn mode, immigration Czar Tom Holman needs money, lots and lots of money (estimates range from $88B - $350B a year) to arrest, detain and deport the mass of undocumented residents in the United States), as Holman has clearly expanded his targeted efforts.

Trump is counting on both the snail’s pace of litigation challenging his decrees, expecting conflicting rulings at the appellate level and a continuation of the rightwing expansionist rulings from his reconfigured Supreme Court. And yes, America, if the Trump changes are too severe in the eyes of even die hard Trumpers, he can always blame and then dump Musk and company!

But as Trump’s appointments all-too-frequently embrace our new “post-constitutional” era, there is one “constitutional crisis” threshold that Trump/Musk have not crossed yet: ignoring or defying the definitive order of the federal courts. Looming large among issues is the very existence of DOGE, its access to payables and personal information as it penetrates the Department of the Treasury and other agencies, and its seeming unfettered leadership of perhaps the most conflicted infamous rule-breaking CEO, Elon Musk. Stand back and standby.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while many voters shudder at the rising threat of a major constitutional crisis, one that could bring the nation to its knees, devoted MAGA-Trumpers relish the idea.