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What a Democrat Could Do With Trump’s Power
The Atlantic ^ | 7/23/25 | Paul Rosenzweig

Posted on 07/23/2025 7:22:37 AM PDT by DallasBiff

In this first year of his second term, President Donald Trump has claimed broad powers to unilaterally restructure much of how the U.S. government functions. Some of these assertions have gone completely unchallenged. Others have been litigated, and although lower courts have been skeptical of many of these efforts, the Supreme Court has been more approving. Trump has taken as much advantage of his new powers as he plausibly can, prosecuting his political enemies, firing independent agency heads, and dismantling federal agencies almost at a whim.

One salient question now is: When and if the Democrats return to power, how much of Trump’s damage can they undo? Let’s assume, for the moment, that the Supreme Court acts in good faith—that its views on presidential power are without partisan favor, and that it doesn’t arbitrarily invent carve-outs to rein in a Democratic president. What then?

Even with such (unlikely) parameters, the outcomes of this thought experiment suggest few opportunities for a Democratic president to make positive use of these novel presidential powers. Most of the powers that Trump asserts are either preclusive (preventing something from happening) or negating (ending something that is already in process). Few of them are positive powers, allowing the creation of something new, and even those are not permanent—the next Republican president could likely reverse most Democratic initiatives, sending the country into a retaliatory spiral.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History
KEYWORDS: 2026wipeout; 2028wipeout; astroturf; blowbackcoming; demagogicparty; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; magacult; mediawingofthednc; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; paulrosenzweig; radicalliberals; theatlantic; trump
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To: DallasBiff

/eyeroll


21 posted on 07/23/2025 8:03:52 AM PDT by sauropod (Make sure Satan has to climb over a lot of Scripture to get to you. John MacArthur Ne supra crepidam)
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To: DallasBiff

“…advantage of his new powers…”

Exe power isn’t new.


22 posted on 07/23/2025 8:04:54 AM PDT by TalBlack (Their god is government. Prepare for a religious war.https://freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=4322961%2)
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To: DallasBiff

That’s why Trump’s administrative actions must be codified — to circumscribe their use in the proper way.


23 posted on 07/23/2025 8:07:55 AM PDT by Socon-Econ (adi)
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To: DallasBiff

We don’t have to speculate. We already saw it. Barack Soetoros and Otto Penn.


24 posted on 07/23/2025 8:22:49 AM PDT by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: RoosterRedux
The Democrats want power to enrich themselves, not to contribute.

that would be bad enough if that were all they wanted, but they want to force their totalitarian vision of society and government on all of us. We look at North Korea, Cuba etc and see horrors. People tortured for not expressing the right thought or listening to the “wrong” music. We see some of the lowest standards of living on the planet - for ordinary citizens. We see a total lack of freedom in consumer choice, of religion, of the ability to express an opinion that is not in line with what the government declares to be proper thought., etc.

Democrats look at these and see how wonderfully powerful the people in charge are. They can force the proletariat to do whatever the government wants.

Democrats see this as the ideal and ultimate goal of government. This is what they work tirelessly toward so that one day they’ll be able to grind their jackboots on our faces forever. The bill of rights stands in their way. So they invented the false idea of a “living constitution”. They hate and fear the 2nd amendment because they know if they push far enough fast enough they will start dying. They hate Trump with a rabid intensity because he’s rolling back years of effort toward their goal of a totalitarian society that would make North Korea look like a libertarian paradise. They hate us because we elected Trump. You cannot reason with them. You cannot compromise with them. You can only defeat them or be defeated by them.

25 posted on 07/23/2025 8:52:18 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy - EVs a solution for which there is no problem)
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To: Flatus I. Maximus; ProgressingAmerica

Arguably Wilson got it rolling.


26 posted on 07/23/2025 9:00:26 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: DallasBiff

“The Congress shall have power...To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district....as may, by cession of particular states..., and to exercise like authority over places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state...for the erection of forts...”

ARTICLE I, SECTION 8

“The Congress shall have power to dispose of...the territory or other property of the United States”

ARTICLE IV, SECTION 3

Congress might by simply majority vote make say Eglin Air Force Base an independent country.

The country could be made fully independent, with income and real property taxation forever prohibited (or taxation permanently & simply restricted to sales taxation of non-essential stuff). No sitting federal judge would have any say in its administration. A treaty could require it to be forever free of any foreign military presence.

Los Angeles with its million invaders could be made by the Democrats an independent country if the State of California grants it to the federal government. The first act of the Los Angeles national legislature might be to make all residents citizens of the nation state of Los Angeles.

The State of Florida could give my neighborhood to the federal government and my neighborhood could become an independent nation free from income & property taxation and US judge jurisdiction.


27 posted on 07/23/2025 9:02:33 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: from occupied ga
they want to force their totalitarian vision of society and government on all of us.

Very true. It's their religion.

28 posted on 07/23/2025 9:09:51 AM PDT by RoosterRedux ("There's nothing so inert as a closed mind" )
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To: DallasBiff

And what is your greatest accomplishment, President Trump?

I’ve been able to keep the income tax fleecing of Americans down to about $1.5 trillion per year.


29 posted on 07/23/2025 9:14:32 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: DallasBiff

We need to limit the ability of Democrats to buy votes by placing middle-class tax caps in the federal constitution.

Drop two bills in the hopper and fight to limit the ability of Democrats to buy votes at the expense of the middle class.

Federal taxation on personal income shall be capped as follows:
below 20% of the median federal full-time civilian employee compensation amount, 10%,
below 50% of the median federal full-time civilian employee compensation amount, 22%,
below the median federal full-time civilian employee compensation amount, 30%,
below the average federal full-time civilian employee compensation of the 100,000 largest recipients, 35%,
below the average federal full-time civilian employee compensation of the 10,000 largest recipients, 40%.
[Note 1: All percentages to include employee FICA and self-employment tax as they are income taxes.]
[Note 2: These are very close to the combined (1040 + employee FICA & Medicare) personal income tax rates now levied.]
[Note 3: Anything that the IRS would as of January 1, 2024 legally be able to collect income tax on if provided to any person would be considered compensation.]

Levies on any residential property of less than 2799 square feet of finished living space shall be no higher than the 2019 dollar amounts for the property, or for a newer or since resold property no higher than what it would have been levied at for 2019 if it lacked owner specific tax breaks, increased by 3% per calendar year since 2019 and by any percentage increase to its finished living space.

Fighting in Congress to send middle-class income and property taxation cap constitutional amendments to the states would make Congress turn deep red come 2027.


30 posted on 07/23/2025 9:29:37 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: FreedomPoster

“Arguably Wilson got it rolling.”

income tax - Senator Cordell Hull of Tennessee
Federal Reserve - Senator Carter Glass of Virginia?

And that was before Amendment XVII!


31 posted on 07/23/2025 9:34:27 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Flatus I. Maximus
Golly. You mean, he’s acting like every Democratic president has since Franklin D. Roosevelt first took office?

A little further back to Woodrow Wilson.

What is good in Life?

"...to hear the lamentations of The Atlantic."

32 posted on 07/23/2025 10:25:18 AM PDT by MikelTackNailer (Listen to me now, think about it later and cry about it some other day.)
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To: DallasBiff

How are they going to accumulate the government funding to buy votes to get back in power when USAID is shut down?


33 posted on 07/23/2025 11:11:52 AM PDT by OrioleFan (Republicans believe every day is July 4th, Democrats believe every day is April 15th.)
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To: DallasBiff
Trump has taken as much advantage of his new powers as he plausibly can, prosecuting his political enemies, firing independent agency heads, and dismantling federal agencies almost at a whim. One salient question now is: When and if the Democrats return to power, how much of Trump’s damage can they undo?

Never accept the enemy's false premises.

34 posted on 07/23/2025 11:19:47 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (Think about it: The Supreme Court is nine lawyers appointed for life by politicians. —David Horowitz)
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To: Brian Griffin; FreedomPoster
"income tax - Senator Cordell Hull of Tennessee"

Cordell Hull had nothing to do with the constitutional amendment to my knowledge - except for perhaps? a vote on it.

And once the Tax Amendment(16) was passed, the congressional law that Hull wrote was incidental. Its the amendment that does pretty much all of the heavy lifting.

The income tax amendment is primarily the fault of the Bull Moosers, the original progressives.

35 posted on 07/23/2025 12:48:57 PM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (We cannot vote our way out of these problems. The only way out is to activist our way out.)
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To: DallasBiff

The Atlantic always pimps for the democrats a poor mans New York Times.


36 posted on 07/23/2025 1:15:59 PM PDT by Vaduz
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To: DallasBiff
“…President Donald Trump has claimed broad powers to unilaterally restructure much of how the U.S. government functions.”

President Donald Trump has claimed broad powers to unilaterally restructure restore much of how the U.S. government should function.

37 posted on 07/24/2025 9:45:10 AM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Finish the damned WALL! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH! )
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