Trump’s authoritarian drift pushes the US towards a constitutional crisis
The clash with judges over deportations is the latest in a series of dubious legal measures adopted by the president during the first two months of his term
Donald Trump declared during his campaign that if he won the election, he would be a dictator on day one. Since his triumphant return to the White House, the U.S. president has focused on straining the executive branch, encroaching on legislative powers with a flood of executive orders, and defying judicial rulings. His authoritarian drift threatens to trigger a constitutional crisis and jeopardizes the system of checks and balances that has defined American democracy for nearly 250 years. The clash between branches of government has intensified over the past week, after the president invoked an 18th-century law, applicable in times of war, to deport immigrants without legal guarantees — just as he had promised to do.
