By David Lopez
I learned basic civics in my public school. But mostly, because it was more interesting, I also learned civics after school watching the animated series “Schoolhouse Rock,” often with my abuela – my grandmother – who took care of me.
Back then, “Schoolhouse Rock” had a wonderful episode, “Three Ring Government.” In singing narration, the characters explained “about the government, and how it’s arranged, divided in three, like a three-ring circus.”
Those three circles, all the same size, kept each other honest. For many in my generation, those three rings were our introduction to the idea of the checks and balances built into the U.S. government. They include the separation of powers among the legislative, judicial and executive branches.
In short, we learned, Congress passes the laws, the president administers the laws, and the courts interpret the laws.
This elegant but simple system stood in contrast to the nearly unshackled power of the British king, who ruled over the American colonies before independence. And it provided representation for “We the People,” because we vote for members of Congress.
During its first month, the second Trump administration has pushed a new balance of these powers, granting the president expansive and far-reaching authority. These actions imperil the power of elected lawmakers in the House and Senate to pass legislation, oversee the federal government and exercise spending authority.
Most U.S. legal scholars regarded these issues as fairly settled. Trump’s recent actions, however, have unsettled this understanding.
Here are three examples of how the balance of power is being upset by Trump and his administration:
Independent agencies
On Jan. 28, 2025, President Donald Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, three years before the end of her five-year term.
The National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, established in New Deal legislation in 1935, was designed to ensure industrial peace by protecting the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively. Congress created the board as a bipartisan body to resolve allegations of unfair labor practices brought by workers or management.
By design, the board operated independently from Cabinet-level departments. Congress sought to preserve this independence by ensuring that board members serve a fixed term and could be removed only for “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.”
This independent structure – shared by other agencies such as the Securities Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – aims to provide regulatory consistency, slightly removed from the political passions of the day.
Some legal scholars have been percolating an argument that the Constitution requires the Supreme Court to limit those agencies’ Congressionally endowed independence in favor of more expansive presidential authority, even though the court decided this issue unanimously in 1935.
Wilcox is suing the administration for its apparent violation of Congress’ statutory language by firing her.
“Ms. Wilcox is the first Black woman to serve on the Board, the first Black woman to serve as its Chair, and – if the President’s action is allowed to stand – will also be the first member to be removed from office since the Board’s inception in 1935,” the lawsuit states.
If this case makes it to the Supreme Court, and the court takes the unusual step of reversing itself, its ruling would imperil the independent structure, not just of this agency but of other agencies too.
Asylum laws
Congress created a comprehensive system of laws for processing the asylum claims of people who say they are fleeing persecution or torture to seek protection in the U.S.
These laws allow applicants to show likelihood of harm if they could not stay in the U.S. They were originally adopted in response to humanitarian crises, including when Jews fleeing Nazi Germany were turned away by the U.S., among other countries.
As part of Trump’s declaration, on his first day in back in office, that immigration is both a “national immigration emergency” and an “invasion” under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, the president essentially shut down the asylum process at U.S. ports of entry. His proclamation canceled the appointments of those who had waited to pursue their claim under existing asylum procedures.
In doing so, Trump ignored critical portions of laws passed by Congress. This move places asylum seekers already in the U.S. in danger of being deported to the countries where they say they face life-threatening persecution or torture.
Congressional spending authority
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to set spending amounts and priorities for the federal government. By law, the executive branch cannot spend what has not been appropriated – meaning approved by Congress – nor can it stop that spending.
Shortly following the inauguration, however, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget ordered a pause of federal grants and loans to organizations and programs ranging from Head Start to farm subsidies.
Almost immediately, several states, concerned about the loss of essential federal services, filed a lawsuit to halt the freeze. A federal court in Rhode Island sided with the plaintiffs and temporarily stayed the freeze.
The judge rejected the Trump administration’s argument that it must “align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities,” calling it “constitutionally flawed.” And he concluded that the president could not act unilaterally under the Constitution.
“Congress has not given the Executive limitless power to broadly and indefinitely pause all funds that it has expressly directed to specific recipients and purposes,” wrote the judge, John J. McConnell, Jr. “The Executive’s actions violate the separation of powers.”
“Schoolhouse Rock” taught that one ring must respect the other coequal rings. What has happened under Trump is one ring expanding in size to swallow up much of another ring – that of Congress.
‘Kinglike’ powers?
Several of the Trump administration’s recent actions appear designed to test the legal viability of an expansive, more “kinglike” view of presidential powers.
Yet for the most part, Congress as an institution has mostly remained silent as the executive branch invades its sphere of authority.
Instead, the courts have served as a check on his power by stalling, temporarily, more than a dozen of Trump’s presidential actions that surpass the executive powers permitted under various laws and the Constitution.
Most of these stays are only temporary. They were issued based on the recognition that the immediate harm of unlawful presidential overreach would be difficult to roll back.
In the end, the Supreme Court will likely decide the scope of presidential powers in the various contexts. If they rule in Trump’s favor, the U.S. government will become a one-ring circus run by a kinglike president – precisely what it was never meant to be.
David Lopez is University Professor of Law at Rutgers University, Newark.
Ray W. says
A little background is necessary for this comment. During his Senate confirmation proceedings, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth represented that he was a “non-apologist” and a “warfighter.”
This past weekend, Secretary Hegseth joined as a guest a Fox program, during which he was asked whether Russia’s President Putin had initiated the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. The non-apologist and warfighting Hegseth said that it is “fair to say that it is a very complicated situation.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
In seconds, Secretary Hegseth went from a non-apologist warfighter to a spineless apologist for Putin.
No, it is not a complicated situation. It is simple.
Russian President Putin ordered the invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022.
The reason for the invasion was that Putin has long coveted the rich soil of the Ukraine, said to be the most fertile in the world. Putin has long coveted the heavy industrial base of the Ukraine. Putin has long coveted the natural gas and crude oil reserves of the Ukraine. Putin has long coveted the rare earth reserves of the Ukraine. Putin has long coveted the metal ores and other mineral reserves of the Ukraine. Putin has long coveted the Black Sea ports of the Ukraine. Putin has long coveted the infrastructure of the Ukraine. And most of all, Putin has long coveted the well-educated and industrious people of the Ukraine.
Putin did not order the invasion of the Ukraine to protect Russia from NATO. He ordered the invasion in order to install a puppet government in the Ukraine. When that didn’t work, he retreated and regrouped and tried to destroy the infrastructure of the Ukraine. He is still trying. All that he has accomplished so far is the slaughter and disabling of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, the kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children, the rape and murder of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, the destruction of thousands of tanks and tens of thousands of armored vehicles and hundreds of helicopters and hundreds of fixed-wing aircraft, and the sinking of a third of his Black Sea fleet, all because he is a common thief writ large.
Someone has something he wants, and Putin is willing to expend other people’s lives and the future of his people to get it.
As I said, it is not a complicated situation; it is simple.
Al says
In your child like version of the governmental process you left out the most important fact. The fact is congress has failed to do anything in the last 25 years except act like idiots. They handed over their power to agencies without strict oversite. These agencies for the most part are under the executive branch and within the rights of president Trump to manage.
When you look at the waste and fraud can you honestly say congress has been exercising it’s powers properly? It always becomes the poor this or that person being hurt, never those of us who pay the taxes are considered. I’m a catholic and I question why we give money to catholic charities when the catholic church is worth trillions . Does that socialist pope need to be surrounded by all that gold and opulence?
If you gave any member of your family financial help then found they squandered the money on usless junk would you continue to support them? If you said yes to that question then you’ve convinced me your a liar.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
I know some people play politics like a sport, with a my team won/your team lost mentality and laugh about liberal tears. It’s frustrating because politics isn’t a sport, and your choices affect not only your life but everyone else’s as well, but I get it. You’ve been trained by channels like CNN and FOX to treat politics like a game. It’s not though.
Your choice this election is actively destroying the united states of america. Other countries are seriously looking at moving away from the US dollar, trade wars are starting to wreck families, and layoffs associated with the federal workers and adjacent grants are wrecking lives. The entire data backbone of the united states has been infiltrated by a third party, which means that if and when it’s over no data can be trusted at all. None. Not until it’s built back from the ground up, which means social security payouts, communications between ambassadors, communications between departments, all of it is suspect. The person in charge is dismantling things that you and everyone else depends on.
Laurel says
Ray W.: Absolutely correct! And Trump is following Putin like a puppy, while snarling the same desires by demanding Ukrainian’s resources in exchange for protection (Mafia style) while negotiating these resources with Putin (what Republican ever envisioned this?).
Unless we oust Trump, we will never regain our status, and respect, in the world. We will no longer be trusted. Our best friends and allies are finding new trades, and ways, around us. We the people need to oust him from office, or our position is gone forever.
The majority of the current administration is woefully incompetent, and have no idea what they are doing. A civilian, such as Musk, firing Federal workers, is a prime example. Requiring (?) Federal workers to list five points they accomplished last week is one of the damn, dumbest things I have ever heard of. What if a response was “I went to my mother’s funeral”? Would that be a case for firing who could possibly be one of the best employees? It’s like we have been taken over by a bunch of badly behaved toddlers, bullied around by a really badly behaved toddler.
A Concerned Observer says
It was reported last night during an NBC network news broadcast that beef prices for consumers are increasing even faster than the price of eggs. Is there a bovine flu epidemic out there I’ve not heard of or is this merely the trickle-up price because those in that particular supply chain want more money? It seems that everyone out there needs to blame everything on anyone. President Trump seems to be the most often singled out lightning rod of many politicos and a goodly portion of the citizenry at large, to the point of abject lunacy. Sometimes S**T just happens.
Is president Trump doing some good things? Yes, he is. Is he doing some bad things? Also, yes. An old axiom I remember from my father states: “You can please some of the people all of the time. You can please all of the people some of the time. You cannot please all of the people all of the time.”
I believe that I am not an optimist or even a pessimist, but with all that is going on in our only world, I am beginning to believe “Chicken Little”. The sky IS FALLING!
Russia has a long-standing history of using it’s military to overtake a neighboring country. If President Putin is successful on his most recent land grab, what is to stop Kim Jong-Un from attacking South Korea? He has only to look south to see a rich and vibrant society he has no chance whatsoever of attaining for the North. The same question can be asked of Xi Jinping? He has often expressed another long-standing desire for Taipei for it’s far higher standard of living and total control of the lucrative South China Sea. Who will stop that land grab?
What new pandemic is out there? Will they be a natural phenomenon or one designed in some laboratory seeking a new modern weapon to give their own nation state a level of power and recognition it cannot otherwise attain?
For many years following WWII, the United States was most often expected to be the Worlds Police and the solver of other countries medical pandemics, a military attack from some internal coup within their borders or an external military. That was before nuclear proliferation and the rise to power of Communist despots and other country leaders who desire only their own financial growth and prestige. Should these world powers succeed in these land grabs, future growth of these countries can only continue, until there is only one world power. One can only guess what that future world police will go after. “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”
Unfortunately, I can offer no solution to these questions. I can only resolve that what will be, willbe and that I am what a pessimist aspires to be…
Randy says
Our country is being attacked from within and the corruption that is going on right now in the Oval Office is showing the world the USA can no longer be trusted.
Congress has failed the US Constitution and the American people.
Trump signing executive orders is none of which are actual laws and Congress needs to step up to the plate or get out of Washington.
Kennan says
This indeed simple.
Congress passes laws. The President administers laws, and courts interpret them.
WE NO lONGER DO THAT.
Trump’s presidential powers far Surpass the legal interpretation of executive branches in HIS mind. He will try to take advantage of this as long as he can.
Trump never read the constitution. As YODA would say,” care for it he does not”. His presidential priorities do not align with “the people “at all. Yes people voted for him, but those are people that are sold on bumper stickers, flag waving and saber rattling. No real intellectual curiosity or wanted understanding of how Trump’s actions affect them.
Trump is a slightly gentler version of Putin, but could go away depending on how quickly he can run over all three executive branches.
It could happen. He’s really just waiting for us to stop him. Congress? Hello? Congress? Hello?
Trump is giddy and enamored with” the boy King” mask as he assaults the department of education. Social Security, Medicare, as well as federal grants and loans to Headstart and farm subsidies. Farm subsidies?
That’s not what any of you voted for. He lies and he’s counting on you to not pay attention.
America First. That’s what he thinks of you.
Bartholomew says
The political parties are the problem. They are loyal to the party and that is all. The parties are loyal to their big donors who tell them what to think. The populace falls for their BS. Think for yourself people, and don’t allow these people to lie to you and think you are fools!
Laurel says
Trump will give democratic Ukraine to Russia if he can.
Trump has not complained about North Korean soldiers in Putin’s war on democratic Ukraine.
Trump turns his back on our democratic allies and neighbors.
Trump threatens to overtake democratic Greenland.
Trump threatens to overtake democratic Canada.
Trump has let China know we will not intervene in the takeover of democratic Taiwan.
Trump is destroying our democracy from the inside out.
What do you support about this? Killing democracy? If so, why are you here?
Your options are to move to China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, or…
Jackson says
Trump and MAGA In Charge!
We HAD a Booming Economy,60Yr Low Unemployment Rate, 16Qtrs of Rising GDP and Wages, post-COVID Inflation went down from 9.8 to 2.3, lending rates were coming Down!
Republicans are fixing problems that DON’T EXIST and wrecking the economy and significantly adding to the National Debt to reward their donors!
Linda Moore says
Concerned about America.
The BRIX countries are trying to move the world off the dollar. That makes us a third world country over night. We are 36T dollars in debt and run a budget deficit of 2t every year. The interest on out debt is greater then our Defense Budget. So now we have the smartest people in the world willing to work for free to fix our financial problems, and you all are wining about folks having to tell them what they did last week. Obviously NONE of you are the company owner. We are always asking our employees what they did. College professors don’t do much, so that would have been all you needed to say. The email was to get a pulse check and see who is still working for the government and who has moved on but is still getting a paycheck. But you folks probably fall in th 52% of Americans who don’t pay ant taxes so that doesn’t mean much to you. Do this, keep wining don’t be part of the solution, but do learn Chinese because they are going to eat us for lunch if we don’t get out fiscal house in order.
P S The first day in office Biden signed a EO the closed the Keystone Pipeline, thru 40,000 people out of work that day. Did you wine for them? Gas went from $1.79 to $3.25 and more. You all have no memory.
Skibum says
Al, you speak of so-called facts, yet you failed to mention even a single one to support your opinion. You say Congress somehow handed over their power to federal agencies without any oversight… really? What about all of the congressional hearings that various committees call, ordering federal agency heads to appear and give sworn testimony about what the particular agency is doing with the money that Congress has allocated to it? That is oversight. What about the Inspector Generals, who’s jobs are specifically to have oversight over those agencies, looking for any fraud, waste and inefficiencies? That is… or was, oversight, until all of the IGs were summarily fired by drumph because he does not now, nor has he ever wanted or respected any oversight over the illegal/unethical/unconstitutional (take your pick) actions that he unilaterally takes because he thinks he is the king and can do whatever the hell he wants despite our constitutional separation of federal powers.
When you speak of the waste and fraud as if it has been confirmed that Musk and his wet-behind-the-ears juvenile techies with no government or public sector knowledge or experience have actually found, you didn’t even mention even one example to validate that opinion. Just because you don’t particularly like something that Congress has approved and allocated funds for doesn’t mean it didn’t have value or was just junk money that was wasteful. You could easily find quite a few people who would say that federal taxes on us citizens are a waste, but many, many essential services and programs rely on and are funded by our taxes, and the same people who don’t want to pay a dime in taxes STILL want essential services and programs… go figure!
I could spend a couple of hours rounding up a motly crew of nobodys who have zero knowledge or experience with the inter-workings of a car company or a space company and send them to Musk’s companies to “audit” their operations and look for waste and fraud, and I guarandamntee you that within a couple of days we would come up with a list of worthless employee positions and programs that need to be eliminated for efficiency sake, and I would order every one of his employees to email me with 5 things they did last week so I could make my own damn determination, without knowledge, skill or insight on their jobs, if I should keep them or fire them tomorrow. I bet he wouldn’t like that any more than all of the federal employees and agency heads like Musk invading their work places and making his own decisions on his idiotic, unknowledgeable crap shoot as to which federal employees stay and which ones go… which agencies he agrees are worthwhile and which ones are to be eliminated, which programs funded by Congress are garbage and a waste of money in his eyes and are therefore on the chopping block. It is ridiculous that we even are at this point where we need to have this insane argument in the first place!!!
Dennis C Rathsam says
All I ve herd from you folks on how TRUMPS budget would cut S/S & Medicare….Day after day you lie like rugs! There have been no cuts to either…..Thank you Mr President
Britt says
@Ray W. I agree with your perspective. Secretary Hegseth’s comments on the situation in Ukraine seem to reflect a disappointing lack of clarity and conviction. The facts are indeed clear and simple: President Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, driven by a desire to seize the country’s rich resources and strategic advantages.
The invasion has caused untold suffering, with countless lives lost, families torn apart, and infrastructure devastated. It’s important to call out these actions for what they are—an unjustified and brutal aggression against a sovereign nation.
The notion that this is a “complicated situation” obscures the reality of Putin’s intentions and the consequences of his actions. By doing so, it risks minimizing the very real and tangible impacts on the people of Ukraine.
Thank you for bringing attention to this issue. It’s essential that we continue to stand in solidarity with Ukraine and hold those responsible to account.
Sherry says
@linda moore. . . your comment is all over the place and completely nonsensical. Night classes in the English language is highly recommended. Please post credentialled facts and “fully developed logic” in order to make your point. Thanks!
Sherry says
Awwww. . . Maga voters, are your egg prices now higher with your lord and master trump in office? Looks like milk just may be next! Maybe all those DOGE FIRINGS were NOT a good idea:
The Trump administration touted a nearly $1 billion plan Wednesday to combat the spread of avian flu and mitigate skyrocketing egg prices as the outbreak rips through poultry flocks across the United States.
But the measures come as the Agriculture Department is struggling to REHIRE KEY EMPLOYEES working on the virus outbreak who were fired as part of the administration’s sweeping purge of government workers. Roughly a quarter of employees in a critical office testing for the disease were cut, as well as scientists and inspectors.
The dismissals have already helped trigger a partial shutdown at one of the department’s research facilities, according to two USDA employees, interrupting some workers’ efforts to fight bird flu and help livestock recover from illness.
Now, agency officials are running into logistical challenges in reinstating its bird flu staff — and convincing them to return to jobs while the president repeatedly attempts to squeeze government workers.
Bird flu is spreading beyond poultry and is infecting dairy herds across more than a dozen states, with no end in sight.
Atwp says
We got what the Republicans voted for. President Musk, Puppet Trump. The return on their votes will probably get worse.
Sherry says
Not to confuse the Maga Cult Members With Actual Facts:
Medicaid, ACA. In early February, DOGE gained access to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) payment and contracting systems, the Wall Street Journal reported. On Feb. 19, Trump endorsed a Feb. 13 Republican-led budget that had proposed $880 billion in cuts on programs under the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which includes Medicaid.
The biggest proposed cuts would fall on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Programs, or CHIP, which cover a combined 79.3 million lower-income and children as well as pregnant people, older adults, and some people living with disabilities under 65. This makes up 23.3% of the US population.
The new administration also cut funding for the Affordable Care Act Navigator program, which helps people enroll in Medicaid, from $98 million to $10 million. Meanwhile, several top health officials have publicly resigned since Inauguration Day following NIH budget cuts.
Laurel says
“They’re eating the dogs,
They’re eating the cats,
They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
BTW, it’s w-h-i-n-e
Thanks for the enlightenment.