Washington, D.C.– US President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated in just five days, accomplishing a shocking task reversal of fortune It allowed him to bounce back from a failed re-election bid in 2020.

Trump’s second term in the White House begins on Monday in what will be the latest test of his hard-line approach to presidential power.

His approach could transform an office that has grown in effectiveness over decades despite being constitutionally designed to balance the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government.

Indeed, Trump’s sweeping assertions of presidential authority — both during his iconoclastic first term and in the years since — have unsettled experts, who question what will happen in the next four years .

Marjorie Cohen, professor emeritus at Thomas Jefferson Law School, said a second Trump term has the potential to fundamentally change the operations of federal agencies that oversee health, safety, water, climate and labor.

She also told Al Jazeera that Trump’s personal desires and rivalries could blur the lines of what federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies are authorized to do.

“(Trump) calls for ‘television tribunals’ to jail his critics, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Liz Cheney and Mike Pence,” Cohen said.

“He will also likely call in the military to target Americans who are legitimately protesting — against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and fighting for the rights of women, workers and LGBTQ people.”

The trend of expanding authority

To be sure, predicting what the erratic Trump might do is a fraught endeavor.

But Mitchel Sollenberger, a professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, said the next four years may reveal the gap between Trump’s tough rhetorical style and his actual goals. Sollenberger has written extensively about presidential power.

Trump may be overtly expressing his passion for power, but Sollenberger explained that over the years, modern presidents have laid the groundwork for expanded executive power.

This, in turn, has been exacerbated by Congressional wariness about taking back these powers.

“We are in a relatively unique era of ‘presidentialism,’ or president-centered governance,” Sollenberger told Al Jazeera.

He sees the “progressive increase” in presidential power during Trump’s first term as that of many of his predecessors, who over the past 100 years have increasingly relied on executive orders, presidential prerogatives and policy czars to enact their own policies. agenda.

But Sollenberger added that there are limitations. A turning point came during the administration of President Richard Nixon, whose belief in expanding presidential power underpinned covert bombing campaigns and wiretapping of political opponents during the Vietnam War.

When these actions became public, there was widespread backlash and Nixon resigned in 1974.

Nonetheless, subsequent presidents also sought to expand the influence of the White House.

For example, in 2001, then-President George W. Bush oversaw the passage of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), which enabled him to use “necessary and appropriate force” in what he called the “global war on terror.”

Critics argue that this authorization allowed Bush and his successors to justify broad presidential military orders by circumventing the power of Congress as the only body capable of declaring war.

Sollenberger added that how far Trump himself can push the power of the presidency will depend on “compromises” between Trump, Congress and the judiciary.

Trump took office with Republican majority In both the House and Senate, conservatives hold a supermajority on the Supreme Court, including three justices appointed by Trump during his first term.

Be a dictator for a day?

Trump’s recent comments have only heightened concerns about his second term and whether he will expand the powers granted to the presidency by the Constitution.

During his reelection campaign, Trump called the 2024 election “our last fight,” and at one point told supporters in Florida that if he won, they “wouldn’t have to vote again.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s account shared a video on his Truth social platform in which he referenced “United Reich,” a German word meaning “kingdom” often associated with Nazi Germany.

His political opponents also exploited his strongman tendencies to attack him as a “dictator.” Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, described Trump as “a dictator-worshiping, fascist president.”

Trump has pandered to the outcry and his comments appear designed to get people talking.

For example, in response to criticism in 2023, he told Fox News that if elected he would be an autocrat, but “just on day one,” turning to the executive actions he hopes to take once he takes office.

Trump has made a slew of nominees since his November election victory loyalist His incoming government has also expressed his desire to suppress his critics.

One of his most controversial picks has included former federal prosecutor Kash Patel, who has suggested he might use the FBI director’s office to prosecute journalists.

“We will go after those in the media who lied to American citizens and helped Joe Biden rig the presidential election,” Patel said on the podcast, repeating Trump’s false claims of electoral fraud during the 2020 election.

2025 plan

Trump has also expanded the appointment of so-called policy “czars” who do not require Senate confirmation to oversee areas such as border security and artificial intelligence.

Some of the appointments elevate the status of key architects behind Project 2025, the Ultra-Conservative Policy Roadmap Developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Trump has largely dismissed Plan 2025, but his personnel choices suggest some of the plan’s tenets may become part of his presidential agenda.

“Border Czar” Tom Homan, Deputy Director for Policy Stephen Miller, and Trump’s pick for Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought are all involved in the “2025 Plan.” Vought even wrote a chapter on presidential power.

An analysis of the document by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning policy group, warned that Plan 2025 “aims to dismantle the system of checks and balances and reimagine an unfettered, strong executive branch.”

It warned that the presidency could gain “unfettered power to take over the country and control American lives.”

The analysis highlights seven areas for expanding presidential powers outlined in Plan 2025.

These include the weaponization of the Justice Department, the use of the Insurrection Act to suppress dissent, and the politicization of independent agencies and civil servants.

Some of these targets already overlap with Trump’s stated goals or past actions, the report added.

Trump has repeatedly said he would seeking revenge against political opponents and prominent critics.

For her part, fellow Republican Liz Cheney ask His social media followers can weigh in if they would like to see her jailed: “If you want to televise a court martial, you have to tell the truth.”

His transition team also asked career civil servants during job interviews who they voted for, media reports show.

Taken together, the analysis concluded that Plan 2025 would constitute “a radical governing philosophy that violates the traditional separation of powers and gives the president almost complete control over the federal bureaucracy.”

presidential immunity

Cohen and other analysts see Plan 2025’s philosophy as dovetailing with the Supreme Court’s July ruling granting the president power. broad immunity for official actions.

Trump’s legal team had used the ruling to fight criminal cases against him, including a federal indictment charging him with seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

Indictment highlights Trump’s actions in US Capitol attack January 6, 2021when his supporters used violence to temporarily halt the certification of the election.

While the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling raises more questions than answers, it is widely expected to bolster Trump’s credentials during his second term.

“Trump gets away with inciting the January 6 insurrection because the Supreme Court gave him a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Cohen said.

Analysts also noted that Trump successfully avoided any serious consequences for the four criminal charges he faced while leaving office.

Two federal cases he faced since his re-election have been dropped, with officials citing the Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents. A third case, also involving election interference, stalled in Georgia.

In New York, Trump was convicted in large part of falsifying business records Toothless sentence “Unconditional release” without imprisonment, parole or fines as punishment.

Sollenberger noted that federal cases against election interference are not necessarily based on their legal merits.

Instead, prosecutors maintain Trump will be convicted of “using lies as a weapon to defeat fundamental federal government functions in the American democratic process.”

Critics say the case is a sign that Trump may once again test the limits of the presidency. But Sollenberger said the restrictions are still far from clear.

“There’s still a gray area about what is and is not the responsibilities of the presidency,” Sollenberger said.

“The question remains, how do we parse it?”