Trump tests the limits of his power
Donald Trump has returned to the White House in a hurry to flex his muscles. The U.S. president is trying to extend his executive authority beyond the limits of the laws and the Constitution. He has carried out purges in violation of legal safeguards, has ordered that norms that make him uncomfortable not be enforced, he has eliminated environmental protections in a dubious way and, in general, has regulated by decree matters that exceed his powers. Judges have already suspended two of his decisions: first when he tried to repeal birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants who are in the United States illegally, and second, when he tried to freeze congressionally-approved federal grants and loans worth millions of dollars and mostly intended for social spending. Many more of his decisions, such as the veto on trans people in the Army, have also been challenged.