I titled my last blog post “Mourning American Democracy,” which, at the time, may have seemed a bit hyperbolic. However, I think the last fifty-some-odd days of the second Trump Administration have vindicated my word choice. What is going on in Washington, DC right now? How is any of this legal? (It isn’t.) And why aren’t any of our Congress Critters acting to stop this unprecedented slide into autocratic fascism? Let’s explore…

Starting on Day One, President Trump signed into effect over 90 executive orders (EO)—and counting!—covering a wide range of topics and policy issues from birthright citizenship to transgender military service. Nearly all of them have at least one aspect which is illegal or unconstitutional and have been challenged in court by various organisations and individuals. Don’t take my word for it, check the rulings of the Federal Courts! Over 100 rulings have been handed down in recent days and weeks that have excoriated the administration and individual actions and EOs signed by the President.

The Trump Administration is losing in court because its actions are illegal, unconstitutional, and anti-democratic. They are losing in court because the system of checks and balances is, however slowly, working. Congress, as the Article I branch of government, is the supreme policy setting institution within the Federal Government. The President, as the Article II branch of government, must have deference for the actions and intentions of Congress, as the representatives of the People. Trump is losing because Trump is a loser. Despite the more than $22 million budget The Heritage Foundation poured into Project 2025’s development, its objectives, and thus its implementation, are, again, broadly speaking, unconstitutional and illegal.

Americans were warned about the Project 2025 agenda well in advance of the election, yet we still wound up here. And now people are shocked and surprised that it’s being put into effect, as though the leopards weren’t supposed to eat their faces, just other peoples’ faces. But here’s some advice to remember: “the leopards” don’t care. The Republicans don’t care about you, your neighbour, your momma, her momma, your kids, their friends, or your dog! They do not care. Not about national security, crime, grocery prices, employment, education, veterans, the environment, the social safety net, international relations or trade, or the law. And I think, now, that’s pretty blatantly obvious. If it isn’t, you’re not paying attention… and that’s a dangerous way to live right now.

One of the EOs Trump signed into effect on 20 January 2025 declared a “national economic emergency,” invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and granting his Office expansive economic powers, namely the ability to impose tariffs, which are usually under the exclusive authority of Congress. Tariffs were a major part of Trump’s first administration and his campaign for his second term (as well as his failed bid for a consecutive second term in 2020). And pursuant to that EO, Trump has wreaked havoc on the domestic and international economy by threatening, issuing, rescinding, and issuing again multiple obscene tariffs on imported goods to the United States. If you’ve been paying attention at all over the last three months, you know this already. But what you may not know is that Congress had the power to cancel any national emergency declaration by the President. Except… now they don’t.

On 15 March 2025, Congress passed, thanks to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s capitulation, a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the Federal Government through the end of the year. Why does this matter? Because the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, changed the Rules of the House, for matters of the Congressional Record and Congressional Authority, to abdicate that authority by making the entire rest of the year—from 16 March 2025 to 11:59pm on 31 December 2025—count as one calendar day for all intents and purposes regarding the pending Continuing Resolution. If that doesn’t make any sense at all to you, don’t worry because it isn’t supposed to. That’s exactly why and how the House Republican Caucus devised the mechanism of this rule change.

50 U.S. Code Chapter 34, Subchapter II, Section 1622—also known as the National Emergencies Act (NEA)—paragraph C, line 3 defines a process by which the Congress can end a national emergency declaration through a Joint Resolution (JR). It stipulates that a resolution to do so must be voted on within “within fifteen calendar days after the day on which such resolution is referred” to the appropriate committee and then “become the pending business of [the House] and shall be voted upon within three calendar days after the day on which such resolution is reported” by the committee. So, see, that’s what the Trumplicans, led by Mike Johnson, averted: the ticking clock. By counting the entire rest of the year as “one calendar day,” there’s no way for 50USC34.2§1622.c.3 to come into effect.

Now, there’s some fancy, confusing, and opaque parliamentary procedural rules that govern how, when, why, and in what order resolutions can be introduced to the floor of the House; Congressional recess; and just logistical considerations that made the CR the roadblock to introducing a JR to end the national emergency declaration(s) expediently. It is possible, yet unlikely, that Democrats in the House will find a way to sidestep this abhorrent, last-minute rule change and act to reign in the President and his minions.

Of course, the only reason that the CR passed the Senate is because Chuck Schumer—defying widespread national outrage—decided to fold his hand in order to avert a government shutdown on 16 March 2025. Because of him, and the nine other Democratic Senators that voted with him and the Republicans, that power to end a national emergency by the Congress has been abdicated and is now no longer available to Congress.

This is why I titled this post “A Constitutional Crisis.”

Congress now has no mechanism with which to reign in the President’s broad emergency powers, which, by itself, isn’t necessarily a crisis, but as we’ve seen in recent days, President Trump has wilfully defied the Courts, now serving as the only check on his power. What am I talking about? Well…

On 15 March 2025, around 4pm according to the AP, Trump invoked another wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which he then used to begin to fulfil his campaign promise of “mass deportations” by sending some 200+ individuals to El Salvador. Around 5pm that same day, Federal Judge James E. Boasberg convened a hearing on an ACLU lawsuit that sought to temporarily restrain the Federal Government from deporting five of its clients on the grounds that they were members of an international gang, Tren de Aragua. The plaintiffs (the ACLU and its clients) claimed in their filings that the men were, in fact, not Tren de Aragua members, but that they had been erroneously “identified” as such based on their tattoos by ICE agents in the field. Between 5:30 and 6pm, ICE transported the individuals in question to El Salvador, according to family members and eye witnesses of the planes taking off. Now, this is interesting because Judge Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order preventing these “deportations” and a verbal order telling the government that “any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.” The Trump administration was playing coy with the Judge and refused to answer his questions regarding who was where, on which plane, and where the planes were/were headed, effectively—and literally—defying the Court’s restraining order.

The administration has not yet, a full five calendar days later, returned any of the 200+ individuals sent to El Salvador to the United States of America. The administration is now openly and brazenly defying the Federal Judiciary, which, thanks to good ole Chuck Schumer, was the last remaining check on executive authority provided by the Constitution. Since we are now operating outside the bounds of the Constitutional Order, we’re in uncharted territory without a map or compass of any kind.

This matters for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that Trump and Elon Musk—through “DOGE”—are taking aim at the “entitlement” programmes of the Federal Government: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. If Congress refuses to act, and the administration refuses to respect the authority of the Judiciary, there’s nothing and no one to stop them from gutting these programmes.

Caveat emptor.