President Donald Trump has spent his first year back in the White House pressing presidential authority into new territory, aided by an inner circle that has shown little interest in restraining him and a Republican-led Congress that has rarely tried to stop him.
At a speech in Detroit on Jan. 18, Trump marveled at the pace of his own agenda. “I told you we were going to do a lot of things,” he said. “Nobody thought it was going to turn out like this. This has been crazy.”
Former aides from Trump’s first term describe a different environment this time. Ty Cobb, who served as Trump’s special counsel in 2017-2018, said Trump previously encountered advisers willing to tell him no or slow-walk his demands. Now, Cobb said, Trump has concluded “he can do whatever he wants if he finds the people who are willing to be loyal to him.”
Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence in Trump’s first term, described Trump’s staffing decisions as intentional. “The second time around, the president knows what he wants and he intentionally put together a team that would execute that,” Short said.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has framed the job in similar terms. “There’s one star of the show,” Wiles said in an interview on “The Mom View.” “There’s one most powerful. And our job is to make him the best he can be.”
The result has been an aggressive use of unilateral tools. Trump signed 225 executive orders in 2025, according to the Federal Register. Pew Research Center, using the American Presidency Project’s archive, counted 221 executive orders issued as of Dec. 15, 2025 — more than Trump signed during his entire first term — and noted that Trump issued 26 on his first day back in office.
Several of the administration’s biggest moves have drawn legal challenges and sharpened partisan divisions.
Trump used emergency economic powers to impose sweeping global tariffs, a strategy that prompted court fights and a Supreme Court test of how far a president can go in regulating trade without Congress. In arguments on Nov. 5, 2025, justices questioned the administration’s reliance on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a sanctions-focused law Trump repurposed for tariffs, Reuters reported. On Jan. 20, 2026, the court released decisions in other cases but did not issue a ruling on the tariffs dispute, leaving businesses and U.S. trading partners waiting.
Some Republicans have called for Congress to reassert its role. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa backed legislation introduced on April 3, 2025, that would limit a president’s ability to impose unilateral tariffs without congressional approval. “For too long, Congress has delegated its clear authority to regulate interstate and foreign commerce to the executive branch,” Grassley said.
Trump has also tested domestic limits on federal force. A federal judge on Sept. 3, 2025, blocked Trump from using troops to fight crime in California after the administration deployed thousands of National Guard members and hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles to support federal operations, Reuters reported. The judge cited the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the military’s role in civilian law enforcement.
In Washington, Trump took an extraordinary step on Aug. 11, 2025, invoking the District’s Home Rule law to assume temporary control of the city’s police force and deploy the D.C. National Guard, declaring a “public safety emergency.” Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would work with the federal government while disputing Trump’s claims about crime, and the city’s attorney general called the move “unlawful,” Reuters reported.
Foreign policy has produced another flashpoint. On June 21, 2025, Trump announced U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, aligning the United States with Israel’s campaign against Iran. Lawmakers from both parties raised questions about the legality of launching direct strikes without congressional authorization, Reuters reported.
Then, in early 2026, Congress debated Trump’s use of force in Venezuela after U.S. forces swept into Caracas on Jan. 3 and captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Reuters reported. A House resolution on Jan. 22 sought to bar further military action without congressional authorization but failed in a 215-215 tie vote. Republicans argued the measure amounted to partisan retaliation. “It’s about spite,” Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., said. Democrats framed it as a constitutional check. “The American people want us to lower their cost of living, not enable war,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the Democratic representative for New York.
Political scientists say the administration’s approach depends as much on internal dynamics as on formal powers. Chris Whipple, who spent months interviewing Wiles and other officials, said Trump has faced little friction as he moved rapidly to enact his agenda. “He’s governing by whim. He’s unconstrained,” Whipple said in an NPR interview.
Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth College political scientist, said Trump has pushed long-debated theories of expansive executive authority further than modern predecessors. “Presidents have always had discretion, but Trump has taken it to another level,” Nyhan said.
The administration’s defenders argue that voters elected Trump to act quickly. Vice President JD Vance told Whipple that Wiles’ role is not to control Trump but to “facilitate his vision and to make his vision come to life.”
Opponents say the pattern threatens the constitutional balance. They point to court injunctions, congressional skirmishes over war powers and trade, and a growing list of lawsuits as evidence that the administration’s interpretation of Article II will face continued resistance — even if much of it comes from judges rather than lawmakers. For now, Trump’s team has helped him move faster than he did in his first term, while courts and a narrowly divided Congress weigh whether to draw lines around a presidency that, in Trump’s words, has turned “crazy” in its speed and scope.