The Morning: A constitutional crisis?

Plus, the U.S. aid agency, a two-state solution and MrBeast's class consciousness.

View in browser|nytimes.com February 7, 2025 By German Lopez Good morning. Today, we're covering an imbalance of power in the government, as well as the U.S. aid agency, a two-state solution and MrBeast's class consciousness. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Constitutional crisis? In the United States, Congress, the president and the courts are supposed to keep an eye on one another — to stop any one branch of government from becoming too powerful. President Trump is showing us what happens when those checks and balances break down. The president can't shut down agencies that Congress has funded, yet that's what Trump did, with Elon Musk's help, to the U.S. Agency for International Development. The president can't fire inspectors general without giving lawmakers 30 days' notice, but Trump dismissed 17 of them anyway. Congress passed a law forcing TikTok to sell or close, and the courts upheld it, but Trump declined to enforce it. "The president is openly violating the law and Constitution on a daily basis," said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. In doing so, Trump has called the bluff of our constitutional system: It works best when each branch does its job with alacrity. Trump's opponents are filing lawsuits, but courts are slow and deliberative. They can't keep up with the changes the White House has already implemented. Congress could fight back, but the Republican lawmakers in charge have shrugged, as my colleague Carl Hulse reported. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina conceded that what the administration is doing "runs afoul of the Constitution in the strictest sense." But, he said, "nobody should bellyache about that." As a result, most of Trump's actions stand unchecked. Today's newsletter looks at why — and where things could go next. What went wrong The framers wanted to avoid crowning another king. They believed that no one person could truly represent the whole country. (Consider that Trump won less than half of the vote.) So they dispersed power among the three branches. The president is just one person, Yuval Levin, a conservative analyst, told The Times. In a vast country, representation "has to be done by a plural institution like Congress." Congress ratifying the presidential election result on Jan. 6, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images But polarization has made it harder for Congress to play that role. For much of American history, the two parties were made up of broad coalitions of voters. Seventy years ago, liberals, minority groups and racial segregationists were all part of the Democratic Party. A president could not always rely on members of his party to let him do what he wanted, because they were genuinely divided. When George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, for instance, he wanted to privatize Social Security. His own party helped quash the plan. Today, the two parties are more homogeneous. The Republican Party has adopted Trump's views — against foreign interventions, "wokeism" and immigration. And the G.O.P. controls all three branches of government. So the conflict that's supposed to drive interactions among the branches is muted; Congress, and potentially the courts, are less likely to rein in the president. Now he can impose drastic changes even without a majority's mandate. How this ends This is about the separation of powers, not a specific policy. Maybe you think that TikTok should remain online or that the U.S.A.I.D. shutdown makes sense because the government should spend more on Americans and less on foreign aid. But other government branches' lack of pushback sets a precedent that Trump can act like a king. Maybe next time he'd undo the Education Department, vaccine programs or food stamps. Or his administration could repurpose federal funds to imprison unauthorized migrants in detention camps. It could, in a far-fetched scenario, take possession of the Gaza Strip. Normally, these are policies on which Congress must get a say. Nyhan's research team has surveyed political scientists at American universities about how worried they are right now. During most of Trump's first term, the respondents' opinions about the health of our democracy were largely stable. But their confidence has plunged since Trump's second inauguration. Source: Bright Line Watch | By The New York Times The courts may still intervene, as a judge did yesterday to halt Trump's offer to pay federal employees to quit. The courts might not reverse every action; several U.S.A.I.D. programs have already stopped dispensing food and medicine abroad, for lack of funds. But the courts could stop Trump from taking similar actions in the future. Maybe the conservative Supreme Court would hold the White House to account. Nyhan worries about another scenario: What if Trump ignores the courts? Before he was vice president, JD Vance suggested that Trump should do that if the court blocked efforts to remake the federal government. "Stand before the country and say: 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it,'" Vance said, referring to an apocryphal Andrew Jackson quote. Perhaps Trump is already flirting with that kind of defiance. Some federal loans and grants remain frozen despite court orders against Trump's freeze. "We're talking about the idea of whether the president has to follow the law at all," Nyhan said. "That's a sentence I never thought I'd have to say about the United States, but here we are." Related coverage More than 10,000 people work for U.S.A.I.D. The Trump administration plans to keep only about 290. U.S.A.I.D. funded medical research around the world. Trump's shutdown has left scores of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to care. For the second time this week, a federal judge issued an injunction to block Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship. The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Attorneys general in a dozen states are preparing a lawsuit to block Musk's DOGE team from gaining access to government computer systems that contain sensitive information. THE LATEST NEWS Trump Administration Women's volleyball players from San Jose State University and Fresno State.  Amy Osborne for The New York Times The N.C.A.A. said transgender women could not compete in women's college sports, aligning its policy with an executive order that Trump signed this week. The Senate confirmed Russell Vought, an architect of Project 2025, to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Democrats had pulled an all-nighter delivering speeches to protest Vought's confirmation. Trump ordered the firing of the chair of the Federal Election Commission, but she said his move was not legal. Religion The National Prayer Breakfast. Eric Lee/The New York Times At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump called for unity and peace — a departure from his other comments this week. The president convened a task force to fight "anti-Christian bias." Media The White House is cutting news subscriptions for employees. Politico has been the subject of a social media misinformation campaign. Trump and others claimed the government had paid millions of dollars to the site for positive coverage of Democrats, but the government actually had subscriptions to Politico Pro, a premium news service. International A Sudanese Army soldier. El Tayeb Siddig/Reuters The war between Sudan's army and paramilitary forces has intensified. Recent fighting has killed hundreds of people, including children. Trump's plan to take over Gaza and potentially allow Israeli annexation of the West Bank would effectively end the two-state solution, Peter Baker writes. Trump signed an executive order placing sanctions on the International Criminal Court, months after the court issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu. The European Union spent last year compiling a secret playbook for how to respond if Trump raised tariffs. Read about the plans. Aviation A plane carrying 10 people went missing off the coast of Alaska. The Army helicopter that collided with a passenger jet near Washington last week had its tracking technology turned off. A U.S. military contractor plane crashed in the Philippines, killing all four people on board. Trump said he would work with Congress to improve aviation safety. Customs officials at LAX found 37 live beetles, worth about $1,500, being smuggled inside snack bags and containers from Japan. Other Big Stories In New York City. The New York Times Federal authorities are investigating Shen Yun, the touring dance group run by the Falun Gong religious movement. (Young performers told The Times last year that the group had exploited them. The federal investigation focuses at least partly on claims of visa fraud.) A power company, Southern California Edison, said it had found equipment irregularities near the origin of the Eaton fire. Opinions Trump's first weeks in office are the beginning of a constitutional revolution that seeks to overwrite the work of the founders, David French argues. Here's a column by Michelle Goldberg on Trump's Gaza proposal. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Illustration by Liana Finck Confessions of a ghost: Ten people explain why they went silent on a relationship. Surveillance pricing: Retailers use technology to predict which customers might be willing to pay more — then they raise their prices, The Cut reports. Most clicked yesterday: Six ways alcohol can affect your gut health. Whale words: Humpbacks' songs share structural patterns with human language, scientists found. Visiting London: Want to get to know the locals? Stay in a pub. Lives Lived: Virginia Halas McCaskey watched N.F.L. history unfold as she cheered on the Chicago Bears alongside her father, George Halas, the team's founder, and then oversaw the organization as its owner. She died at 102. SPORTS N.F.L.: In a major upset, the Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen was named the league's Most Valuable Player. N.B.A.: Teams made deals in the hours before the trade deadline. Here are the winners. ARTS AND IDEAS Gucci in fall 2016.  Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times The ready-to-wear fashion shows have begun in New York and will soon roll through London, Milan and Paris. The first major trend is already clear, our fashion critic Vanessa Friedman wrote: Big-name fashion houses are combining their men's and women's shows. Read what to expect. Related: Gucci's designer is leaving. More on culture On YouTube, MrBeast has long prompted people to do extreme tasks for money. He's becoming more class conscious. Na Kim designed notable book covers. Now, she's gaining recognition as a painter. Jimmy Kimmel joked about the National Prayer Breakfast. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Make a jalapeño-corn dip. Find a great Valentine's Day gift for kids. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was immediacy. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —German Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018