Who Will Hold Trump Accountable for Violating the Constitution?

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The president of the United States has no authority to freeze funds allocated by Congress. Yet Donald Trump has done just that. He has also begun rolling back congressionally mandated government agencies such as the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, USAID, and even the Department of Education. 

He has created an entire agency—the Department of Government Efficiency—out of thin air, something presidents have no authority to do, and empowered it with wide-ranging authority to dig into the public’s private data and slash whole sections of the federal government workforce. Trump has even tried to revoke birthright citizenship, which is constitutionally protected.

Ultimately, he is doing what he promised he would: undermining the U.S. Constitution to expand his own power. The question is, what recourse do we have? And is it too late to save U.S. democracy?

Corey Brettschneider, a professor of political science at Brown University and author of The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It, spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about Trump’s attacks on the U.S. Constitution.