In a tumultuous time in American history, Donald Trump’s presidency has demonstrated the strength of many of the safeguards of democracy put in place by the Founding Fathers. Despite Trump often stretching the limits of what was considered constitutional, American institutions remained intact, while still showing the need for reform. When establishing the United States, the Founding Fathers worried that tyranny would overwhelm America’s fledgling democracy and become the kingdom they had just broken away from. They first established the Articles of Confederation, which created too many safeguards and thus proved ineffective. They struck a better balance when they developed the Constitution in 1787, the system that we still use today. 

However, in recent years, we have begun to face increased challenges to the constitutional system. Less Americans trust the government, there has been increased political polarization, and misinformation has been given the platform to spread. Overall, these factors culminated into the rise of Trump and the subsequent chaos of his presidency.

Some of the ingrained checks and balances that have helped limit Trump are the midterm elections, the courts, and the need to be reelected for another term. These institutions helped restrain him while he violated many of the norms and traditions that presidents usually follow.

One clear check on Trump’s power has been the legislature, most notably the House of Representatives. After the Democrats gained control of the House during the 2018 Midterm elections, the “blue wave” was largely viewed as a referendum on Trumpian policies and attitudes, and the Democrats won by famously increasing turnout and flipping suburban women. The Democrats gained 40 seats, giving them a clear majority, which they quickly used to enact oversight and provide a check to some of Trump’s policies. Examples of checks by the House were clearly illustrated when Trump wanted funding for building a border wall. First, Democrats in the House refused to provide funding for Trump’s signature border wall, which led to conflict and “the longest shutdown in history.” This prevented the initial funding for the border wall. Later, when it was clear funding from the border wall would not be able to come through Congress, Trump decided to declare a national emergency to try to get his funding that way, even though it went against the established powers of the presidency. Immediately, House Democrats used their oversight and investigative powers to temper this move, writing “we believe [Trump’s] declaration of an emergency shows a reckless disregard for the separation of powers and [his] own responsibilities under our constitutional system.” This led to both the House and Senate voting to end the declaration of emergency twice, though Trump vetoed it both times. This again led to challenges to building a border wall, including taking the case up to the Supreme Court. 

Eventually, Trump was able to secure some funding and started on construction, but this illustrates a larger phenomenon where his policies faced numerous challenges from the legislature, forcing him to rely on executive orders. This is another example of how Trump went past the limits of past presidential power, since executive orders were more often used as a very last resort. This reliance, however, also means that many of Trump’s key policies could be undone just as quickly. In fact, Biden has issued a record-breaking number of executive orders, many of them undoing Trump’s past orders. This illustrates how challenges and resistance led to hurdles for implementing Trump’s policies. This forced him to rely on executive orders, which Biden is now quickly undoing.

The powers of the legislature are outlined in Article 1 of the Constitution, and they, but especially the House, are seen as being the most representative of the people’s will. This means that they act as the people’s direct check to the Executive and Judicial branches. The idea of separation of powers is integral to American government, as it ensures that no one branch exerts too much influence and overrides the will of the people. Therefore, when Trump bypassed the legislature and enacted his policies through executive actions, it developed a dangerous precedent where the President holds an outsized amount of power that is unchecked. This concentration of power goes against the spirit of the Constitution, where all branches of government must respect one another's checks and balances instead of trying to find ways to bypass them.

Next, though Trump appointed a large number of Federal, including Supreme Court, judges, which will have long-reaching effects, the courts have still been a valuable tool to disrupt some of Trump's more destructive policies. One example is the “Muslim Ban” that Trump enacted in 2017, which “banned foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from visiting the country for 90 days, suspended entry to the country of all Syrian refugees indefinitely, and prohibited any other refugees from coming into the country for 120 days.” It faced several injunctions in lower courts, eventually forcing the Trump administration to change it. While they still kept the vast majority of countries from the original ban, the changed order “exempts permanent residents and current visa holders, and drops language offering preferential status to persecuted religious minorities, a provision widely interpreted as favoring other religious groups over Muslims,” according to an article in the New York Times. This illustrates the power of judicial review, which was originally outlined in Federalist Paper 78 and affirmed in the case Marbury v. Madison (1803). Judicial review is the role of the judicial branch to decide if actions taken by the other branches of government are constitutional. In our contemporary context, several courts ruled Trump’s travel ban to be unconstitutional, leading to changes that helped make it a bit more just, illustrating the effects courts had on tempering Trump’s policies.

Finally, the last check on a President’s power is the fact that they must face the American public after four years if they run for office again. Though this might seem like a basic measure, it is an essential cornerstone of our democracy, as Presidents must restrain themselves in order to still appeal to the public. Additionally, if citizens simply do not believe in them any longer, they can take away their mandate to power. This is exactly what happened to Trump when he was voted out of office, becoming a one term president. Though this led to him pushing several undemocratic challenges— such as contesting the results of the election without any basis in facts, choosing never to concede the race, and arguably encouraging the insurrection on the Capitol on January 6— the end result was that he left office. Indeed, the legislature and courts again played an important role in transferring power to the new administration by affirming states’ electoral votes and dismissing many of Trump’s claims.

Overall, although Trump arguably has done horrible damage to our institutions, the safeguards outlined above have prevented a full breakdown of democracy by pushing back against his more controversial policies and leading to a successful transfer of power after he lost re-election. 

Trump also illustrated the need for further reforms to our current system to ensure that such anti-democratic challenges do not occur again. For example, Trump often violated the norms and the “spirit” of the Constitution instead of the actual laws, showing the need to ingrain some of the norms into the Constitution itself. Additionally, the Constitution, though it remains surprisingly relevant, was still written more than 230 years ago. They didn’t have the internet, globalization, or the amount of diversity that we now enjoy. Therefore, reforms must also include awareness of such differences so that we’re able to create a more inclusive society that will help protect and promote our democratic system in the long run. For example, some reforms that have been suggested include eliminating the filibuster, using the popular vote to elect the president instead of the electoral college, and admitting new states (such as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico) so that they are able to have more of a say in Congress.

In the meantime, our society as a whole must try to include more people in the democratic process so they feel heard and we create better policy. Some ways to achieve this are increasing access to civic education, making political participation more accessible to all, and increasing transparency of our political process. If we implement all of these, as well as reforming parts of our government, we will be able to protect our democracy for the long-term. In this way, Trump’s pushing of constitutional boundaries, though largely foiled by existing democratic institutions, could serve as the catalyst for desperately needed cultural and political reform.