This article appears in the Summer 2025 print issue of FP. Read the full roundup or explore more from the issue .

Yet in 2025, Americans are experiencing an aggressive deployment of presidential power that many observers fear looks exactly like what the Constitution was meant to avoid. U.S. President Donald Trump has used his office to threaten and intimidate opponents. Federal funds have become a bludgeon wielded against law firms and universities. Through the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump has imposed severe cuts on vital agencies and eliminated other programs altogether.

The Founding Fathers of the United States were terrified of monarchy. They designed a constitution that separated and fragmented power, hoping that no single individual would ever amass the kind of authority that Britain’s king had enjoyed. Indeed, the Declaration of Independence decried the history of the British monarchy as a “history of repeated injuries and usurpations.”

The Founding Fathers of the United States were terrified of monarchy. They designed a constitution that separated and fragmented power, hoping that no single individual would ever amass the kind of authority that Britain’s king had enjoyed. Indeed, the Declaration of Independence decried the history of the British monarchy as a “history of repeated injuries and usurpations.”

Yet in 2025, Americans are experiencing an aggressive deployment of presidential power that many observers fear looks exactly like what the Constitution was meant to avoid. U.S. President Donald Trump has used his office to threaten and intimidate opponents. Federal funds have become a bludgeon wielded against law firms and universities. Through the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump has imposed severe cuts on vital agencies and eliminated other programs altogether.

Individuals have been deported to overseas prisons without due process. Trump has attacked several federal judges and even defied their orders.