Executive Orders Aren’t Royal Decrees. Or Are They?

Once upon a time, before 2017, executive orders were used by presidents to direct the operations of government, within the limits of the law. You know, like memos. With a little presidential flair. But here we are in 2025, and Trump is back…with a vengeance. Only now, he’s fully abandoned the illusion that he’s constrained by anything resembling checks and balances.

Under the Mar-a-Law Administration, executive orders aren’t guidance; they’re declarations. Streamlined, centralized, and completely untethered from process. They’re often previewed, echoed, and tantrum-tweeted partially on Truth Social, soaked in grievance and self-congratulation, sometimes clarified and debuted with flair in the Oval Office, then rubber-stamped by federal agencies like scripture handed down from on high.

A Brief History of Executive Orders

For those who slept through civics class, here’s the gist: Executive orders are meant to instruct government on how to implement existing law. EOs were never meant to create new laws from thin air. That’s still Congress’s job, at least on paper.

Presidents from both parties have issued executive orders. Some justified, some not. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation? Bold and history-making. FDR’s internment order? A shameful abuse of power. The tool itself isn’t the problem. It’s how it’s used, or in Trump’s case, how it’s abused (aka weaponized).

Trump’s Executive Order Free-for-All

In his second term, Trump doesn’t bother pretending to care where his executive authority ends. He drops executive order snippets onto Truth Social during what we can only assume are toilet-sitting brainstorming sessions, treating them like press releases rather than governing tools. Legal review? Optional. Agencies fall in line anyway. These aren’t routine directives. They’re sweeping declarations that often contradict existing law, bypass Congress entirely, and reshape policy in real time.

This isn’t Trump’s first time steamrolling democracy and he knows no one’s stepping in to stop him. Back in his first term, he set the tone, like it was merely a dress rehearsal. Now he’s actively funneling federal money wherever he pleases and inventing legal powers like he’s writing fan fiction. He acts, posts, signs, and dares anyone to grow a spine.

The Rubber-Stamp Response

What’s worse than an overreaching president? A Congress that bends the knee. Once again, elected officials—Republicans plus a few cowardly Democrats—stand by, offering nothing more than performative approval as Trump signs one legally dubious executive order after another.

And I’ve got some news for you, enablers: it’s time to update your resumes. You’re making yourselves obsolete. Just like all those civil servants Trump let Musk purge in his campaign to gut the “deep state,” you’re next. What does Trump need you for anymore, beyond clapping and nodding on cue? You can do that from home, unofficially. Might even save the government some money.

This Is Not a Constitutional Crisis; It’s the Aftermath

We’re past the crisis point. A constitutional crisis happens when the system stops working. What we’re living in now is what comes after: one branch hoards power and the others surrender theirs entirely. Trump governs through edict. Congress cowers. And the courts? They’ve been packed, undermined, or sidelined, depending on the day.

The Constitution is still there, technically. But like a fire alarm in a burned-down building, it doesn’t help much after the damage is done.