For the past five weeks, co-presidents Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been taking a sledgehammer to the federal government. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order to establish a “Department of Government Efficiency” within the Executive Office of the President, and installed Musk at the helm. The order says the so-called department’s purpose is “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” What this means in practice is giving a Big Tech CEO nostalgic for South African apartheid unfettered access to millions of Americans’ taxpayer data as well as the Treasury Department’s system for disbursing federal funds, turning the faucet on or off at whatever time and for whatever reason he sees fit.
DOGE may be a fake agency, but its effects have already proved disastrously real. Trump and Musk have been firing federal government employees by the thousands, including counselors providing mental health services to veterans, scientists trying to stop the bird flu epidemic, and workers maintaining the safety of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. Trump and Musk’s smash-and-grab campaign is making people get sick and go hungry as they cut off access to billions of dollars of humanitarian aid and medical services. One of the richest men in the world has seized the power of the purse from Congress and is plundering the coffers of the actual government institutions that serve the public. And as they chaotically create a government by and for a handful of the worst people in the country, regular people are suffering and dying.
None of this would be happening without the U.S. Supreme Court, which loves nothing more than bolstering the power of wealthy white conservatives, as documented in a new report by People’s Parity Project Action. The Court’s rulings creating “presidential immunity” and upending campaign finance law, in particular, conveyed a message that Trump and his billionaire buddies can do anything they want. The two co-presidents received that message loud and clear.
Trump signing the order to implement “DOGE.” (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Last July, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that presidents are “absolutely immune from criminal prosecution” for acts that are within their “exclusive constitutional power,” and “at least presumptively immune” from prosecution for other “official acts.” The decision leaves civil litigation on the table as a possible avenue for accountability, as well as (theoretically) criminal liability for unofficial acts. But it still establishes a general rule that presidents can do crimes and can’t face criminal punishment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor observed in dissent for the liberal justices that “in every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”
It is no wonder, then, that Trump considers himself as such. “LONG LIVE THE KING!” he said on social media yesterday, about himself. The White House’s official Twitter account posted the same, along with a graphic in the style of TIME magazine of Trump wearing a crown.
The United States famously became “the United States” by way of British colonizers telling their king to bugger off in 1776. But Trump’s invocation of monarchy is not just an ahistorical bluster. It accurately captures his view of presidential authority. On Wednesday, Trump signed an order declaring that he alone—not independent agencies, not the Office of Legal Counsel or the Department of Justice, and not Congress or the Supreme Court—provides authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch. Earlier in the week, Trump also proclaimed that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” saying laws don’t apply to him and his pals so long as they’re making America great again. Read together, these actions show that in Trump’s mind, his will—and the will of whichever Silicon Valley vampire he allows to convene press conferences in the Oval Office—is law.
The Supreme Court was laying the groundwork for the status quo well before it invented presidential immunity. In its 2010 decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, it invented the idea that corporations are people and money is speech, so corporations must be free to flood elections with their money. That case struck down statutory limits on how much companies could spend on political campaigns, empowering big businesses to “speak” over all the real people. Congress enacted those limits with bipartisan support in order to protect the political process from the outsized influence of the ultra-wealthy. But last year, thanks to Citizens United, Musk was able to bankroll Trump’s campaign to the tune of at least a quarter-billion dollars. Now, Trump is paying him back in full with enormous control over the government and the opportunity to use its powers to harm his financial competitors.
The Court is by no means the only factor contributing to Trump and Musk’s embrace of authoritarianism. But these landmark Court decisions gave them unprecedented freedom to legally terrorize their perceived enemies while empowering and enriching themselves. You can draw a direct line from the Supreme Court insulating the presidency from criminal liability to Trump concluding that it is impossible for him to break laws. You can draw a similarly straight line from the Supreme Court deciding wealthy people can spend whatever they want on elections to Musk buying his own personal president. Musk and Trump are using the federal government to do whatever they want to whoever they want. And the Court told them they could.
