Trump Keeps Testing the Limits of Power

And Democrats are growing restless.

It’s been another busy day over at Political Wire, so let’s break it down.

President Trump took a major step today in his drive to consolidate power by moving to dismantle the Department of Education. This unprecedented push – which would normally require Congress to abolish a Cabinet department – is part of a broader second-term strategy to reshape government and target institutions he deems too “liberal,” from federal agencies to universities.

Republicans have talked about eliminating the Education Department since the 1980s, and now, buoyed by Trump’s victory and a resurgence in his approval ratings, they see an opening to finally make that long-standing goal a reality.

Meanwhile, within Trump’s own party, many lawmakers are quietly alarmed by his more extreme moves but remain publicly silent out of fear. An Axios report revealed that Republican officials privately admit they find some Trump initiatives misguided or even harmful, yet they hold their tongues to avoid being torched on social media or facing primary challenges from Trump’s allies (notably including billionaire Elon Musk).

In a rare crack in this wall of silence, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska spoke out this week to warn that figures like Musk are intimidating Republicans into submission – a striking example of the tension between party loyalty and personal conscience in today’s GOP.

Democrats, too, are grappling with internal divisions as progressives grow increasingly restless. Sen. Bernie Sanders made waves by urging left-wing activists to consider abandoning the Democratic Party label and running as independents, reflecting deep frustration with what he sees as the party’s failure to champion working-class interests.

His call echoes past moments in U.S. politics when factions broke away in protest – a reminder that if a party’s base feels ignored for too long, it may seek a new path, even at the risk of splitting the vote in favor of their opponents.

All the while, the judiciary is emerging as a formidable check on Trump’s agenda. In just two months, federal judges in more than a dozen cases – including three high-profile rulings this week alone – have found that the administration likely overstepped or violated the law.

Such an avalanche of legal rebukes this early in a presidency is extraordinary, underscoring a fierce clash between Trump’s expansive view of executive power and the limits imposed by the courts.

Finally, the administration’s hard-line stance on immigration reached a controversial new level today. The White House confirmed it has started sending newly arrived migrants to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to await deportation, claiming some have ties to gangs.

This unprecedented use of an offshore detention site for immigrant processing harks back to tactics used in the 1990s with Haitian refugees, and it highlights just how far the Trump administration is willing to go – blurring the line between immigration policy and national security in a way that is sparking alarm and debate.

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