It will be a long time before the implications of the Democratic midterm rout of the GOP are clear, but it is safe to say that many voters wanted government to address issues such as affordability and health care costs. It is also safe to say that few people wish for a repeat of the past decade, which has seen the power of the presidency and the executive branch rise to uncharted heights.
Yes, partisans on all sides have wanted their president to exercise power, whether that means Donald Trump during the first or second season of the Trump show or Joe Biden during the 2021-25 interregnum. But people tend to support the expansive use of presidential power only when it relates to things they agree with. What Trump I and II as well as the covid years have demonstrated is that any power a president uses or is granted can just as easily be used against you as for you.
And that is why the best thing the Democrats could do once they take office in January would be to dedicate considerable energy over the next two years to stripping the presidency of the imperial trappings it has acquired in fits and starts since World War II.
Trump has shown just how much unilateral authority the president has, and almost everything he has done rests on what has been delegated to the White House by Congress. That includes expansive domestic tools given to the executive branch by the Patriot Act after 9/11, and a raft of tariff powers that were inserted into hitherto obscure sections of trade legislation throughout the 20th century.
It is on tariffs that the Democrats have the best chance of paring executive branch control and clawing back what should never have been granted in the first place. Tariffs are both the most obviously flawed of Trump’s policies economically and the most objectionable to huge swaths of people, from farmers throughout the Midwest to business owners everywhere. And it was tariffs that helped tip the balance in favor of Democrats in the midterms in states such as Maine, Ohio and Texas. Overall, barely a third of the country supports the administration’s tariffs, and even blue-collar workers — who once stalwartly held to the promise that tariffs would bring back manufacturing jobs — flipped from 49 percent supporting tariffs a year ago to 58 percent opposing them now.
Article I of the Constitution may be clear that “Duties, Imposts and Excises” reside with Congress, but then Congress decided that it was expedient to give the president the ability to impose tariffs without congressional approval. Though Trump has, according to the Supreme Court and multiple lower courts, exceeded what Congress intended, the underlying problem is the laws that made the flexing possible in the first place. And that is something the new Democratic Congress can address after Jan. 3, 2027.
In doing so, Democrats can argue that stripping those powers both restores constitutional balance and, more important for most voters, addresses one of the root causes of inflation and affordability.
And it is even possible — albeit less likely — that enough Republicans will support these measures and vote to override an inevitable presidential veto. Given Trump’s stated interest in being always and forever “Tariff Man,” he does not seem primed to let go voluntarily. But tariffs are deeply unpopular in many Republican districts and states, and even House Republicans who won reelection do not see continued tariffs as a winning electoral issue.
In the House, if current projections hold, at least 30 Republicans would have to support that legislation, and in the Senate, it looks to be a high hurdle of at least 11 GOP members. Given how unpopular tariffs are, however, it is certainly possible that a coalition of Republicans and Democrats just might redress this issue, either piecemeal (repealing Canadian duties, for instance) or by sharply curbing overall presidential tariff power in the name of affordability and accountability.
There is precedent for Congress trying to rein in the presidency. In the years after President Richard M. Nixon resigned in August 1974 because of the Watergate scandal, Congress passed a variety of laws, ranging from civil service reform (curtailing the ability of the president to politicize the bureaucracy) to placing inspectors general in each major agency. Many of those reforms were watered down over the years before enduring a full-frontal assault by Trump and a Supreme Court intent on a unified executive theory. But now, there is an opportunity for another pendulum swing — provided this Democratic Congress seizes the momentum.
The risk is that the catnip of investigations and anger stands in the way of building a coalition that includes Republicans. Yes, for them, the pull of MAGA remains seductive, but there is no natural constituency for unbridled presidential power in perpetuity, especially when it is seen as failing to provide the American people with the basics of economic security.
This is a unique moment. May the new Congress use it well, and with the urgency it demands.
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