During so much of Joe Biden’s presidency, Donald Trump and some of his closest allies were plotting how to stock the various offices and departments of second administration with extremely MAGA attorneys who would tell Trump “yes” instead of a squishy “no,” regardless of how many judges or legal experts squawked about quaint considerations like laws and the U.S. Constitution.
“Get me the right lawyers,” Trump would say during his post-presidency and his 2024 presidential campaign, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter, including in conversations about birthright citizenship or purging different parts of the government.
Trump hasn’t even been back in the White House for two weeks yet, and he and his lieutenants are in the middle of a wide-ranging blitz on his enemies and on the federal bureaucracy, featuring multiple “blatantly illegal” or wildly unconstitutional personnel and policy moves. Some of Trump’s directives and executive orders have already been hit with court challenges and a flurry of lawsuits.
As Trump and his advisers mapped out how they’d wage ideological warfare in the opening hours and days of his second term, an array of pro-Trump lawyers, activists, and operatives — a number of whom now work in the administration — cooked up all kinds of twisted legal theories and bad-faith justifications in the service of allowing Trump to do whatever he wants.
Now that he is back in power, the Trump administration appears to be operating based on one specific legal principle, towering above all others. “What are you gonna do about it?” says one conservative lawyer who helped plan Trump’s ongoing legal onslaught, characterizing Trumpland’s attitude toward and their plans for handling the Democrats complaining about his moves and the activist groups that try to stop him.
Two other sources close to Trump, one of whom worked on the presidential transition team and the other in his current administration, similarly cheered on the president’s efforts to cram as many of his policies and orders through, in the face of legal experts (or even a Reagan-appointed judge) publicly saying he clearly can’t do that. Their position is, plainly: We have our own interpretation of the law — so try and stop us.
Among an onslaught of barbaric executive actions announced so far, Trump issued an order attempting to end birthright citizenship, in apparent violation of the plain text of the 14th Amendment; moved to freeze federal funds that have been appropriated by Congress, despite longstanding federal law; and emailed federal employees a fake buyout offer promising eight months pay if they agreed to resign, even though existing law caps voluntary separation payments at $25,000.
Trump also fired more than a dozen inspector generals, who are meant to provide independent oversight and accountability within federal agencies, without warning or cause, despite a law mandating the president notify Congress in advance and provide a detailed basis for removing an inspector general.
“If anyone wants to find a way to un-fire the IGs, go ahead,” the Trump administration official says.
The White House isn’t exactly hiding its approach. In some cases, officials are saying it openly and proudly.
After Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democrats criticized the president’s attempt to freeze federal funds as “lawless” and “destructive,” Alina Habba — Trump’s White House counselor, and formerly his personal lawyer and campaign aide — responded dismissively in a Fox News appearance Tuesday.
“What your opinion is on what the law is doesn’t really matter,” Habba said. “It’s what the White House counsel says and what our attorney general of the United States says.”
Asked by a reporter at a briefing to explain “who advised the president on the legality of telling government agencies that they don’t have to spend money that was already appropriated by Congress,” Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, replied: “So, White House Counsel’s Office believes that this is within the president’s power to do it, and therefore, he’s doing it.”
By Wednesday, the Trump administration rescinded its order directing the federal funds freeze. One judge had already temporarily blocked the order from taking effect. A second judge appeared ready to issue a temporary restraining order on Wednesday, too.
Still, the president’s approach of “he’s doing it” and “what are you gonna do about it” is precisely what several of Trump’s former-administration-officials-turned-critics were most frightened of, as Trump kept gaining more and more momentum during the 2024 race.
“In a second Trump term, he is not going to have any of those [moderating] people around him, and he’s going to go ahead and move forward with these kinds of controversial policies he wanted to pursue during his first term,” Sarah Matthews, one of Trump’s former deputy White House press secretaries, said months before his reelection in November. “He has nothing to lose if he wins a second term, because he wouldn’t be able to run for another term… The personnel he’s going to surround himself with now, it’s going be a bunch of Yes Men who will not push back on some of his more radical ideas. That’s something that is super concerning to me about what a second term would look like.”
At the dawn of a new Trump era, the president’s Republican enablers on Capitol Hill appear more pliable than they’ve ever been.
On Sunday, when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, the close Trump ally and golfing buddy was asked whether he thought Trump “he violated the law” in his recent purging of inspectors general. The senator responded: “No, he didn’t. No, well, technically, yeah.”
Graham quickly added: “But he has the authority to do it.”
