The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform

[Passages]

American history offers three general strategies of repair and renewal.

by Paul Starr July 31, 2025

Donald Trump is teaching us about the limitations of America’s constitutional system. We may have believed that the Constitution’s separation of powers, checks and balances, and guarantees of rights would protect us from a president with authoritarian and corrupt ambitions. But the framework we have counted on is failing.

Trump’s abuses of his office have met no effective opposition from the other branches of government. As he has overreached his executive powers, Congress has done nothing to deter him, and the Supreme Court has done more to embolden than to contain him. In his first term, the “adults” Trump appointed to top positions had some cautionary influence on him, but he has now thrown off restraints and surrounded himself with sycophants, enablers, and ideologues. Only half a year into a second term, he is acting, in the words of the conservative former federal judge J. Michael Luttig, with “utter contempt for the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

SNIP*
The immediate task for the opposition to Trump is to use every available legal means of appeal and political mobilization to stop or slow him down. But there must be a long-run agenda too. Trump’s actions are not popular, and they are likely, sooner or later, to blow up and produce a reaction. As distant as a post-Trump future may now seem, we should look ahead to a time when Americans are ready to repair both the harm done by Trump and the institutions that have allowed it.

History offers three models for institutional repair: changing the laws, changing the Supreme Court, or amending the Constitution. The first is the post-Watergate model, which primarily involves codifying unwritten norms in legislation and executive branch rules. The second is the politically treacherous path of judicial reform. The third, amending the Constitution, is only a dim possibility but still useful to consider, because some of the problems highlighted by Trump lie in the Constitution itself.
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-07-31-premature-guide-to-post-trump-reform/

A way out.

[creon]

1. Laws are obeyed. Not enforced.

The GOP controls the Congress and the USSC,
The GOP does nor respecr the law,

[rampartd]

2. at the very least we need to drop this immunity business

the constitutional duty to "faithfully execute the laws sort of means to "keep it legal"

we need a way to vote "no confidence" as well

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. Two realistic steps towards undoing the damage

Step one: kill the filibuster, and ram through numerous laws reversing the damage from Trump, protecting voter rights, reproductive rights, raising the minimum wage, etc. and most importantly, restricting presidential powers (like repealing the moronic law that gave Trump authority to implement tariffs after declaring a phony emergency). If this is done swiftly and fearlessly, and implemented in a way that quickly brings tangible benefits to working Americans, Dems can rest easy that Republicans won’t use the extinction of the filibuster to undo it all without facing the wrath of the electorate (think how long Social Security has been the third rail in politics- Dems should create dozens of “third rails”- want to lower the minimum wage? Go ahead, make my day!)

Step two: expand and reform the courts, adding at least five new seats to SCOTUS, with tough, enforceable ethics rules that include suspending judges/justices from the bench who don’t comply, without the need for impeachment. This way, the laws passed in step one can’t be easily undone by the MAGA majority on the Roberts court.

Of course, this must be predicated on electing Democrats who are willing to do both steps one and two.

[Celerity]

4. Absolutely agree, but centrist/institutionalist Dems will very likely toss a spanner in the works and block both, even

if we somehow claw back the Senate.

We also need to dramatically increase the size of the US House (so we get a fair shake on apportionment and on the EC map), but the same groups will likely block that as well.