President Donald Trump continues to slash government agencies and federal funding, which begs the question: Can he do that?
Since the start of President Trump’s second term, he’s implemented multiple new policies and made changes based on his strong beliefs, according to Peter McLaughlin, an assistant political science professor at the University of Rhode Island.
One of these changes has been the Trump Administrations dismantling of the Department of Education, which predominantly provides support services to K-12 schools and colleges, according to Raymond Cox, a professor of political science at URI. Funding from the DOE ensures that students stay in school, have school lunches and activities.
Now that it’s dismantled, college students may have issues with enrollment within the next year, like writing tuition checks for students who depend on financial aid for school, according to Cox.
Initially, Trump didn’t have the power to defund the DOE due its status as an agency created by the United States Congress, according to McLaughlin. With all of the executive orders passed, it’s up to the Supreme Court to decide to pass the orders or to shut them down.
Trump is only able to enact tariffs because the court is letting him, according to McLaughlin. Congress allows presidents to have power over tariffs with provisions that require federal investigation.
“He currently has the power [to impose tariffs] but it could easily be removed by Congress,” McLaughlin said. “There has been some talk to remove their fidelity from the President.”
The U.S. has had tariffs since 1791 as a primary source of revenue for the government, according to Cox. In 1913, the U.S. switched to income tax as a main source of revenue because it was more stable. Trump denied that fact by saying tariffs were lowered at one point.
“We didn’t have to rely on tariffs, which [are] up and down,” Cox said. “It was just great for a country as large as we were, to rely on that unstable resource for financing was stupid.”
When Trump leaves the states to make the big decisions, he assumes powers to the presidency but deflects hard decisions to the states, according to McLaughlin. The way it fits into the constitution is to ask if the president has the power to make those decisions, to the extent that over 80% of Trump’s executive orders were ruled by judges to take them down.
Having Elon Musk work as an unelected official is useful to Trump toward American politics, according to McLaughlin. For example, he endorsed millions to get Trump elected during the 2024 presidential election. Musk also poses a hanging threat over members of Congress that will wade into punishing people who vote against the Trump agenda.
“I think Trump views Musk as a tool to do things that are broadly considered very unpopular because Musk is willing to do them,” McLaughlin said.
If Trump were to run for a third term, it would violate the constitution as a president can only run for two, according to McLaughlin. Yet, the scenario Trump spun out of running as vice president for JD Vance, is technically legal, according to Cox.
The 12th Amendment of The U.S. The Constitution dictates that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
While the 22nd Amendment states that “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
“I think when we say that he violates the constitution all the time, is giving him more credit for deep thinking about the ideals of a constitution that he is owed,” Cox said. “He does what he wants and he picks his targets.”
The reality is Trump can do those things if they are in coordination with Congress, according to Cox.
