The Daily Trump 2.0: A Year of Unconstrained Power
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Jan 20, 2026 
Maggie Haberman, a seasoned White House correspondent, joins fellow New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Charlie Savage to dissect the transformation in governance under Trump's second term. They delve into Trump's personalization of power and targeting of enemies, his radical legacy projects, and the potential for retaliatory governance. They examine Trump's unconventional military actions abroad and the legal implications of his decisions, while discussing the fragility of institutional checks against his expansive executive power and the rising domestic tensions.
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Judiciary Has Largely Ratified Power Expansion
- Courts, especially the Supreme Court, have largely allowed Trump to expand executive power, reducing judicial checks.
- That permissive judiciary makes the one-way ratchet of executive power more durable and consequential.
Hard To Reverse The One-Way Ratchet
- Trump's changes may outlast him because future presidents will treat his actions as the new baseline to emulate or escalate.
- The one-way ratchet of executive power makes restoration to prior norms unlikely.
Foreign Policy: Conventional Moves And Legal Tests
- Many of Trump's foreign-policy moves are conventional presidential actions, but some cross legal and norm boundaries.
- Declaring drug smugglers combatants or using special forces to remove foreign leaders are examples that test legal limits.