King Donald I
The Supreme Court appears ready to crown him
The Supreme Court appears set to unambiguously endorse an aconstitutional broligarchic form of government by overturning Humphrey’s Executor and vesting full control of the executive branch in the president, including over heretofore independent agencies.[1] In combination with an earlier ruling granting the president immunity to an outer perimeter of official acts,[2] I am failing to see how there will now be any constraint whatsoever on Donald Trump short of impeachment.
As Chris Geidner put it, “Although the case before the Supreme Court on Monday [December 8] related specifically to Trump’s effort to fire Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the same agency at issue in Humphrey’s Executor, [Justice Elena] Kagan noted, ‘[I]f you take your [Solicitor John Sauer’s] logic at face value, it seems to include a great many things. … Once you’re down this road, it’s a little bit hard to see how you stop.’”[3]
That’s because, as Geidner also explains, “Kagan put the matter bluntly toward the end of . . . Sauer’s argument for the Trump administration, telling him that ‘the real-world reality’ of his argument to overturn the precedent — given all of the laws passed since 1935 under the belief that such firings could be limited — would be ‘a President with control over everything, including over much of the law-making that happens in this country.’”[4]
Of course, the conservative justices on the Supreme Court have for some time now made clear their disdain precisely for what they call the “administrative state,” which conservatives allege is unaccountable to anyone.[5] But while today’s [December 8] decision enhances the president’s power,[6] they meant to curtail the executive branch’s power when they overturned the Chevron doctrine.[7]
That’s ceasing to matter. First, because anything Trump can do anything with impunity within the outer perimeter of his official duties.[8] Second, because he—now alone[9]—has a monopoly on the federal power to enforce the law,[10] which means he can defy the courts—as he has already been doing in many cases. So there is, in effect, no enforcement power against him, except impeachment, which Democrats have failed to do in two attempts already. And at this point, I wouldn’t put it past him to simply defy an impeachment if it succeeded.
Trump will soon be effectively sovereign, in a sense proposed by David Graeber and David Wengrow, where he is beyond moral or legal challenge.[11]
[1] Justin Jouvenal, “Supreme Court poised to expand Trump’s power over independent agencies,” Washington Post, December 8, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/08/supreme-court-ftc-independent-agency-slaughter-trump/
[2] Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. ____ (2024).
[3] Chris Geidner, “SCOTUS appears ready to give Trump greater firing powers, over sharp liberal warnings,” Law Dork, December 8, 2025, https://www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-ftc-slaughter-humphreys-executor
[4] Chris Geidner, “SCOTUS appears ready to give Trump greater firing powers, over sharp liberal warnings,” Law Dork, December 8, 2025, https://www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-ftc-slaughter-humphreys-executor
[5] Amy Howe, “Supreme Court strikes down Chevron, curtailing power of federal agencies,” SCOTUSblog, June 28, 2024, https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-chevron-curtailing-power-of-federal-agencies/
[6] Chris Geidner, “SCOTUS appears ready to give Trump greater firing powers, over sharp liberal warnings,” Law Dork, December 8, 2025, https://www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-ftc-slaughter-humphreys-executor
[7] Amy Howe, “Supreme Court strikes down Chevron, curtailing power of federal agencies,” SCOTUSblog, June 28, 2024, https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-chevron-curtailing-power-of-federal-agencies/
[8] Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. ____ (2024).
[9] Chris Geidner, “SCOTUS appears ready to give Trump greater firing powers, over sharp liberal warnings,” Law Dork, December 8, 2025, https://www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-ftc-slaughter-humphreys-executor
[10] Yasmin Abusaif and Douglas Keith, “What Courts Can Do If the Trump Administration Defies Court Orders,” Brennan Center for Justice, February 14, 2025, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/what-courts-can-do-if-trump-administration-defies-court-orders; U.S. Const., Art. II, §3.
[11] David Graeber and David Wengrow, Dawn of Everything (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021).