Fresh off its summer recess, Congress faces its biggest test in decades. Unlike big legislative fights of the past, this one could pass by without a notice. But the next few months will determine whether lawmakers will defend their constitutional powers or surrender them to an increasingly imperial president, perhaps for good.
Trump has made clear that he does not intend to share power. In the first few months of his second term, he has rewritten the rules to give himself the power to fire federal workers he deems insufficiently loyal. He's taken the power of the purse from Congress to decide which agencies and programs he wants to fund. He's invoked emergency powers to take over the Washington, D.C., police and send armed National Guard troops to roam its streets.
Will this Congress act? Almost certainly not. Republican leaders see reform as disloyalty to Trump. But what is required now is institutional loyalty — the recalibration of power between the branches that puts Congress back on equal footing with the presidency, even when the president belongs to one's own party.
This is a preview of Michael Steele's latest column. Read the full column here. For more thought-provoking insights from Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders-Townsend, watch "The Weeknight" every Monday-Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
