Congress Is Betraying America’s Founders by Ceding Power to Trump

Congress Is Betraying America’s Founders by Ceding Power to Trump The framers of the Constitution believed liberty lived in the friction between governmental branches By Alexis Coe Alexis Coe View all posts by Alexis Coe March 7, 2026 T he Founders missed Frankenstein by 30 years and the Mar-a-Lago face — that overworked, unnatural, unmistakably altered look — by a few hundred more. But they may have recognized the presidency we have now: a grotesque concentration of authority in the hands of Donald Trump . The modern executive branch is a creature made monstrous by what George Washington called “unprincipled men.” The Framers had another name for them: Congress . If the presidency seems dangerous, don’t fixate on Article II, the part of the Constitution laying out the powers of the presidency. The office expands because Article I permits it. The Constitution opens with Congress — taxation, spending, war, commerce, and the laws “necessary and proper.” That’s constitutional architecture; the branch that writes the permissions controls the outcome. The Framers feared concentrated executive authority. They had, after all, just fought a king. So they built a system in which Congress would write the rules and the president would execute them. James Madison’s design in Federalist No. 51 was mechanical: ambition counteracts ambition. The branches were meant to grind against each other. Liberty lived in the friction — but Madison assumed ambition would guide the legislative branch like it does the presidency. It doesn’t anymore. In a polarized Congress, ambition runs through the party, not the institution. Safe districts and incumbency mean many members fear a primary more than a general election. They are threatened by ideological purists, not swing voters. The incentive is clear: protect the party’s president, not the branch’s prerogatives. The rivalry Madison imagined has been replaced by partisan alignment. The check on the president dissolves; the office of the preside...