Whether he's using the military against protesters in Los Angeles or ignoring clear orders from federal judges, President Donald Trump is shaking the democratic foundations of the United States
It is still very tense in Los Angeles. Thousands of people have been demonstrating for days against the actions of the US immigration authorities.
The night curfew introduced by the mayor on Wednesday (June 11) evening has brought some peace and quiet, but there are no signs that the situation will calm down. The National Guard, which is American President Donald tramp sent to Los Angeles on Saturday, is now accompanied by 700 Marines - that is part of the US armed forces known as the Rapid Reaction Force and as an elite unit of the military.
According to a spokeswoman for the US military, soldiers are supposed to help protect buildings and employees of the federal government, including those at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Deutsche says.
People in Southern California have taken to the streets since last Friday to protest the way ICE agents conduct raids in public spaces to find and deport illegal immigrants. In some cases, masked ICE teams arrest illegal immigrants right on the street. It's all part of the tough immigration policy of the Trump administration and it should now be defended with the help of the military.
More rights for the president in special cases
The President of the United States cannot just send the National Guard or the Marines to a federal state. The order for their deployment usually has to be issued by the leadership of that country itself. In California, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom explicitly rejected the deployment of federal troops and filed suit.
However, in special cases, the President of the USA can even without notifying the competent governor send military units - to that federal state where there is an ongoing rebellion against the authority of the national government. That's what it says in the Uprising Act from 1807.
The military operation in California ordered by Trump is unusual, however, because the autonomy of the 50 federal states is considered the highest good - which can be seen in the name of the country: "United States of America". Governor Newsom even assesses that it is an abuse of power and warns that American democracy is in danger because of Trump's actions.
"California may be the first, but this is clearly not the end," Newsom said in a televised address Tuesday night. "Other states are next. Democracy is next."
Trump defies his own judiciary
In the first five months of his second term, Trump has already come into conflict with the democratic institutions of his own country several times, for example when it comes to deportations that he carried out against clear court orders. In March, more than 250 alleged terrorists who were not US citizens were deported to El Salvador. Planes taking migrants to the Central American country's notorious prison have taken off despite a temporary stay on deportations ordered by a federal judge.
As with the military operation in Los Angeles, Trump invoked a law that is more than two centuries old. In that case, he used the Law on Foreign Enemies from 1798. It allows the president to deport foreign nationals from an "enemy nation" without waiting for the usual court procedures. The Trump administration claims that the deportees are terrorists from the Venezuelan "Tren de Aragua" gang, and that the president's action is therefore legally valid.
In fact, the judiciary is one of the three pillars of government in the United States, along with the executive (President) and the legislature (Congress). The separation of powers between those three branches forms the basis of American democracy. Trump's behavior appears to be weakening that divide. In the US's highest court, the Supreme Court, six of the nine justices are openly conservative. Three of them were appointed by Trump himself. These are good conditions for decisions that are in the interest of the president. For example, in the case of alleged terrorists, the Supreme Court ruled that the deportation was legal.
In accordance with the "principles of democracy" in the USA?
And what about Congress, the legislative branch of government? Trump sidestepped that right at the start of his second term. Any president can issue presidential decrees that do not have to go through the House of Representatives and the Senate, the two houses of Congress. Trump has already issued a very large number of those decrees: 161 in his second term so far (ending June 10, 2025). That's more than any president since World War II. Those Trump decrees have far-reaching consequences, for example for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in the US or for global trade.
"Trump will definitely go down in history as someone who pushed the power of the executive branch to its limits," Patrick Malone, professor of public administration and politics at American University, told DW. For example, there are doubts about whether it was legal for the president, in order to increase efficiency, to close federal agencies and lay off employees of those agencies en masse, Malone points out.
"Courts will be dealing with the legality of what this president did for years," says the political scientist. And what about the democratic institutions of the USA? They are under considerable pressure, according to Malone. One of the problems is this: United States laws from over 200 years ago now apply to a completely different country than when those laws were written.
Still, Malone isn't giving up hope. "Institutions are generally very hard to break down," he says. "I hope the principles of democracy prevail in the end."
Source: Deutsche Welle
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