For recent presidents armed with congressional trifectas, the beginning of a term was an urgent, sometimes heady, time.
Barack Obama used his to pass an economic stimulus package and the Affordable Care Act. Donald Trump pushed through a trillion-dollar tax cut. Joe Biden passed sweeping COVID-19 relief, along with significant chunks of his Build Back Better framework that included legislation on infrastructure and climate change.
In Trump’s second administration, you could be forgiven for forgetting that his party also controls Congress. While congressional Republicans toil over basic, must-pass appropriation legislation and profess indifference to Elon Musk’s seizure of their spending powers, Trump has all but ignored his legislative allies in favor of acting aggressively, destructively, often illegally, by himself.
