Donald Trump is finding new ways to flex presidential power after returning to the White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pres Donald Trump is quickly breaking the traditional boundaries of presidential power as he returns to the White House, bringing a lifetime of bending the boundaries of courthouses, boardrooms and politics to create an expansive view of his authority.

He has already unleashed an unprecedented wave of announcementsdaring anyone to stop him, with actions aimed at cracking down on border crossings, limiting the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship and keeping the popular Chinese-owned TikTok operational despite a law shutting down the social media platform.

Democrats and civil rights organizations are rallying to fight Trump in court, but legal battles may drag on before they slow the president down. Meanwhile, Trump is crafting a new plan for the presidency, one that demonstrates the primacy of blunt power in a democratic system based on checks and balances between the branches of government.

“He’s going to push it to the max,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican.

Trump tried to take a similar approach in his first term, with mixed results. This time there are fewer guardrails.

His administration has few of the establishment figures who once tried to curb his penchant for upheaval. The US Supreme Court is filled with conservative judges, and recently decreed that presidents are largely immune from prosecution for any official actions taken during their term. Republicans are in full control on Capitol Hill, where leaders owe their majority positions to Trump’s support or acquiescence.

In a striking display of Trump’s dominance, almost no one from his party contested the decision to pardon almost all the accused in connection with the disturbances on January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol.

“We’re not looking back, we’re looking forward,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota.

That’s the kind of scenario Democrats warned about during last year’s campaign when they claimed it Trump would rule like a dictator if you are elected for another term.

Sitting in the oval office only hours after being inaugurated on MondayTrump rejected the characterization.

“No, no,” he said, shaking his head and pursing his lips. “I can’t imagine being called that at all.”

Then he proceeded to put his signature on notices that were posted across the Resolute Desk.

Trump’s blitz didn’t surprise Barbara Res, who worked for the future president years ago at his namesake.

“Politics is about compromise. Business is about leverage,” said Res. “He is not a man of compromise.”

Although Trump got his start in the brick-and-mortar realm of real estate, he appears to be taking a page from the “move fast and break things” tactics of tech executives who spent millions bolstering his presidential election and attended his inauguration.

John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley who helped expand the president’s authority while working for George W. Bush, said Trump’s executive orders were “unprecedented in the breadth of the orders and in the sheer number .”

While such orders can be easily reversed by a future president, they can have a profound impact for now.

Yoo described as “legitimately appalling” Trump’s efforts to allow TikTok to continue to operate although US officials have described it as a national security threat due to fears that China could access user data or manipulate the content algorithm. A law signed by the president Joe Biden demanded that the platform shut down in the US unless its Chinese parent found a new owner by Sunday, the day before Trump took office.

But Trump ordered his Justice Department not to enforce the ban, which Yoo likened to a student asking for more time for an exam after it was due.

Yoo also said Trump is trying to “really push the envelope” by declaring that migrants entering the country constitute an “invasion.” The president directed the military to help take “operational control” of the US border, but troops are not allowed to handle law enforcement, whether it’s seizing drugs or arresting migrants.

“This is historically unprecedented,” Yoo said. “This is truly an extraordinary assertion of presidential power.”

Nearly two dozen states has already sued Trump over his executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship, part of his sweeping effort to curb immigration. The president’s opponents said the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires people born in the United States to be citizens, including people whose parents were not legally citizens at the time of their birth.

“Presidents have broad power, but they are not kings,” said New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, a Democrat.

Depending on how the legal battles play out, Yoo said Trump could set a new standard for his successors.

“If he’s successful with even half of the executive orders, every future president will want to do the same,” he said.

It’s not unusual for presidents to test the limits of presidential authority, said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University historian. For example, Biden tried to expand the cancellation of federal student loans, only to see his proposal blocked by the US Supreme Court.

“But as with most things,” Zelizer said, “Trump goes further than the rest to see how far he can go.”

Res recalled a similar approach at the Trump Organization, where Trump prided himself on his ability to slash construction costs or lean on local officials for favorable treatment of his properties.

“No matter what you gave him or offered him, he wanted more,” she said.

Res said Trump would keep a black-and-white photo of Roy Cohn, a lawyer known for his ruthlessness, on his desk.

“He would pull it out when he was arguing with a contractor,” she said. “‘Here’s My Lawyer, Sue Me'”

Trump’s ongoing challenge will be keeping Republicans in line on Capitol Hill, some have suggested they are still willing to cross him.

Late. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican known for an independent streak, said she supports some of Trump’s executive orders, but “others I have real questions about.”

Late. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California who has been a political nemesis of Trump, said Trump’s actions range “from the clearly unconstitutional — as in trying to end birthright citizenship — to the draconian of mass deportations.”

Others, he said, like the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, are just “absurd.”

Asked if Congress would run for the new White House, Schiff said he wasn’t sure.

“We’re figuring it out,” he said.