In January, Politico published a lengthy article arguing that concerns about Donald Trump being some kind of a dictator in his second term were overblown. The article suggested that Trump would be held in check by a number of factors, including the judiciary.
"[T]o move from a proto-dictator to a real one, Trump would need full loyalty from the judiciary," wrote Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. And to truly control the judiciary, Aydintasbas wrote, Trump would have to control the 800 members of the federal bench.
But Trump doesn’t need the absolute obedience of 800 judges. He needs just five justices. And he has six.
Following the Supreme Court’s stark expansion of presidential immunity on Monday, it becomes much more difficult to prosecute a former president for any crimes committed in office. That vastly reduces the check on presidential power, leaving just three ways that the actions of anyone in the White House might be controlled
