President Donald Trump has promised to preemptively pardon anyone who has come "within 200 feet" of the Oval Office before he leaves office, but that pledge could set up a clash with Democrats who are weighing whether to prosecute administration officials for misusing their authority.
Democrats are already drafting legislation aimed at reining in the powers Trump has stretched as they look to regain control of Congress after next month's elections, and some have argued that the way Justice Department officials have targeted Trump's political enemies is illegal and could expose those officials to criminal charges, reported The Washington Post.
"We have a massive reconstruction task ahead of us," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). "We will have to go department by department, subject by subject, and public purpose by public purpose to determine what we salvage and what we re-create."
Raskin said undoing Trump's changes would take decades, and he has already drafted bills that would bar a president from accepting payments from foreign governments without congressional consent, require public review of White House renovations, and block a president from reaching monetary settlements with his own government.
The last measure follows a federal judge's rebuke this summer of Trump and the Justice Department. The judge said they tried to "use" and "manipulate" the court to approve a deal that would have shielded Trump from IRS scrutiny and created a nearly $1.8 billion fund for alleged victims of politicized prosecutions.
Other Democrats are going after emergency powers. Trump has declared roughly a dozen emergencies to justify tariffs, faster deportations and National Guard deployments. Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Don Beyer (D-VA) have introduced a bill barring a president from imposing tariffs under a national emergency without Congress' approval.
"Once we get through this nightmare, the rest of our careers will have to be devoted to reviving American progress and building institutions that endure and succeed," Raskin said.
The Brennan Center's Michael Waldman warned Democrats against turning Trump's tactics on him.
"It will be very tempting for Democrats to say, 'Oh, you think we are going to limit our abuse of the Justice Department? We don't want to be suckers,'" Waldman said. "But I think that would be a big mistake."
Tiffany Justice, executive vice president of the conservative Heritage Action, argued that Trump has done nothing out of the ordinary and predicted Democratic plans to reign in the executive branch would go nowhere.
“They are full of baloney — I don’t think Democrats would ever limit the power of a Democratic president,” Justice said. “The idea of Democrats saving democracy, it’s nonsense.”
White House spokesman Steven Cheung argued that Trump has followed established procedures at every step but also claimed he had changed the country forever.
“His successes on behalf of the American people will be imprinted upon the fabric of America and will be felt by every other White House that comes after him,” Cheung said.
