Musk and DOGE also established the idea that the unelected officials in the Trump administration could do whatever they wished, without regard to the laws or the Constitution. But despite the administration’s attempt to act extraconstitutionally and outside the law, the law began to assert itself. *But the momentum that had appeared to carry the Trump administration forward had stopped. Voters in New York City and Miami elected Democratic mayors, Miami for the first time in nearly 30 years. More than that, though, over the course of 2025, the administration’s refusal to recognize the tenets of American democracy has roused the American people to defend that democracy.

Source: Wall Street Journal December 31, 2025 10:21 UTC