Congress isn't stopping Trump. Unpopularity will.

"Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."

Alexander Hamilton or James Madison, Federalist #15

Americans disapprove of Congress.

Congress has capitulated to the executive.

The authors of the Constitution assumed people like Trump would come along.He is a popular, charismatic demagogue who claims authority because he directly represents the will of the people.The design of the Constitution was to stop one-person rule by such a person. The president would be subject to impeachment and the legal system. Congress alone had the sole power to make laws, the power of the purse, and the power to declare wars. The Senate had the power to approve treaties and to approve senior executive appointments. Congress has tools.

Congress has abdicated. Its members will not risk re-election by insisting on their obligation to share in governance.

Donald Trump demands loyalty. We watched Iowa Senator Joni Ernst approve Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense and Louisiana Senator, Bill Cassidy, a physician, approve RFK Junior as head of HHS. The didn't want to do it, but they caved. Former Wyoming Rep.Liz Cheney is a cautionary tale for Republicans. No matter how popular and deeply connected an elected official is to a constituency, no one can withstand the one-two punch of Trump and unlimited money spent against them in a primary campaign.

The Murdoch-owned The Wall Street Journal is troubled by congressional abdication.

Wall Street Journal

The Journal represents the business perspective in the GOP coalition. Businesses require the rule of law. Businesses fears erratic one-person rule by someone subject to off-stage influences. Supply-chain management requires predictability. Trump flouted the law in declaring a tariff under a pretext national emergency. (Congress isn't crying foul.) Trump announced that he would ignore a law passed by a bipartisan Congress that shut down TikTok. Billions of dollars are at stake. (Congress did not stop him.) Congress passed a law requiring the president give 30 days' notice before firing inspector generals. Trump fired 17 of them. (Congress is not protesting.)

Theoretically, there would be a bipartisan revolt against Trump. It isn't happening. Republican officeholders are going along.

The real check on Trump is not the law and the Constitution, and might not even be the courts. Democrats should not think they can stop Trump by arguing undemocratic process. Trump taught the public not to care, and GOP politicians don't dare assert themselves. However, Trump has a vulnerability: He wants to be popular. Trump will get away with doing popular things. This includes using the pretext of national emergencies to send the U.S. military to the southern border. Trump ignored the law to keep TikTok on American screens because that was popular. He will override anti-discrimination laws to ban trans-female athletes from competing in women's sports because it is popular. He will kill DEI programs and pronoun announcements because doing so is popular.

Democrats need not waste breath and credibility by condemning Trump for popular acts. They should abandon the formula that "if Trump likes it, then it must be wrong." Trump is, indeed a grifting, narcissistic, misogynist xenophobe, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Instead, Democrats must focus on the unpopular things Trump does. Tariffs that make prices go up will be unpopular. Freezing spending to create a mess in the Medicaid system is unpopular. Taking over Gaza with an "ownership" position is unpopular already, and will become even more so if we get mired in an endless war of religion and revenge. Trump is already screwing up.

Trump entered office as the least-popular president in American history, and it is downhill from here for him. Democrats just need to be careful that they don't do things that make themselves even less popular than Trump.