In April 2025, Donald Trump set a record for the number of executive orders issued in an American president’s first 100 days in office. Of the 143 decrees signed, the bid to lift national water pressure restrictions and ‘make America’s showers great again’ was among the most trivial. Others, such as an effort to curtail birthright citizenship, signalled a far more alarming expansion of the president’s claims to executive authority.
Since then, the administration has steadily pushed the boundaries of presidential power: declaring national emergencies to justify extreme policy actions; dismissing dozens of inspectors general and prosecutors and sidelining independent agency heads. In Trump’s view, as he declared on social media in February this year: ‘He who saves his country does not violate any law.’
