Trump's Spending Abuses Are Out of Control. He Shouldn't Have That Power in the First Place. Nov. 14, 2025

[elleng]

NYT editorial

*President Trump, however, has tried to take Congress’s constitutional power and make it his own. He has repeatedly ignored laws passed by the House and the Senate to spend money, or not spend it, based on his whims and agenda. He has violated the law at least six times, according to the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog agency. That total does not include the government shutdown, when he continued to disregard the law.

The moves are part of a strategy designed chiefly by Russell Vought, Mr. Trump’s budget director and an author of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 document, which laid out a potential agenda for a second Trump term. The moves also fit with Mr. Trump’s broader strategy to push the United States away from its democratic traditions and concentrate power in a single person — him. Alarmingly, congressional Republicans have stood by while Mr. Trump has executed this power grab.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/opinion/trump-congress-spending-power.html