Let’s talk about what happens when the president basically whips out a big red "EMERGENCY" button and presses it whenever there’s political gridlock, even when nothing’s actually on fire. In a deep dive by Vox’s Abdallah Fayyad, we learn how former President Trump—and many presidents before him—have used the vague, loosely defined laws around “national emergencies” to push agendas without waiting for Congress. Trump, for instance, declared a national emergency over the U.S. trade deficit—something that makes economists shrug more than panic—which allowed him to skip normal procedures and drop tariffs immediately. Why? Because there’s no legal definition of what counts as a national emergency. As Fayyad puts it, when the president says it’s an emergency, it is—no questions asked. This system essentially gives the Oval Office a policy fast-pass at Disney-like speeds, with few checks and lots of sketchy potential.

Key Points:

• Trump declared a national emergency over the "large and persistent trade deficit" to push through tariffs fast, using powers granted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
• The alarming truth? There’s no formal definition of a national emergency in U.S. law—so presidents can label a wide range of situations as emergencies to unlock expansive powers.
• These emergency powers can include everything from waiving procedural checks to seizing private assets and even “testing chemical weapons on humans,” as noted by Brennan Center’s Elizabeth Goitein.
• This pattern didn’t start with Trump: President Franklin D. Roosevelt locked up Japanese Americans under emergency powers, and George W. Bush used them post-9/11 to justify warrantless wiretapping and torture.
• Emergencies, once declared, don’t have hard expiration dates. They can be renewed indefinitely—like the post-9/11 emergency that’s still active today.
• Congress technically has the power to end these emergencies, but it requires a veto-proof majority—a rare feat in today’s polarization.
• Presidents now increasingly claim not just statutory (legal) powers but “inherent constitutional powers” that they say come with the office itself, giving them even broader authority.
• While Joe Biden also used emergency powers—for instance, to trigger student loan debt cancellation—this reflects a deeper dysfunction: a gridlocked Congress incentivizes presidents to rule by decree.
• The result? America finds itself in near-constant "emergency" mode, which means the extraordinary becomes ordinary—and democratic checks on presidential power get weaker and weaker.
• The Brennan Center and other legal experts have called repeatedly for reforming how and when emergency powers can be used—but nothing has changed yet.

Quote of the episode: “Anything can be an emergency, so long as the president deems it to be one.” — Vox

Could this be the next season of America’s favorite nonfictional drama: Emergency Powers Run Amok? Only Congress can say. But until then, strap in.
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