U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber at the Capitol on February 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
Press Release
State of the Union Address Put President Trump’s Egregious Abuses of Power on Display
The real theme of Trump’s first year in office was a dangerous expansion of executive branch authority
Washington, D.C. — In response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address, Isabel Munilla, interim executive director at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), issued the following statement:
“President Trump’s State of the Union address spotlighted just how quickly he has expanded presidential power in the first year of his second term. The president used his speech to tout his administration’s success implementing his agenda, but he failed to mention they repeatedly broke the law to do so.
“The White House flouted Congress’s constitutional war powers to conduct ground attacks in Venezuela and strikes on noncombatants abroad, violated the Constitution and ignored court orders to carry out the president’s violent mass deportation campaign, and gutted the essential oversight mechanisms needed to hold the executive branch accountable. Those aren’t signs of a strong democracy — those are a clear indication of the alarming pace of our country’s slide toward authoritarianism.
“The United States government was designed with a system of checks and balances meant to prevent any one leader from wielding unchecked power. Independent oversight from Congress, courts, and internal watchdogs is supposed to keep our institutions in check. Over time, Congress and the courts have weakened these checks, again and again ceding power to the executive branch.
“Yet, as Trump has made plain, he is more than willing to accelerate that process until he can impose his agenda single-handedly. Any future president would be emboldened to do the same.
“Congress and the courts must act now and reassert themselves as a true check on executive power. If they fail, the government will answer to a single leader, not the people.”
