‘The doomsday scenario’: Lawyers warn Americans over Trump’s potential unchecked power

Understandably, we’re all very worried about what the Trump administration has in store for this country. Apparently, as lawyers point out, there’s a new fear on the horizon: unchecked unilateral totalitarianism.

Even when things get bad in America, they are, in theory, mostly tempered by our system of checks and balances. Policies and executive orders, such as those currently being used by the Trump administration, typically have to be moderated by the other branches, such as the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government.

Lately, however, it feels like Trump is trying to bypass this process altogether. As reported by HuffPost, Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University, described a worst-case scenario in which the Trump administration ignores court orders altogether during a discussion with Jamal Simmons, a former communications director for Kamala Harris, on CNN.

Simmons asked, “What happens if Donald Trump decides he doesn’t want to abide by the traditional ruling? What’s the recourse?” Goodman replied, “Nothing. That is the doomsday scenario that a lot of lawyers are worried about. We’re in a real jam.” Yikes.

So, what does this all mean? Can Trump just do whatever he wants? It’s complicated. Like Goodman said, Trump hasn’t done this yet, but it seems it could be on the horizon. That being said, Trump hasn’t exactly stood his ground about losses before. He did eventually concede the presidency to Joe Biden in 2020, and there are scores of policies shot down in Congress that were basically left on the table.

At the same time, the government is currently a Republican majority, and much of this seems like unfamiliar territory. Keep in mind, however, that Republicans had a stronghold in government in 2016 as well. We’ve been here before, and Trump’s presidency still had to abide by a legislative leash, even if it seems like a very long one.

That hasn’t stopped Trump from trying anyway. As reported by USA Today, Trump was blocked by federal judge John McConnell of Rhode Island on February 6, 2025, from freezing federal loans and grants. Trump ignored this order and withheld billions in government funding anyway, leaving many agencies and federal programs in chaos. McConnell held his order firmly, saying that Trump must follow it and that any pauses were temporary upsets.

Still, a lot of people are terrified of the possibilities. Could Trump actually be stopped if he tells the judges no? Many state agencies still don’t have access to critical grants at the time of this writing. The future looks pretty bleak.

Unfortunately, this issue isn’t exclusive to Trump. The government system is broken in that there are no real long-term consequences for what Trump is doing and will continue to do. The minute he was found guilty of his federal crimes, he should have been disqualified from the presidency. Yet here we are.

Change is slow but possible. The midterms aren’t too far away, and there are always local communities in need of your help, especially vulnerable migrant people being arrested by ICE as we speak.