Trump Finds New Ways To Flex Presidential Power After Returning To White House

President Donald Trump is swiftly breaching the traditional boundaries of presidential power as he returns to the White House, bringing to bear a lifetime of bending the limits in courthouses, boardrooms and politics to forge an expansive view of his authority.

He's already unleashed an unprecedented wave of executive orders , daring anyone to stop him, with actions intended to clamp down on border crossings, limit the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship and keep the popular Chinese-owned TikTok operational despite a law shutting down the social media platform.

Democrats and civil rights organizations are rallying to fight Trump in court, but legal battles could drag on before slowing the president down. Meanwhile, Trump is drafting a new blueprint for the presidency, one that demonstrates the primacy of blunt force in a democratic system predicated on checks and balances between the branches of government.

"He's going to push it to the max," said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama.

Trump tried to take a similar approach in his first term, with mixed results. This time, there are fewer guardrails.