IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1 November 2025WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUNDToday’s Events in Historical PerspectiveAmerica’s Longest-Running Column, Founded 1932He who would be kingBy Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift WASHINGTON – He who would be king will be well on his way if things go his way with the Supreme Court in the coming days. The nine-member institution has six conservative justices, three of whom Trump appointed, and they are about to hear arguments on the presidential power to declare emergencies, the cornerstone of autocratic power.The court is critical because Republicans in Congress rarely show any spine when it comes to challenging President Trump on anything. So, it was a welcome development when four GOP senators joined all Democrats to oppose Trump’s tariff policies in three separate resolutions.None has the force of law, because House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he will not bring them to the House floor for a vote. They provide a roadmap on where things stand, or at least where they are headed, because those presidentially decreed tariffs were entirely based upon the president’s emergency powers.Trump has said he would like to attend the oral arguments in the tariff/emergency case that is before the Supreme Court. He has been open about how much a positive ruling from the justices would mean for him and for his economic policies. Critics point out that Trump is putting enormous pressure on the Court when he says global markets would be in an uproar if SCOTUS didn’t go his way. Perhaps they will feel even more pressure from the Constitution’s Founding Fathers' ghosts.The Constitution gives Congress the power to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.”At the heart of Trump’s argument is that a president has the sole all-powerful authority to declare an emergency and determine what constitutes an emergency, an enormous, undefined power. He has cited emergencies as the reason for such varied actions as sending troops to U.S. cities, deporting Venezuelan immigrants who were here legally, and slapping tariffs on countries all over the globe without any congressional consultation or approval.Betting markets are split over which side wins.Trump has made it clear that the fate of his trade policy is in the justices’ hands, and that may be true. But if he gets this power to unilaterally declare an emergency, the fate of democracy will be at stake.The four Republican senators who voted against Trump’s tariffs are what we call “the usual suspects,” lawmakers with a track record of independent thinking: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, now that he is no longer in leadership.The only one who could face political blowback from Trump is Murkowski, who recently speculated about leaving the GOP and becoming an Independent. She was a deciding vote on the so-called Big Beautiful bill that is widely detested, and sided with Trump after special provisions were made for Alaska.Her sidekick, Susan Collins, doesn’t get Trump’s endorsement, and she wouldn’t want it in Maine, where she is running for her sixth term and Trump is not popular.Rand Paul is a libertarian who doesn’t get invited to the White House, and McConnell, who will not be running again after next year, is wrapping up a long career and is free to vote his conscience rather than toe the party line.In the end, these four Republicans siding with 47 Democrats would allow the Senate to reassert its constitutional prerogatives should the Supreme Court decide to tell him who would be king, he will be king nevermore. See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).Twitter: @douglas_cohn© 2025 U.S. News Syndicate, IncDistributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
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