Donald Trump Is Remaking The Government. It Will Set Up A Legal Showdown.

President Donald Trump’s era of retribution has begun. A wave of legal resistance is next.

With a blinding speed that has left adversaries virtually paralyzed, Trump allies are purging the Justice Department and FBI of perceived enemies. Elon Musk, empowered by Trump, has deployed a band of loyalists to take over the federal spending apparatus managed by the U.S. Treasury. Trump’s temporary pick to lead federal prosecutions in Washington says anyone who resists Musk’s efforts could be breaking “numerous laws.”

The White House is attempting to freeze virtually all federal grants, which nonprofits say is already wreaking havoc on programs for vulnerable Americans. With almost no notice, the administration has dismantled the agency responsible for international aid and offered millions of federal employees a buyout with questionable legal authority. Trump fired many of the internal watchdogs — inspectors general — who would review these decisions.

Congressional Democrats seem flummoxed by the pace, responding to crises from three news cycles ago while new ones keep arising in real time. And congressional Republicans have either stayed silent or applauded Trump for sending shock waves through the federal government.

All eyes are now on federal courts, where challenges to these decisions are slowly starting to take shape. Two judges have already blocked the White House from implementing its across-the-board spending freeze. And lawsuits in federal courts are potentially the last vanguard for those hoping to stop Trump's efforts to remake the federal government.

“Nobody has challenged across the landscape the way this president has,” said Stan Brand, a former top House lawyer and veteran of Washington’s highest-profile legal battles of the past 40 years. “We’ve had fights over [spending authority]. We’ve had fights over inspectors general, even before Trump. We’ve had fights over foreign aid. But this one is deeper and seems more programmatic. All of these will get challenged in some manner.”

Judges are bracing for an onslaught of challenges to the growing list of unprecedented steps taken by a president who seems determined to test the limits of his constitutional authority. The outcome of those cases will, in some ways, define the Trump presidency. But in others, the chaos is part of the design. Trump’s allies say he is making good on his campaign promise to shake up Washington no matter what sticks legally.

“Federal employees around the country are surely feeling Trump’s orders as body blows, as he likely intended,” said Daniel Richman, a lawyer and former adviser to FBI leadership. “But once the immediate shock at his extraordinary power claims wears off, I doubt they will all be cowed. Rather, they will be the source of litigation that all but the most die-hard Trumpist judges will take seriously.”

Nowhere has the crisis atmosphere been thicker than at the Justice Department and FBI, where a series of personnel shake-ups have left the workforce angry, demoralized and in fear of reprisal for pursuing criminal cases against Trump or his supporters.

“I have never seen the level of retribution and anger expressed towards career prosecutors and staff who are basically doing their job,” said Gene Rossi, a former prosecutor who recently represented a prominent Jan. 6 defendant connected to the far-right Oath Keepers. “It is stunning, the level of retribution. What is ironic is that President Trump talked about witch hunts. What we are now experiencing is his answer to the witch hunt, which is much worse.”

Thousands more terminations at the FBI of employees who played a role in Jan. 6 criminal cases may be imminent, even as pockets of resistance begin to emerge. A group of national security lawyers and allies have offered free legal assistance to FBI officials targeted by the new leadership based on their role in Jan. 6 cases, and lawsuits to prevent wholesale terminations could be imminent.

Many of Washington’s legal veterans say they’re most alarmed and perplexed by Musk and his amorphous role in efforts to make massive, abrupt and ill-explained changes to the operations of the federal government. He routinely uses his social media platform, X, to characterize some government-funded programs as “criminal” and relished, for example, putting USAID — the agency responsible for administering international aid programs — through a “wood chipper.” Those claims of illegality have been coupled with a chorus of Trump’s MAGA allies characterizing the agency as a hotbed of progressive causes, suggesting the agency drew Trump allies’ ire for political reasons.

Musk has sent a team of allies to take control of computer systems at Treasury and in the Office of Personnel Management, which are responsible for delivering appropriated funds and overseeing the entire federal workforce. It’s unclear what responsibilities they have. Amid reports some of those incursions have been met with pushback, Washington, D.C.’s interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin — a conservative culture warrior who was a prominent conspiracy theorist about the Jan.6 attack — offered to use his office to protect Musk’s efforts.

Martin suggested that “threats, confrontations or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws.” Martin ended his letter to Musk — which Musk quickly acknowledged — by warning Musk to be wary of subversive elements in government.