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Here is a closer look at the three most worrisome areas of the new president’s power - torture, drone strikes, and mass surveillance - and what President-elect Trump can, and cannot, legally do once he takes office. That any president has this kind of power is concerning on its own, but it’s even more alarming now that Donald Trump, who has praised repressive dictators like Vladimir Putin and shown little respect for things like international law and the Geneva Conventions, is going to be in the White House.Ĭivil libertarians, human rights activists, and even some members of the military and intelligence services have expressed worry over how the self-described “ law and order candidate” will wield this power once he takes office. In addition to having nearly unlimited power to start wars without Congress’s approval, presidents now have the power to order drone strikes on US citizens abroad without charges or trial, gather millions of Americans’ emails and phone records with minimal judicial oversight, and radically redefine what does and does not constitute “torture” without fear of ever being prosecuted for war crimes. Bush and Obama both dramatically expanded the power and authority of the executive branch, particularly in the realm of national security. Using drones to kill American citizens without trial, collecting the email and phone records of millions of Americans on a daily basis, and grabbing militants off of the streets of foreign cities and imprisoning them indefinitely - these are all powers that Obama has bequeathed to his successor. “That’s why we’ve ended torture, worked to close Gitmo, and reformed our laws governing surveillance to protect privacy and civil liberties.”īut while that makes for a nice sound bite, it’s not entirely accurate. “That’s why, for the past eight years, I’ve worked to put the fight against terrorism on a firmer legal footing,” Obama said. In his farewell speech Tuesday night, President Obama warned that Americans “must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are.”