The US president is testing the limits of executive authority, sidelining Congress and enriching allies while destabilising the global economy

Donald Trump is provoking a US constitutional crisis, claiming sweeping powers to override or bypass Congress’s control over spending in a brazen attempt to centralise financial power in the executive branch. If he succeeds, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman warns, it would be a 21st-century coup – with power slipping from elected officials’ hands. The real story hidden behind the president’s trade war, he says, is the hijacking of government. And Mr Krugman’s right.

By usurping the authority to shut down government programmes at will – even those funded by Congress – Mr Trump could slash federal spending and taxes while pretending to balance the books. In reality, he’d be robbing the poor to enrich the wealthy. In a world where economic jargon has been corrupted to depict exploitation as “wealth creation”, the audacity of Mr Trump – and his lackeys – to personally profit is breathtaking. Mr Trump’s philosophy is simple: let the uber-rich do whatever they want, with little or no oversight. The result will be vast wealth for a select few while life grows nastier and shorter for the many.