It raises the possibility that strongmen leaders — including Trump — will align with each other over much of the rest of the world, The Post’s Michael Birnbaum reported. “The president appears to be turning back the clock to a time in world history when countries with the biggest militaries constructed empires, demanded tribute from weaker nations and expanded their territories through coercion,” Michael wrote. It also could underscore the hard right’s affinity for Russia, which has been years in the making under Trump. When Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, U.S. leaders, including Republicans, framed it as a despotic nation invading a thriving democracy. The United States funded tanks and increasingly deadly weapons to Ukraine — until last year, when conservative support for Ukraine eroded, thanks to Trump. He’s expressed an affinity for Russia’s president since his first term in office, for reasons that just aren’t clear, and the rest of his party has followed along. What this could mean for the United StatesThis comes as experts warn Trump is turning back the clock on democratic institutions at home, too, pushing the powers of presidential authority beyond anything in U.S. history, with seemingly little to stop him. Legal and constitutional experts say Trump is destroying the Constitution’s systems of checks and balances as he slashes the federal government, by essentially ignoring the fact that Congress — not the president — has the authority to set up or take down government agencies. Congress, led by Republicans, isn’t standing up for itself, which is troublesome, said Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, in a recent interview. “That’s what keeps me up at night,” he said, “If members of Congress don’t stand up for their own authority and power, nobody else is going to.” Kimberly Wehle, a law professor at the University of Baltimore Law School and the author of the newsletter “Simple Politics,” compares this to having no more law enforcement to enforce speeding limits. “Who is going to issue the tickets for speeding through the Constitution?” she said. “There is no one left. All the cops are gone.” | 
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