The Supreme Court recently upheld a preliminary injunction blocking the US Postal Service's plan to overhaul mail-in voting, rejecting President Trump's attempt to restrict voting ahead of midterm elections. Trump blames mail-in voting for his 2020 defeat, claiming fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens. He has declared on Truth Social that "ELECT IONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING." The article examines whether the Supreme Court has empowered Trump, with defenders arguing the justices have frustrated his aims.

However, Trump's authoritarian exercise of executive power stems partly from the Court's decision in Trump v. United States (2024), which shielded the executive from criminal prosecution for "official acts." This ruling, defenders say, was narrow, but Trump read it as a mandate to act on authoritarian impulses. The conservative majority's jurisprudence has shaped Trump's sense of himself as a strongman, leading him to believe he holds sovereign authority.