Could Trump use the sequestration to gerrymander Congress?

President-elect Donald Trump may be seeking to add a long-unused tool to the executive branch, and it could allow him to circumvent Congressional checks on his power: sequestration. This little-known executive branch action occurs when the president refuses to spend money already appropriated by Congress, giving the president unilateral power over the federal budget.

One reason many people may be unfamiliar with confiscations is that they have been largely illegal since 1974. This year, Congress passed a law, the Impoundment Control Act, to “prevent the President and other government officials from unilaterally replacing those of Congress with their own funding decisions,” the House Budget Committee said. However, Trump said several times during his 2024 campaign that he would use sequestration to force budget cuts and claimed the law preventing sequestration was unconstitutional.