Over the course of several months, Donald Trump expressed less public interest in the contents of the Republican Party’s domestic policy megabill and more interest in the date on which the bill reached his desk: He wanted to sign the inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill Act on the 4th of July. It was, by all appearances, the one thing the post-policy president cared about most.

And while that reflected a rather child-like approach to federal policymaking, GOP leaders in the House and Senate, most notably Speaker Mike Johnson, did as they were instructed and rushed the radical legislation through Capitol Hill — just to ensure that Trump could put on a little ego-satisfying show at the White House on Independence Day.

The signing ceremony was largely unremarkable, though Roll Call noted the one part of the event loaded with unacknowledged symbolic significance: “Johnson presented Trump with the gavel he used Friday after announcing that the bill had passed the chamber. The president banged it several times on the table as the audience cheered.”

As metaphors go, this was a little on the nose: While House speakers have traditionally been among the more powerful officials in the nation’s capital, Johnson — his party’s fifth choice for speaker after House Republicans targeted Kevin McCarthy in 2023 — is unambiguously weak. The Louisiana congressman owes his tenure to Trump, takes direction from Trump and relies on Trump to persuade GOP members who don’t care what their ostensible leader urges them to do, so it seemed oddly appropriate for Johnson to literally hand the president his gavel on the South Lawn the day he and his caucus delivered Trump’s bill on Trump’s deadline.

If Johnson is, for all intents and purposes, the “Speaker in Name Only” — a label John Boehner earned a decade earlier under very different circumstances — then it stands to reason that he’d turn over the symbol of his power to the man who is really calling the shots in the chamber.

Stepping back, however, the problem is hardly limited to the House GOP leader. As was obvious throughout the process surrounding the party’s reconciliation package, Congress has largely abandoned its role as a separate, coequal branch of government, choosing instead to turn over too much of its authority to the White House.

What’s more, this was part of an extraordinary recent pattern. The Washington Post reported over the holiday weekend:

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The Supreme Court last week sharply curtailed the ability of federal judges to block a presidential action nationwide, even if they find it unconstitutional. That followed its decision last year granting the president broad immunity from prosecution for crimes committed in the course of his core duties. The Senate several days ago rejected a resolution that would have let Congress decide, under its war powers, if President Donald Trump can strike Iran again. And Congress in recent months has repeatedly declined to assert its constitutional authority over spending or tariffs.

Trump has certainly engaged in more than his share of power grabs since returning to the Oval Office nearly six months ago, but as the Post’s report noted, it’s the judicial and legislative branches that have been voluntarily “transferring many of their powers to the executive — or at least acquiescing in the transfers.”

This isn’t how our Madisonian system of government was designed to work — the whole model is built on checks and balances — but as the incumbent president embraces an authoritarian-style vision, in which power is concentrated in his hands, the Republican-led Congress and Republican-led Supreme Court appear only too pleased to acquiesce.

On Thursday afternoon, a reporter asked Trump about the differences between his first term and his second, and the president replied, “I think I have more power now.”

Oddly enough, I think so, too.