President-elect Donald Trump will go up against a familiar adversary as he prepares to fulfill campaign promises of a swift rollback of Biden-era policies and an aggressive execution of his own agenda: The grind of the U.S. legal system.
The stubborn realities of litigation stymied Trump’s ability to carry out quick changes during his first term, as fights over his executive orders, policies-via-tweet and controversial personnel moves spent months or even years winding through the courts. The dynamic worked in his favor out of office. He ran out the clock on at least some of the criminal cases against him through appeals and delays.
Democratic state officials and left-leaning groups are vowing to bring a wall of legal challenges. Trump’s pledges of mass deportations, broad tariffs, federal agency overhauls and other sweeping changes are all expected to land before judges.