Mitt Romney, J.D.-M.B.A. ’75, thinks the executive branch of the United States government has too much unchecked influence—and he says it’s a trend that started well before Donald Trump became president.
“Is the legislative branch serving as a check on the president of their own party? Not really,” Romney said at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics on Monday during a conversation with Jill Lepore, the Kemper professor of American history and Harvard Law School professor.
“That was not true when President Biden was in office—the Democrat senators and Democrat House did precisely what he wanted—and it’s not true [with] President Trump,” Romney said. “Not when they think that the president of their party has political clout and can keep them from getting reelected.”
He added: “I’m concerned that the judicial branch, now that [judges] are appointed on a political basis, it’s also losing some of its capacity to push back against the administration.”
During the wide-ranging discussion, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and two-time presidential candidate who retired from the U.S. Senate in 2025, touched on the root causes and consequences of that power imbalance. As a senator, Romney was a rare vocal critic of Trump within the Republican party and voted to convict the president in two separate impeachment proceedings. On Monday, he criticized both political parties for instances of executive overreach in certain areas and a lack of vital, active leadership in others—including driving policies around artificial intelligence and social media.
“I’m not the first one to suggest that that we’re taking steps towards an authoritarian approach,” Romney said. “When President Biden said, ‘I’m going to get rid of a trillion dollars of student debt without Congressional approval,’ that's a pretty authoritarian thing, and President Trump has done far more than his share.”
Romney also highlighted aspects of Trump’s approach to foreign policy, such as antagonizing steadfast allied countries, as examples.
“Why would you want to irritate Canada?” Romney said. “It’s the biggest market for American goods…Why would you want to get people mad from Denmark by saying you’re going to go invade Greenland? I just don’t understand it. Some of the things he’s done have alienated the friendships we’ve had with other nations. I don’t think he recognizes the value.”
Romney placed a large share of the blame on modern electoral politics, the mechanisms of which, he said, have favored the more polarized views within each major party.
“Look where the energy is in the Democratic party, with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Mamdani,” he said. Candidates for national elected office “have to appeal to that group.”
On the Republican side, Romney argued, former foundational issues for conservatives have fallen to the wayside in favor of more extreme viewpoints.
“Republicans, we have to recognize where the power is,” he said. “When I was running [for president] in 2012, people said, ‘Mitt, you've got to appeal to the three legs of the Republican stool. There are social conservatives, concerned about life and marriage. There are economic conservatives, concerned about tax policy, and there are foreign policy conservatives, concerned about being tough on Russia and so forth. Where are those legs now? That’s gone.”
As the conversation continued, Romney and Lepore weighed the potential for certain methods of curbing presidential power in service of a stronger democracy. Romney expressed skepticism that the 25th amendment could ever be invoked to remove an unfit president from office (unless he were “unconscious,” Romney said) but made the case for smaller checks, including limiting the number of presidential pardons and restoring the 60-vote requirement in the Senate to approve federal judges.
Increased power for the legislative branch, Romney argued, will be vital in tackling pressing issues for America’s future, including AI and more deliberate policies around regulating social media. The latter has direct implications for a stable democracy, data suggest. Lepore pointed to a Gallup poll finding that heavy users of social media are “those Americans who least believe in democracy and are like most likely to favor political violence.”
“I think the best thing we can do is bring people together who are studying this to say, ‘Okay, what kinds of things can we do?” Romney said. “There are some states that are saying, ‘We’re going to make it illegal to have social media in schools.’ There are parents who are wising up and saying, ‘I don’t want my child under 16 years of age to have a smartphone.’ Are we going to legislate those things? Have parents do it? I don’t know the answer, but there are a couple things we’re doing that are really dangerous to the future of our civilization.”
