Just over seven months into his second term, President Donald Trump has made significant headway toward his goal of weakening Congress’ centuries-old power of the purse — pushing the boundaries of executive authority and blocking what Democrats argue amounts to nearly a half-trillion dollars the administration is legally required to spend.

Now, Trump’s collision course with Congress is rapidly intensifying as he will be forced into a high-stakes negotiation with Democrats to fund the government by September 30. The administration rolled what amounted to a hand grenade into the spending talks just before Congress returned to Washington this week by proposing to cancel $4.9 billion of foreign aid through what’s known as a “ pocket recission ,” a tactic that Democrats — and the top Rep

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