President-elect Donald J. Trump’s thwarted attempt to install Matt Gaetz as attorney general is the first major failure of Trump’s promised autocracy. It sends a message that just as in his first term, his antidemocratic excesses—as we document at State Democracy Defenders Fund in our American Autocracy Threat Tracker—can and will be checked. And although it is early days, it offers critically important lessons for the fight to protect democracy that lies ahead.

1. Constitutional checks and balances aren’t gone.

Gaetz’s nomination was a critical test of whether Congress would abdicate one of its core constitutional duties to the executive branch, further ceding ground to the increasingly powerful office of the presidency. Trump, following the model of other aspiring autocrats, has been focused on control over what is termed in international relations the “power ministries”—law enforcement, defense, and intelligence. In Gaetz, Trump thought he had found the perfect man for the job: a MAGA firebrand of unquestioned loyalty who would act upon Trump’s desire to use the Department of Justice’s considerable resources to attack political opponents. The nomination was also a test of how ironclad Trump’s control over congressional Republicans is: By picking an individual reported to be loathed by many of his colleagues, and who was the subject of an ethics investigation due to accusations of sex trafficking and accusations of sexual misconduct with a minor, Trump dared his party to accept an odious nominee.

Related From Slate

They called his bluff using Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. It famously vests in the Senate an “Advice and Consent” role in evaluating a........

© Slate