Appears Balko's presidential memory started Jan 2025. The quote itself can be true or false, or both at the same time depending upon its application.
For instance, can lower courts hold the Executive branch office hostage and constrain it indefinitely? That is certainly the intent of the latest course of lawfare. When a court states that not just DOGE - appointees of the president - but the Senate affirmed Secretary himself cannot access records, at what point does the president tell the court to pound sand and force the issue, in a matter the Judiciary has no constitutional foundation to insert itself into? Who is violating the law there?
Wake me up when Trump actually acts as an authoritarian (Lincoln and FDR say "you got a lot of beer to drink, Don").