Al Gore, who served as vice president for eight years before becoming a full-time climate activist, knows something about presidential power.

And in recent weeks, Gore has watched with alarm as President Trump stretches the limits of executive authority to dismantle federal climate policy, roll back environmental protections and eliminate incentives for clean energy.

He’s watched the canceled federal grants, the mass layoffs, the paused renewable energy permitting and the gutting of the United States Agency for International Development, and he’s watched as the Environmental Protection Agency revised its mission.

Each of these actions is disrupting efforts to reduce emissions and protect the environment.

“Are they different in blowing through stop signs and warning signs and red lines and constitutional barriers?” he said. “Of course they are. I mean, this is something new for sure.”

But a more overarching concern, Gore said, is Trump’s attempts to override Congress.

Trump has tried to freeze money for clean energy projects that was already authorized in laws like the Inflation Reduction Act, and other funds that were supposed to be distributed by the E.P.A.

“He is claiming the right to authorize and appropriate or rescind the spending power and the taxing power that is clearly given to the Congress in Article I,” he said, referring to the Constitution.