system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How the system of Checks and Balances works in the USA, is the president ultimately powerless?

As a Canadian I want to learn more.
gpt
No, the President is not ultimately powerless.  The idea of checks and balances is that power is divided so that each branch of government is pitted against each other.

For example, Congress writes the laws, but the President can veto them.  The President can carry out and interpret the laws, but only in the context of what Congress lets him.  The President is the Commander in Chief of the military, but only Congress can fund military operations or declare war.  The President appoints judges, but the Senate has to approve and the judges then serve for life with the power to determine what laws are constitutional or not, so they don't have to bend to the President's will.

The ultimate idea is that the branches are designed to fight each other, meaning that only something good ultimately survives because it survived all the checks and balances.