Donald Trump is already organizing the structure of the power apparatus in case he reaches the US presidency in 2024. And one of the first initiatives that he will carry out, as he has announced in the rallies that he has led in recent months, will be to increase the power of the maximum president at the cost of reducing that of independent agencies.
With this, the Republican candidate for his party’s primaries to reach the White House in the next elections has started the biggest reshaping of the federal bureaucracy in recent times. He would carry it out through an executive order that would make it possible to expand the presidential power and dismantle part of the administrative state, something that he already tried during his term but that was dismissed by his own collaborators as being too radical an initiative.
And it is that this measure would mean putting the regulatory agencies, which are currently independent, under presidential power; replace senior administrative positions with political appointments; firing government employees even though they are under the protection of the civil government and the seizure of economic funds assigned by Congress for programs considered less interesting, at the discretion of the president.
Affected Agencies
The objective, as revealed by the New York Times recently, it would be “upsetting the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over each part of the federal government that now operates,” undermining administrative status. Agencies such as Environmental Protection, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Federal Communications Commission or the Federal Trade Commission could be some of those affected.
With that, thousands of civil servants from career intelligence agencies, the Department of State and Defense, would be affected by being replaced by people directly appointed by the executive of Donald Trump or remaining under his control. Even key bodies like the Federal Reserve, with whose monetary policy the tycoon was in clear disagreement during his tenure, could be affected. The implications in this case could become very serious at the international level, since the credibility and independence of the financial regulatory body would be affected.
Donald Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.https://t.co/9PIu27kyxD
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 17, 2023
Commanding
John McEntee, former White House chief of staff, and Russell T. Vought, who led the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump era, are responsible for developing this transition initiative, called Project 2025. Said operation relies on 22 million dollars and is run by the Heritage Foundation, an institution dedicated to shaping the policies of Republican administrations since the Reagan presidency.
Both collaborators of the former president are actively participating in the reshaping of a future executive government in which, according to McEntee’s words, “there is no way to make the existing structure work conservatively. It is not enough to have the right staff. What is needed is a complete overhaul of the system.”
Base legal
In order to carry out this project of dismantling part of the administrative state, Trump and his collaborators rely on Article II of the United States Constitution, which grants the president control of the executive branch, which according to their interpretation would prevent the Congress to support the decision-making capacity of the heads of the affected agencies.
History teaches that autocrats who lose power and regain it are vengeful. If plagued by legal proceedings that threaten them, they are doubly intent on remaking government so that they are never haunted by investigations, impeachments or indictments again.https://t.co/4FnRNkMeeP
— Laurence Tribe ?? ⚖️ (@tribelaw) July 20, 2023
Although the Article II it says that “the executive power will be vested in a President of the United States”, who “will see that the laws are faithfully executed”, in the US government there are three types of powers: the legislative, the judicial and the executive. The legislature is determined by what Congress does; the judicial by the courts and the rest by the executive branch, which is what Trump advisers rely on to justify that everything that is not an act of Congress or a judge should be under the control of the president.
But this interpretation not only diminishes the power and independence of the regulatory agencies, but would substantially reduce the ability of Congress to influence policy and the balance established in the US system by the separation of powers. Something key to maintaining a healthy democratic system.
