On Tuesday afternoon, the president signed anexecutive orderasserting that the President and the Attorney General will interpret the law for the executive branch, while granting the president and the executive branch oversight over independent agencies.
In a press conference shortly after the order was signed, White House Staff Secretary Will Scharfsaidthat the directive would reestablish the long-standing norm that only the president or the attorney general can speak for the United States when stating an opinion as to what the law is.
That is not at all what the Constitution says, but Trumps attempt to consolidate power within himself and the executive branch has been the primary project of his first month in office one that is consolidating years of dubious conservative legal theory into a single man.
Donald Trump delivers remarks after signing an executive order on expanding access to IVF at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Feb. 18, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Russell Vought one of the driving authors of Project 2025 and Trumps director of White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is a longtime disciple of unitary executive theory.
The theory, championed by a slew of prominent Republican figures, including the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, holds that the president has sole, virtually absolute authority over the executive branch and the agencies housed within it.
Its a principle Trump is currently using to carry out a large-scale power grab and wholesale transformation within the American government mass firings, the dismantling of federal agencies, and governance by executive order over congressional legislation.
Now, theres a formal attempt to strip agencies of their independence and assert that the president and his attorney general are the only figures who can speak for the United States on the law of the land.
The agencies targeted by Tuesdays executive order which would include the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are granted a level of autonomy not by custom, but by congressional authorization.
Their full or partial independence from the executive branch is intended to act as a deterrent against exploitation, abuse, or retribution by a sitting administration, as well as a way to ensure the agency can preserve continuity in its work outside of the cyclical rotation of electoral cycles.
Suge Knights Wrongful-Death Retrial Officially Ran Off the Rails Today
Suge Knight Refuses to Let Lawyer Quit, Retrial Begins Tuesday
Trump Attacks the Supreme Court, Says America Cannot Give Everyone a Trial
Woman Dragged From Republican Town Hall Seeks $5 Million in Damages
The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time
The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time
Earlier this month, Trumpbroadcasthis Nixonesque approach to the presidency on social media, writing that he who saves his Country does not violate any Law.
In a Tuesday nightinterview, Elon Musk the unelected and conflict-of-interest-riddled oligarch helping Trump carry out his slash-and-burn agenda told Fox News that if the will of the president is not implemented and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented.
Of course, Musk conveniently ignored that the president is not the sole elected official charged with representing the desires of American voters, and that the president is in theory subject to a system of checks and balances involving the legislative and judicial branches of government.
