Libs worry about Trump’s control over ‘Fourth Branch’ of government.
Former President Donald Trump Plans to Reign in Unelected Federal Bureaucrats
According to former and current advisers, former President Donald Trump has vowed to assert his executive power over federal agencies if elected president in 2024. Trump faced significant opposition from within the federal government during his time in office and aims to address this issue by implementing the unitary executive theory.
This plan, highlighted in a recent New York Times article, has drawn criticism from the Left, who claim it is authoritarian. However, conservative policy leaders have praised the initiative.
“Our current executive branch,” former Trump aide John McEntee told the Times, “was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It’s not enough to get the personnel right. What’s necessary is a complete system overhaul.”
Prior to leaving office, Trump drafted an executive order that would have granted him review authority over regulatory actions by federal agencies. Trump and his allies argue that agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, have operated as a de facto “fourth branch” of government.
While some, like Anne Applebaum from The Atlantic, believe these plans would undermine American democracy, Trump, who is currently leading in polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has already outlined similar intentions in a policy video from April 2023.
“I will bring the independent regulatory agencies, such as the FCC and the FTC, back under Presidential authority, as the Constitution demands. These agencies do not get to become a fourth branch of government, issuing rules and edicts all by themselves. And that’s what they’ve been doing. We will require that they submit any regulations they are considering for White House review,” he said.
The New York Times characterizes the unitary executive theory as a rejection of traditional American legal principles like the separation of powers and checks and balances. However, Center for Renewing America President Russ Vought disputes this framing, stating that the theory challenges the notion of a fourth branch of government that is not mentioned in the Constitution and is immune to the will of voters.
“I hesitate to take any issue with the NYT article bc of the sheer enjoyment of the ongoing liberal freakout but this sentence is totally false: ‘The legal theory rejects the idea that the government is composed of three separate branches with overlapping powers to check & balance each other,’” Vought said on Twitter. “No, it rejects the current governing consensus that a fourth branch, never mentioned in the Constitution, can be created out of whole cloth & made immune from the wishes of voters.”
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