Since taking office, Donald Trump, supported by his Project 2025 “brain trust,” has worked aggressively to create what Republican columnist David Brooks has called an “elective monarchy.”
President Trump filled the leadership positions in his administration with people loyal only to him and unqualified to perform the jobs they now hold. Loyalty to Trump is clearly the most important qualification, as Marco Rubio, clearly qualified to be Secretary of State, has shown by changing from a defender of Ukraine against Russia to an accomplice in Trump’s decision to support Russia’s goals in that war.
In a series of executive orders, Trump is moving American domestic and foreign policy 180 degree. He has done this not only by changing President Biden’s previous executive orders, something expected, but by working to eliminate or seriously weaken almost all agencies and departments of the federal government and shifting our foreign policy from pro-democracy to pro-Putin.
Trump has repeatedly shown his contempt for the American Constitution and the Legislative Branch of the government by freezing funds appropriated by Congress to keep federal agencies from serving millions of citizens who desperately need help. He dares the courts to stop him and ignores them when they try, counting on the Supreme Court to finally bless his power grab.
The Trump administration has moved quickly to fire, reassign, or buy out thousands of federal workers, claiming that all federal agencies are corrupted by fraud and waste, without producing any evidence or making a case to Congress which created these agencies.
This speed in dismantling the work of the federal government is deliberate; it keeps us distracted, off-balance and psychologically less able to respond effectively while Trump and his MAGA supporters complete their destruction of our Constitution and form of government.
And now comes what seems to be a really important turning point.
On Tuesday, February 29, Trump signed Executive Order 69 titled “Ensuring accountability for all agencies.” According to Chris McGreal writing in The Guardian, this order “permits the president to decide the law and who should obey it.”
Claiming to promote transparency, the order reads: “Previous administrations have allowed so-called ‘independent regulatory agencies’ [such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission] to operate with minimal presidential supervision. These regulatory agencies currently exercise substantial executive authority without sufficient accountability to the president, and through him, to the American people. Moreover, these regulatory agencies have been permitted to promulgate significant regulations without review by the president.”
Congress designed these agencies purposely to have independence from the president, who is only able to replace their leaders, not to review or veto their decisions.
Gregg Nunziata, director of the conservative Society for the Rule of Law, is critical of Trump’s order, saying “the law is what Congress passes and the Supreme Court interprets, and the president has an obligation to obey the law” and “not to hire lawyers who are going to be writing him permission slips to do whatever he might like.”
Another critic, Frank Bowman, law professor and former federal prosecutor, described Trump’s order as “breathtaking.” He continues, “Donald Trump is trying, quite consciously, to make himself a dictator.”
Some might say that this is not too dangerous an act on Trump’s part, especially as our current attention is now focused on Elon Musk, immigration, and inflation. Also, the Supreme Court might declare this executive order to be unconstitutional or the Congress may come back to life and decide to play the role of lawmaker intended by the Constitution.
The first of these potential checks on Trump’s power grab is dubious, and the second, action by Congress to stop him, is even less likely.
There will certainly be more turning points on the road to the elective monarchy that Trump pursues.
Yet the longer we wait to challenge Trump’s authoritarian behavior, the harder it will be to turn back the forces that want to replace the Constitution’s checks and balances with rule by one person.
Time is short. All who believe in democracy must make Executive Order 69 a big deal in the media, the courts, and the halls of Congress. That might have more effect than rallies railing at Elon Musk.
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| Tip Jars |
