Conservative US constitutionalists have sought in recent decades to assert the notion of the president’s sole authority over the executive branch. The hotly contested “unitary executive theory of the presidency” is a fundamental challenge to traditional checks and balances, the division of power between Congress, the courts and presidents.
US president Donald Trump has in a few weeks boldly asserted his imperial presidency, unconstrained, to remake the state without the say-so of Congress or the courts. Some describe it as a “coup”, more remarkable given Republican control of Congress and his sympathetic, pliable judicial appointees. At what point will these pillars of constraint draw a line, not just at Trump’s egregiousness, but at their own emasculation?
Some courts have tried to call a halt, however temporarily, ruling that White House orders ignored existing law or – in revoking birthright citizenship – violated the constitution. Others partially reversed the mass firing of thousands of staff at USAid, the foreign assistance agency, and the sudden freezing of trillions of dollars of government grants and loans.
Trump’s sackings, assisted by Elon Musk and his “department of government efficiency”, with its free rein trawl through state bank accounts including tax files, have reportedly targeted some 220,000 employees – those in jobs for less than a year and with the least legal protection.
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His claims of widespread fraud have not been substantiated, while Musk takes the axe to thousand of safety jobs in environmental and health programmes, including forest fire programmes, nuclear safety – where some are now reportedly being rehired – and epidemic monitoring. He summarily fired 17 government department inspectors general charged with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.
Political retribution has been high on the Trump agenda – above all in the Department of Justice, where he has ordered investigations into FBI officers involved in investigating his own criminal conduct.
