Donald Trump plans to consolidate power in the Office of the President if he gets reelected, taking offices that were formerly apolitical and independent to make them answerable directly to him and his agenda, the New York Times reports. The move would make positions such as Attorney General or FCC Commissioner directly accountable to Trump and deferential to Trump’s whims.
“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” said Russell T. Vought, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget who now runs a conservative policy group. This would include purging civil servants who Trump deems insufficiently loyal to him and his policy initiatives. It would be an upheaval of the government workforce unlike any other in modern times.
Offices from the FCC, to the Justice Department to the Federal Trade Commission would be impacted, demanding each regulatory and law enforcement agency have their operations and investigations blessed by Trump–meaning Trump could target political foes and protect allies.
“Our current executive branch,” one-time Trump “body man” John McEntee said, “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.”
The move would also let Trump remove Congressionally-approved funding for government programs he dislikes to be reallocated to his favorite causes, a process known as “impounding funds” that was made illegal after Nixon’s reign, but the fact that something is illegal doesn’t stop Trump.