Expert explains why Trump’s goal of expanding presidential power is 'not going to happen'

09 November 2024

One major element of the far-right Heritage Foundation's authoritarian Project 2025 document has been helping the next Republican administration dramatically expand executive power. But one expert isn't so sure it will be easy for President-elect Donald Trump despite his decisive win and a Republican-controlled Congress.

The Guardian recently reported that Trump is set up to be the most powerful president in U.S. history since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's four-term administration in the early 20th century. In January, when he assumes the presidency, he'll do so with a Republican-controlled Senate and possibly a Republican-run House of Representatives. He'll also have a six-member Supreme Court supermajority that includes three of his own appointees. Trump repeatedly promised to be a "dictator" on "day one" on the campaign trail, and the electorate rewarded him with both a convincing Electoral College victory and even the national popular vote.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Illinois) was one of Trump's loudest Republican critics. He told the Guardian that a second Trump term would be “a revenge tour on steroids."

"I don’t think people realize what’s coming. He is emboldened," Walsh said. "If I were the rest of the world and the country, I’d be scared to death because we just put an absolutely out-of-control authoritarian in the White House. That’s scary s—."

However, Elaine Kamarck, who served in former President Bill Clinton's administration, isn't convinced that Trump's quest for absolute power will come about so easily. She opined that much of Trump's hopes for new additional authority would depend on Congress willingly ceding some of its own power, which she flatly said is "not going to happen." She pointed out that despite the 6-3 Supreme Court, only 11% of lower court judges were Trump appointees, and that the rest of the federal judiciary would not so easily grant him the vast executive power he's seeking.

"For him to expand presidential power, Congress has to give up power and they’re not in the mood to do that," Kamarck said. "They’ve never done that. There are plenty of institutionalists in Congress.”

“Now, there might be things that the president wants to do that people don’t like that the Republican Congress goes along with him on but that’s politics. That’s not a dictatorship," she added.

The mechanics of Congress are designed to make it extremely difficult for the dominant party to ram through its agenda. Even though Republicans will have at least 52 seats in the 100-member U.S. Senate (votes are still being counted in Arizona's Senate race), Democrats can still gum up the works in numerous ways. This will likely include members invoking cloture for any GOP-sponsored bill, which requires a 60-vote majority to overcome. Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) made cloture a signature element of his obstructionist approach to stalling former President Barack Obama's legislative agenda, invoking it a record number of times since becoming the top Senate Republican in 2007.

Additionally, as the Congressional Research Service has noted, the Senate requires a process called "unanimous consent" in order to conduct most business. If unanimous consent is granted, senators are limited in how much they can debate on the floor and what amendments they can bring to legislation under consideration. If a sole member denies unanimous consent, debate and amendments are virtually unlimited, making it virtually impossible for the majority party to enact its agenda.

The ability of one senator to hold up the legislative process was on display for most of 2023, when Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) routinely denied unanimous consent to move forward with hundreds of promotions of high-ranking military officers. Tuberville objected largely out of protest of President Joe Biden's Department of Defense allowing for the travel costs of service members obtaining abortion care out of state (for those who live in states where abortion is banned) to be reimbursed.

The Alabama senator's months-long blockade frustrated even his fellow Republicans, who sharply criticized him on the Senate floor for endangering national security and weakening the U.S. military. Even though he ultimately relented, Tuberville's blockade lasted for 10 months.

Click here to read the Guardian's report in full.

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