Back in 1973 — when President Richard Nixon's second term was underway following his landslide reelection victory over liberal Democratic nominee George McGovern — the late author Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. generated a great deal of discussion with the release of his book "The Imperial Presidency." Schlesinger's book raised a lot of questions about the powers of the U.S. government's executive branch, and the term "imperial presidency" become synonymous with presidential overreach.
Nixon's critics, including Schlesinger, viewed him as a glaring example of a president failing to respect the checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution.
The New York Times' Peter Baker applies the "imperial presidency" concept to President Donald Trump in an article published on December 21, and he emphasizes that Trump is crossing many lines that Nixon wouldn't have dared to cross.
"In his first year back in office," Baker explains, "Mr. Trump has unabashedly adopted the trappings of royalty just as he has asserted virtually unbridled power to transform American government and society to his liking. In both pageantry and policy, Mr. Trump has established a new, more audacious version of the imperial presidency that goes far beyond even the one associated with Richard M. Nixon, for whom the term was popularized half a century ago. He no longer holds back, or is held back, as in the first term. Trump 2.0 is Trump 1.0 unleashed."
Baker adds, "The gold trim in the Oval Office, the demolition of the East Wing to be replaced by a massive ballroom, the plastering of his name and face on government buildings and now even the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the designation of his own birthday as a free-admission holiday at national parks — it all speaks to a personal aggrandizement and accumulation of power with meager resistance from Congress or the Supreme Court."
It was 249 years ago, on July 4, 1776, that the United States' Founding Fathers forcefully rejected monarchy with the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence at the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. And Baker, in his article, warns that Trump's second presidency is "arguably the closest" the United States "has come during a time of general peace to the centralized authority of a monarch."
"Mr. Trump takes it upon himself to reinterpret a constitutional amendment and to eviscerate agencies and departments created by Congress," Baker observes. "He dictates to private institutions how to run their affairs. He sends troops into American streets and wages an unauthorized war against nonmilitary boats in the Caribbean. He openly uses law enforcement for what his own chief of staff calls 'score settling' against his enemies, he dispenses pardons to favored allies and he equates criticism to sedition punishable by death. Mr. Trump's reinvention of the presidency has altered the balance of power in Washington in profound ways that may endure long after he departs the scene."
Baker continues, "Authority once seized by one branch of government is rarely given back willingly. Actions that once shocked the system can eventually become seen as normal. While other presidents pushed the limits, Mr. Trump has blown right through them and dared anyone to stop him."
According to political historian Matthew Dallek — who teaches at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. — Trump is carrying out a massive power grab.
Dallek told the Times, "His second term, in many respects, represents not simply a break from presidential norms and expectations. It's also a culmination of 75 years in which presidents have reached for more and more power."
Peter Baker's full article for The New York Times is available at this link (subscription required).
