As Donald Trump commences his second term as president, just like his first one, he promises to employ executive authority in innovative and assertive manners. This concept is neither an innovation nor inherently undesirable. As mentioned by Richard Pious, an expert on U.S. Presidents, ‘Greatness’ in the annals of presidential history is often credited to leaders who ambitiously seize power and test the boundaries of their authority.
However, stretching the confines of power does not automatically herald successful presidency or confer greatness, a reality that Trump will soon confront. Trump ran for election three times and emerged victorious twice, consistently asserting that institutions integral to the system were flawed, and promising a drastic transformation of Washington’s modus operandi.
Following his inauguration on Monday, he will be presented with a second opportunity to rectify the institutions, policies, and ideas he has consistently questioned: the handling of immigration, the ‘deep state’, the culture of ‘wokeness’, restrictions on freedom of speech, government incompetence, unconditional free trade, crime, and the state of education.
Detractors argue that Trump’s endeavors to reinvent the federal government’s character and functions are unlawful, as if the conventional methods of operation or those implemented after the Watergate era are invariably effective or immutable. Such is not the case.
Highly reputable presidents, faced with novel situations, have historically chosen to shatter the norms and constitutional guidelines assumed to regulate the executive branch and its interactions with other U.S. institutions. George Washington operated in a time when executive branch precedents were not yet established.
However, he courted controversy when he claimed an individual authority to interpret the Constitution, declared the United States’ neutrality during the early conflicts of the French Revolution without consulting others, and refused to provide the House of Representatives with documents pertaining to the Jay Treaty.
Washington’s actions led to widespread allegations of him mimicking monarchical behaviors in his time. It is therefore not unusual for a president to act decisively, even controversially, in their quest to enact change and leave a lasting legacy.