Trump and the Modern Presidency’s Growing Power

Abstract

“When the president does it, that means that is not illegal,” President Nixon once affirmed in a 1977 interview. From its official establishment in the Reagan Administration to its notorious role in permitting W. Bush’s “Torture Memos” leaked in 2004, the unitary executive theory has become growingly prevalent in modern American policy since the late 20th century. Hinging on Article II, supporters argue that Constitution grants the President to have full authority over the federal executive branch. Yet looking beyond its infamy in the Bush Administration and to the more recent Trump Administration, this paper focuses on the book “The Unitary Executive Theory: A Danger to Constitutional Government” by Mitchel A. Sollenberger, Jeffrey Crouch, and Mark Rozell, highlighting how the president’s power is increasingly becoming immune to traditional checks and balances.