Trump tightens grip on independent agencies

Testing the limits of presidential power, Donald Trump this week tightened his grip on US government agencies that for years have taken pride in their independence overseeing such matters as elections, stock markets and labor unrest.

Trump’s order on Tuesday was the latest show of force in a series that has removed critics from office, defunded federal programmes, loosened government oversight and frozen billions of dollars in spending approved by Congress.

The order allows the White House to shift the budget and policies of the Federal Election Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labour Relations Board and other agencies whose day-to-day activities are traditionally kept at arm’s length from the president, according to Reuters.

The White House said such oversight provided accountability. Trump has been outspoken in his opposition to what he sees as burdensome regulations, saying they are killing jobs and curtailing Americans’ freedom.

Critics called the order another unprecedented power grab, while legal scholars said it would likely be challenged for overstepping the president’s constitutional authority.

“What Trump has done is try to push through what are fairly accepted boundaries on presidential authority,” said Justin Crowe, a Williams College political science professor.

“Trump’s conception of power is one in which the president should be able to do whatever he wants and control whomever he wants. That’s how he thinks government should work.” Congress and presidents have traditionally supported the independence of these agencies, believing they needed to be insulated from political pressures to carry out their missions. But many of Trump’s fellow Republicans see them as unaccountable and overly stringent on the companies and people they oversee. Trump has flexed his presidential muscle on issues big and small since taking office on January 20, saying voters gave him a mandate to pursue sweeping changes. He has fired and sidelined hundreds of civil servants and top officials at agencies, installed himself as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and called for a return to plastic straws.

On Wednesday night aboard Air Force One, he threw his support behind calls for the federal government to take over the US capital city of Washington, D.C. He also signed an executive order instructing the heads of every agency to undertake a review of all regulations, working with members of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The Trump order on Tuesday required the defective-product recall overseers at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the bank insurers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the power regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to run any substantive policy changes by the White House. Each must install a political appointee on its staff who consults with the White House.

The order bars executive branch employees from expressing legal opinions at odds with the president as the official view of the government. The White House says this will prevent a range of agencies offering conflicting legal interpretations. “For the Federal Government to be truly accountable to the American people, officials who wield vast executive power must be supervised and controlled by the people’s elected President,” said the order, which refers to the regulatory agencies as “so-called” independent. Critics accused Trump of overstepping executive authority. “This is a dangerous power grab by an unhinged president willing to put Americans’ lives and livelihoods at risk to consolidate his own control,” said US Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat.

“We are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said.

The executive order gives the president new leverage to intervene in a sector of the government that holds vast powers over industries from finance to energy, the internet and consumer products, and that has on occasion angered the corporations it polices, the Reuters report adds.