For Trump, Power Is for Self-Preservation Only
Seldom, if ever, has a president claimed so much power—and then turned around and done so little with it. Just a few months ago, when Donald Trump was being impeached in the House and tried in the Senate, he and his legal team insisted that presidential power is all but unlimited. Alan Dershowitz, one of Trump’s legal advisers, suggested that if the president believes that his staying in power is best for the country, he cannot be impeached for the actions he takes in hopes of being reelected. So complete is the president’s power, Trump’s legal team insisted at the time, that he can direct federal employees to defy a congressional subpoena—even after they stop working for the White House.
These arguments grew out of what constitutional scholars call the unitary-executive theory, which has been cited to justify ever more expansive powers in the office of the presidency. But with his halting response to the coronavirus, Trump has turned the unitary-executive theory on its head.
