Trumperialist bad “reality"-TV and the “Unitary Executive” Theory

One problem with having a President who is unfortunately a master media-manipulator when it comes to projected his desired messages is that even when his consciously making threats to function as some kind of distraction, or as entertainment for his cult followers, People still have to question whether he is actually serious. Because he’s about to again become the President of the country with by far the biggest military on earth.

Kyle Kulinski has a worthwhile early analysis of Trump’s clear threats of military action against Denmark and Panama, his threats of economic action and the explicit threat of military action against Canada for the purposes of annexing it, and the threats being floated by his team to start military strikes in Mexico with the cover excuse that Mexican drug cartels are terrorist organizations and therefore a legitimate target for conventional military strikes on Mexico. (1)

Numerous commentators stress that we have to keep a focus on what Trump’s actions as President are once he’s inaugurated. It’s going to be a constant balancing act for pro-democracy Americans to not focus on Trump’s provocative statements and let them become distractions, and also to recognize that the Trumpistas are coming back to the Presidency at the head of a party that is currently acting like an authoritarian cult.

Because Trump and his movement operate on Steve Bannon’s notorious media strategy of “flood the zone with s**t,” constantly trying to “trigger the libs” by making obnoxious or incendiary statements and threats. On the other hand, Trump and his transition team are clearly operating on the general guidance of the radical-right Agenda 2025 program issued by far-right operators last year.

Michael Waldman wrote about this program in July 2024:

Usually politicians pretend to read books they haven’t opened. Donald Trump made news last week when he claimed not to have read a book, one written by his friends and allies. The 887-page doorstopper is the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 book Trump claimed to “know nothing about Project 2025” and have “no idea who is behind it.”

Why that transparent fib? Perhaps Trump wanted some distance from Kevin Roberts, leader of the Heritage Foundation. “We are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless,” Roberts declared, “if the left allows it to be.” Perhaps, too, Trump realized that if the public knew what was in the plan, it would send chills. …

Above all else, it espouses a maximalist version of the “unitary executive theory,” the notion that the president personally controls the executive branch and can act free from checks and balances. It’s a fancy version of what Trump told civics students in 2019: “I have an Article II [of the Constitution], where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” (2)

The Unitary Executive Theory is a career project of a former Congressman and former Vice President named Dick Cheney. There have been disputes over the limits of Presidential power since George Washington’s Presidency. And Dick Cheney certainly wasn’t the first person to elaborate some kind of theory for broader Presidential power.

Jeffrey Crouch and two co-authors describe this very expansive notion of Presidential power in The Unitary Executive Theory: A Danger to Constitutional Government (2021). (2) The disputes over Presidential power in recent decades was triggered by the many excesses of the national security state during the time of the Vietnam, including illegal acts of repression against domestic dissenters.

While Presidents Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter were willing to accept more formal restraints on Presidential power and Carter was particularly focused on fighting the reality and the perception of government corruption, The Republicans wanted to go in a different direction. As Crouch et.al. put it:

The laws temporarily bottled up the emerging trend toward increased independent presidential powers and vastly expanded authority for chief executives, but even they ultimately ended up as merely temporary dams before the rising tide of presidential power. The unitary executive theory emerged in this context. With the presidency secured, Reagan and his supporters could now effectively push back against Congress and what they saw as illegitimate interference with the president’s constitutional responsibilities and powers.

This pushback for greater Executive power – at least for Republican Presidents – involved several figures whose names are still fairly familiar: Edwin Meese, Steven Calabresi, Samuel Alito – the Supreme Court Justice who features sleazy billionaire Paul Singer as a sugardaddy (4) – Robert Bork, torture-program criminal John Yoo, Steven Calabresi, and Reagan solicitor general Charles Fried. As Rozell and Crouch explain, a very influential case for the Unitary Executive Theory – which would better be described as an Elected Autocrat theory of government – was made in the minority report to the Iran-Contra Congressional investigation. (5)

In 1987, then representative Cheney wrote most of the Iran-Contra Minority Report, although Republican representatives William Broomfield, Henry Hyde, Jim Courter, Bill McCollum, and Michael DeWine and Senators James McClure and Orrin Hatch also signed it. The report offers valuable insights into Cheney’s thoughts on presidential power. Moreover, it provides a glimpse at what would become some of the core arguments advanced not only by unitary executive advocates in the George W. Bush administration but also by Presidents Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump, who likewise believed they could unilaterally act outside the Constitution and laws.

Obama was particularly fond of using his “Unitary Executive “powers for drone warfare unauthorized by Congress nor justifiable in terms of international law. (6)

In fact, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann reported in 2011, while Obama was still in his first Presidential terms, he told his staff, “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.” (7)

The degeneration of the US government’s commitment to the rule of law is primarily due to the authoritarianism that Republicans have adopted over the decades. But it has definitely been a bipartisan failure. But I assume that Obama could also brag on that topic, “Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”

Maybe that what he was chuckling about during his cozy chat with incoming President Trump at Jimmy Carter’s funeral.

Notes:

(1) 'HE'S LOST IT!': Trump Threatens Panama & Greenland With WAR. Secular Talk YouTube channel 01/08/2025. <https://youtu.be/6E6nUPJbEeo?si=wcDzuYRPBh-Hxh8v> (Accessed: 2025-11-01).

(2) Waldman, Michael (2024): A Dangerous Vision for the Presidency. Brennan Center for Justice 07/10/2024. <https://www.brennancent governmer.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/dangerous-vision-presidency> (Accessed: 2025-11-01).

(3) Crouch, J. Rozell, M.J. & Sollenberger, M.A. (2021): The Unitary Executive Theory: A Danger to Constitutional Government (2021). Lawrence KS: University Press of Kansas.

(4) Elliott, Justin et al (2023): Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court. ProPublica 06/20/2023. <https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court> (Accessed: 2025-11-01).

(5) Minority Report of Members of House and Senate Select Committees on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, November 18, 1987. National Security Archive. <https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/18221-national-security-archive-doc-05-minority-report> (Accessed: 2025-11-01).

(6) Murphy, Ian (2013): Obama Brags He's 'Really Good at Killing People'. Progressive Magazine 11/04/2024. <https://progressive.org/latest/obama-brags-really-good-killing-people/> (Accessed: 2025-11-01).

(7) Zenko, Micha (2017): Obama’s Final Drone Strike Data. Council on Foreign Relations 01/20/2017. <https://www.cfr.org/blog/obamas-final-drone-strike-data> (Accessed: 2025-11-01).

(8) Obama, Trump share moment at Jimmy Carter’s funeral. FOX 32 Chicago 01/10/2025. <https://youtu.be/yKkdhp76Iyo?si=-pVhGXZH8P9AdyUI> (Accessed: 2025-11-01).