Molly Ball

Right. This idea that he sees himself as having sort of imperial unrestricted power. Look, There has always been this group of Republican legal scholars who believed that the president embodied the executive branch and ought to have vastly more power than he currently holds in the way the sort of customs and norms of our constitutional system.

Right. This idea that he sees himself as having sort of imperial unrestricted power. Look, There has always been this group of Republican legal scholars who believed that the president embodied the executive branch and ought to have vastly more power than he currently holds in the way the sort of customs and norms of our constitutional system.

Right. This idea that he sees himself as having sort of imperial unrestricted power. Look, There has always been this group of Republican legal scholars who believed that the president embodied the executive branch and ought to have vastly more power than he currently holds in the way the sort of customs and norms of our constitutional system.

Trump just seems to want to do stuff and not think that anyone should be able to stop him.

Trump just seems to want to do stuff and not think that anyone should be able to stop him.

Trump just seems to want to do stuff and not think that anyone should be able to stop him.

Right. And I think, you know, there's a really interesting and nuanced discussion to be had here about executive power, even if that is not necessarily the discussion that Trump himself is participating in. Right. I think a lot of Americans have been frustrated for many years with the gridlock and polarization that have happened.

Right. And I think, you know, there's a really interesting and nuanced discussion to be had here about executive power, even if that is not necessarily the discussion that Trump himself is participating in. Right. I think a lot of Americans have been frustrated for many years with the gridlock and polarization that have happened.

Right. And I think, you know, there's a really interesting and nuanced discussion to be had here about executive power, even if that is not necessarily the discussion that Trump himself is participating in. Right. I think a lot of Americans have been frustrated for many years with the gridlock and polarization that have happened.

turned Congress into basically a non-functioning body and have made it impossible for governments to actually implement the things that candidates campaign on, right? So we have a campaign where one candidate's like, we're going to do health care, and the other candidate's like... We're going to reform entitlements.

turned Congress into basically a non-functioning body and have made it impossible for governments to actually implement the things that candidates campaign on, right? So we have a campaign where one candidate's like, we're going to do health care, and the other candidate's like... We're going to reform entitlements.

turned Congress into basically a non-functioning body and have made it impossible for governments to actually implement the things that candidates campaign on, right? So we have a campaign where one candidate's like, we're going to do health care, and the other candidate's like... We're going to reform entitlements.

And then no matter who it is that gets into office, they just can't do anything because of what a political scientist would call all of the veto points built into our system of governance. And the way that a lot of what started out as relatively straightforward checks and balances happened.

And then no matter who it is that gets into office, they just can't do anything because of what a political scientist would call all of the veto points built into our system of governance. And the way that a lot of what started out as relatively straightforward checks and balances happened.

And then no matter who it is that gets into office, they just can't do anything because of what a political scientist would call all of the veto points built into our system of governance. And the way that a lot of what started out as relatively straightforward checks and balances happened.

have been choked over the years with, you know, different bureaucratic requirements and institutions and personnel and so forth. So I'm not trying to whitewash the arguably authoritarian impulses that Trump is flamboyantly displaying.

have been choked over the years with, you know, different bureaucratic requirements and institutions and personnel and so forth. So I'm not trying to whitewash the arguably authoritarian impulses that Trump is flamboyantly displaying.

have been choked over the years with, you know, different bureaucratic requirements and institutions and personnel and so forth. So I'm not trying to whitewash the arguably authoritarian impulses that Trump is flamboyantly displaying.

But that doesn't mean that he doesn't have a point about the ways in which our system has made it hard for presidents to actually do the things that they promised to do.

But that doesn't mean that he doesn't have a point about the ways in which our system has made it hard for presidents to actually do the things that they promised to do.