“In just one month in office, President Donald Trump has made it clear that he sees the presidency in starkly different terms from virtually any of his 44 predecessors,” the Washington Post reports.
“He is not the first president to push the bounds of his authority. Andrew Johnson fired a Cabinet secretary in defiance of Congress. Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to pack the Supreme Court. Richard M. Nixon dismissed a prosecutor who threatened his hold on power.”
“But to a degree possibly unprecedented in the country’s nearly 250 years, Trump is barreling through the executive branch with the conviction that it is his to rule alone, no matter the laws Congress has enacted — even if that means destroying agencies, intervening in the justice system or granting enormous authority to a wealthy donor.”