Trump’s Second Term Plans: Consolidating Power And Challenging Checks And Balances

Former President Donald Trump intends to alter the system of checks and balances, giving himself sweeping control over the Federal government if he sits in the White House for a second term as Commander-in-Chief.

Trump, who has been leading his Republican rivals in opinion polls for the 2024 presidential election by a wide margin, plans to overhaul the government, centralizing power within the executive branch and removing political opponents and officials who interfere with his agenda, according to the New York Times.

And those plans aren’t being whispered behind closed doors but are talked about openly at rallies, written about in Trump’s campaign agenda and discussed candidly with the media, according to the outlet.

“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” said Russell T. Vought, who runs the Center for Renewing America and previously ran the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s years in power told the publication.

Trump plans to bring various independent agencies under his direct control, eradicating the power of governmental divisions such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.

He also plans to remove employment protections from career civil servants who oppose his policies and fire officials from the State Department, defense divisions and the U.S. intelligence agencies who protect America both at home and abroad.

“The president’s plan should be to fundamentally reorient the federal government in a way that hasn’t been done since F.D.R.’s New Deal,” former White House personnel chief John McEntee told the New Times, adding, “Our current executive branch was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies.”

If elected, Trump also plans to block Congress from allocating funds to practices he opposes such as controls on water pollution and the construction of housing, as well as the appropriation of funds to agencies that ensure food, drugs and consumer products are safe, according to the outlet.

It’s not just Trump who could use legal measures to remove power from Congress and the judicial branch. The Heritage Foundation, which has shaped Republican administrations since Ronald Reagan was president and leads Project 2025, a $22 million transition operation, will recommend its policies to any Republican who wins the 2024 election, according to the outlet.

“It just simply would be chaotic,” said John F. Kelly, who served as Trump’s second White House chief of staff, “because he’d continually be trying to exceed his authority, but the sycophants would go along with it. It would be a nonstop gunfight with the Congress and the courts.”

Produced in association with Benzinga

Edited by Alberto Arellano and Joseph Hammond