The Presidential Powers Trump Is Neglecting

"But if you view the year through the lens of the president's powers, all of that action comes to seem more circumscribed. By neglecting some of the most significant formal and informal tools at his disposal, Trump has largely failed to advance durable policy change, at least on domestic matters. He has dominated a lot of news cycles, but at the expense of shaping the future-for good or ill. The American presidency is a framework of duties and powers."

"The president is formally required to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed," for instance. He is also empowered and expected to propose measures to Congress and promote a legislative agenda. He is the driving force behind the nation's foreign and defense policy. And we have come to expect the chief executive to promote his priorities within the law through regulation and rule making, and to work to convince other officeholders as well as the general public of the appeal of his preferred courses of action."

"In the first year of his second presidency, Trump seemed determined to avoid doing much of this work, and to instead use the weight and leverage of the executive branch as a cudgel to batter opponents and drive changes in their behavior. He has worked around the formal powers of the presidency more than through them, and his goal often seems to have been not so much to govern as to show force."

During the first year of a second term, the president emphasized visible coercion and leverage rather than sustained use of formal presidential tools. The administration often bypassed statutory processes, regulatory rulemaking, and legislative engagement, producing concessions from hostile institutions without embedding policy in law. That strategy dominated news cycles and altered behaviors but failed to build durable domestic policy architecture. The approach relied on reactive displays of power and short-term gains, undercutting long-term agenda setting, institutional stability, and the capacity to shape future outcomes through legal and regulatory channels.

Read at The Atlantic