Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.
Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.
Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.
Happy Tuesday!
Morning Shots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
We have some catching up to do, don’t we?
You thought CPAC was a sh*tshow on steroids? Just when you think it couldn’t get worse, along comes Charlie Kirk and TPUSA. As Nick Catoggio noted yesterday:
The next generation of right-wing activists is terrible.
This weekend was the occasion of the annual Turning Point USA Conference, the most august event on the populist vaudeville circuit.
That distinction used to belong to CPAC, but CPAC has been diminished by scandal and, frankly, a dearth of showmanship. A party led by a TV celebrity and populated by voters who treat politics like wrestling demands a certain amount of pyrotechnics in its pageants. TPUSA understands that.
Even the nomenclature feels significant. The Conservative Political Action Coalition is an awkward fit for a movement that isn’t very conservative anymore except insofar as “conservative” is an antonym for “left-wing.” An outfit that sheds distinct ideological beliefs for gassy apocalypticism—America is at a turning point—better suits the feral nihilism of the “Flight 93 Election” right.
Naturally, this sort of rancid demagoguery was on offer all weekend:
Bob Vander Plaats, the conservative evangelical kingmaker in Iowa politics, now knows what happens when you turn over your Republican presidential showcase to Tucker Carlson.
Jesus is out. Vladimir V. Putin is in.
Mr. Carlson was given the task of interviewing six Republican presidential hopefuls at the Family Leadership conference in Des Moines on Friday. Consequently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine became the dominant issue of debate, on a day when Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa used the event to sign a near-total abortion ban into law.
The House on Friday narrowly approved the must-pass defense policy bill, ending uncertainty about its fate after Republicans pushed through a series of conservative policy amendments on abortion, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and gender transition procedures.
Mr. McCarthy’s debt-deal machinations this spring won plaudits from many political watchers: What leadership skill! Maybe we underestimated him! Maybe he really can keep his conference in line! But his hard-liners raged that he had sold them out, and they promptly committed to making the House as dysfunctional as possible, even if it meant bogging down their own team’s policy goals. Their hostage-taking and acting-out have been a warning to Mr. McCarthy: Fool us once, and we’ll turn this chamber into a do-nothing freak show just to teach you a lesson. Try to fool us twice, and things will get really dark and weird.
**
But McCarthy is hardly a victim here. Last week found the self-gelded Speaker actually doubling down on the Hunter Biden “informant,” who’s been indicted as a Chinese spy.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) argued Thursday that the unsealing of an indictment against a key informant in the Hunter Biden investigation only buttresses Republicans’ case against the first son.
Democrats have needled the GOP over the indictment of Gal Luft on eight counts — including acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Beijing — by suggesting Republicans got taken by a fugitive out to save himself by leveling wild accusations against the first family.
“It wouldn’t undermine that case because if you extrapolate that even further, the Justice Department went after him,” McCarthy told reporters.
In the Senate, GOP Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has been blocking military nominations and promotions over the military abortion policy, which covers certain abortion-related travel expenses for service members based in states with restrictive reproductive healthcare laws.
“We should be concerned about this as Republicans. I’m having more ‘rational Republicans’ coming up to me and saying, ‘I just don’t know how long I can stay in this party,’” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “Now our party is becoming known as a group of kind of extremist, populist over-the-top [people] where no one is taking us seriously anymore.”
You think?
**
Meanwhile, in Arizona, College Republicans platform an actual neo-Nazi.
Because once you’ve decided that people who have turned the culture into something you don’t know and you don’t recognize are all part of the same team that must be defeated, you see them everywhere you look.
It’s only natural, then, to think that the best way to fight the cultural hegemons is with someone who understands how to beat them at their own game. Someone like Trump.
The next person who makes it seem as if they can do that will be his true heir.
And who better than Candace?
2. Joe Manchin Is Attacking Democrats As If He’s a Republican
The elusive West Virginia Democrat is in the middle of (yet another) extended run of driving both parties crazy as he publicly mulls whether to run for re-election to the Senate or run for president on a third-party ticket. He could also decide to retire (he’ll turn 76 next month), but that seems the least likely path for someone who has such obvious enthusiasm for negotiating, deal-making, and being in the thick of the political fray.
My theory based on the evidence to date is that ultimately, when Manchin announces his decision at year’s end, he will tell us he is running for re-election. But first he will tease state and national Republicans with the prospect of an open Senate seat and/or a bipartisan No Labels ticket that polling shows would drain votes from President Joe Biden and elect the GOP nominee. If that is Donald Trump, it’s no stretch to predict disaster will follow.
Or you could tell me why I’m wrong.
What kind of person is "friends" with MTG and Boebert?