Washington Post columnist and Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen has recently expressed serious concerns about former President Donald Trump’s intentions to transform the American government system. In her Tuesday column, Allen warned that Trump aims to reshape the government in a style resembling Mar-a-Lago — characterized by grandeur and imperial authority, rather than the foundational republican and democratic principles.
Allen’s commentary aligns with the growing apprehensions of numerous experts who have highlighted Trump’s plans to restructure the civil service into a faction driven by loyalty and to potentially utilize the military for domestic purposes. Trump himself has made bold declarations about adopting an authoritarian approach from the outset of his potential future term.
Allen emphasizes the significance of the often-overlooked fourth power locus in the U.S. government: the various rule-making agencies like the Federal Reserve, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Trade Commission. These entities, while created by the legislature and overseen by the executive branch, maintain a degree of independence.
However, Trump’s proposal aims to fully integrate these agencies into the executive branch, making them direct instruments of the presidential agenda. Furthermore, he intends to modify civil service appointment rules to enable the dismissal of appointees who do not conform to this agenda.
According to Allen, such a radical overhaul of government structure was unimaginable to the founding fathers. They did not foresee the extent of power modern presidents hold, let alone the additional powers Trump seeks to establish. The founders envisioned Congress as the primary decision-making body in the republic.
Allen argues that allowing the same entity to create and enforce rules is a direct threat to freedom. She uses a sports analogy to illustrate this point, explaining that the fairness of a soccer game relies on the referee enforcing pre-established rules, not altering them during play.
Allen asserts that while American democracy indeed requires renovation to balance legislative and executive powers, Trump’s vision of an imperial, Mar-a-Lago-style ethos is detrimental to the nation’s democratic health.