There is a widespread agreement among Republicans that government, particularly federal bureaucracy, is becoming too bloated for its own good. And despite taking office with such power as enforcer, President Donald Trump oversaw active efforts to cut down his own branches to help conservatives in Congress.
“I think President Trump is doing exactly what he did. He was elected to secure borders and remove inflation. [and] Sen. Rick Scott of R-Fla told Fox News Digital.
“I think we have to go back and always follow the Constitution,” he explained, adding that the administrative department should not have the “regulatory power” that has been accumulated over the years.
Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo. added that he is “all to cut out corruption and waste,” previewing some of the changes in the Trump administration, which only requires 51 votes in the Senate.
The Pentagon cuts employment of up to 60k civilians, but under 21k voluntarily resigned
President Donald Trump is bent over his executive body. (Reuters)
White House officials pointed to the massive growth of public sector employment under President Joe Biden, and have noted the massive expansion of the federal government over the past four years.
“‘Donald Trump will be a dictator on the first day, he’s ignoring the judicial division,” which is a president on the first day whose mission is to make it more efficient and reduce the size of the enforcement division to remove waste, fraud and abuse,” an official told Fox News Digital. “It doesn’t sound like a dictator to me.”
Former Trump lawyer Jim Trust explained that Congress deserves responsibility for both “certainly” and “over-waste spending.” But “they maintain the power of their wallets and have no veto on line items,” he said.
“Parliament is abandoned in many ways, and the judicial division exercises too much power, so I don’t think there’s much risk to the “President of the Empire,”‘s Confession.
Meanwhile, R-Utah’s Rep. Celeste Maloy posted this week to X that he grew up saying “too strong.” Malloy appeared to be trying to clarify an earlier statement made at City Hall that raised concerns about administrative agencies that need to be “under control.”
“Do you think America is drifting towards authoritarianism? No. There’s nothing but hope and optimism about the direction our country is heading. Do you think administrative agencies are too strong? Absolutely,” Malloy writes. “It’s been growing for decades. We need small federal agencies and have a unique opportunity to do something about it. The president has the tough job of cutting back the administrative department.”
Trump continues his “unprecedented” pentagonal firing: Report
Senator Josh Hawley said he was “everything to cut out corruption and waste.” (Screencaps from Forbes footage)
Sara Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said the tendency to abandon a portion of Congress saw the most important movement in the 19th century.
“If we had to characterize it at the 30,000-foot level, we would probably say this. Was it the 19th century Congress at first? Long before the New Deal in the 1930s, the federal government didn’t do much.
“They had customs laws, they were building railways, they were building roads, they were building ports. That’s quite different from the 20th century, moving in the 21st century.”
Binder said that changes over time are likely due to a combination of factors, including convenience and politics.
“Some of it is just a function of a crisis. And Congress is… responsive. It’s not very suitable for responding to a crisis quickly,” she said. “The other parts are like elections. Is it right? Lawmakers are aware of some of these issues and realize that the issues are politically controversial, like tariffs. And you say that in the early 1930s Congress gives the president their power.”
“I mean, you’re feeling it now, even Republican lawmakers who aren’t satisfied with the tariff wars that Trump incited, but at the same time, they seem very pleased that they’re not in charge of setting those tariffs.”
Former US lawyer and contributor to Fox News Andy McCarthy argued that administrative states are “not exactly the same as administrative agencies,” saying “the so-called independent agencies are as SEC, FTC and the Federal Reserve.”
“The federal government didn’t do much, long before the New Deal in the 1930s, long before the 1960s conference,” said political science professor Sarah Binder. (Getty)
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According to McCarthy, the issue of Trump is that the law is used to create an institution and “can only be repealed by law.”
“The statute and court decisions limit the ability to fire officials who run government agencies, so he has a hard time stopping them,” explained McCarthy.
“That is why the DOJ is trying to make the present Supreme Court reverse the 1935 Humphrey’s enforcer decision, which supported the creation of an independent body to wield multiple types of power.
In Humphrey’s Enforcer v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot unilaterally exclude officials from quasi-statistical or quasi-judicial bodies such as the Federal Trade Commission.
Rejecting that decision will greatly expand the president’s powers and control who works in federal offices other than Congress or court.
“Schedule F” is a different classification of government workers who have more control over each office to the president. “Schedule F” broadly categorizes a large range of federal workers, making it much easier to fire or fire workers in bulk.
Critics of Trump’s move to expand “Schedule F” earlier this year say it gives the president too much power to fire workers who should have been in a non-political role. However, supporters argue that the move will make government more efficient and reduce bureaucratic waste.
Julia Johnson is a political writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business and is a major reporter in the US Senate. She was previously a political reporter for the Washington Examiner.
Follow Julia’s report on X @juliaajohnson_ Submit your tip to julia.johnson@fox.com.
