Trump's latest move would give him 'more power than any president ever had': CNN's Berman

Donald Trump issued an executive order that undermines the independence of regulatory agencies established by Congress in a move described as a power grab.

The order seeks executive authority over agencies established as independent by the legislative branch by requiring them to submit proposed regulations to the White House for review and claims the power to block them from spending money on anything that conflicts with the president's priorities.

"Trying to seize more power than any president has ever had, at least in certain areas," said CNN's John Berman, introducing the topic. "The president signed a new executive order trying to take the independent out of independent, giving him more direct authority of agencies created by Congress to be, yes, independent – the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission. Under this new order, the White House now says it will review or change agency budgets as necessary to advance the president's policies and priorities."

CNN's Alayna Treene reported from outside the White House that Trump's order was the latest in a series that would expand his presidential power beyond any other in U.S. history.

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"It is, and it's the latest example, really, of what the president is trying to do to really push the boundaries of what the executive branch and directly his power, really, from the Oval Office is over a series of federal agencies," Treene said. "But look, this was a sweeping order that the president signed in Florida yesterday, really directing a lot of these independent regulatory agencies to now move under the direct control of the White House. It's also something, though, John, that is likely to face a series of legal challenges, like a lot of the other executive orders we know the president has signed since taking office. Now, the order suggests that the president's power expands to direct control over the nation's, you know, communications, financial, trade, regulatory agencies, again, all agencies that Congress designed to be independent of the executive branch. Some of these agencies, you tick through some of them, but I'm going to read them again for you, includes the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission."

"Now, some context on these as well. We know that a lot of these agencies were created and designed to protect American consumers," Treene added. "We know, you know, they regulate big banks, they regulate stocks. They also can have fines on different companies, media fines, for example, so a very broad power that these different agencies have and, again they've all operated independently as part of something that Congress and Donald Trump's previous predecessors have designed them to be. Now, all of this again, is really been the latest push in a broader effort by the president and his Trump administration to really broaden and centralize the power of the executive branch."

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