The New York Times is reporting that allies of former President Donald Trump plan to go into his second term with guns blazing against anything that could restrain his power as president.
As the paper writes, Trump and his allies want to rip apart many of the guardrails that were put in place after the presidency of Richard Nixon that prevented presidents from abusing their power to go after political opponents.
"Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control," reports the Times. "He wants to revive the practice of 'impounding' funds, refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn’t like — a tactic that lawmakers banned under President Richard Nixon."
In addition to this, Trump plans to strip employment protections from career civil servants and then go on a purge of government employees whom he deems to be disloyal.
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Russell T. Vought, who ran the Trump White House's Office of Management and Budget, explicitly says that the goal is to "identify the pockets of independence and seize them" within the federal government.
