An Unchecked Trump Rapidly Remakes U.S. Government and Foreign Policy

The New York Times ^ | Feb. 15, 2025, 12:16 p.m. ET | Luke Broadwater

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The president’s swift moves underscore the confidence of an administration with a much firmer grip on the levers of government than during his first term.

The last time President Trump held office, he tried to make deep cuts to foreign aid, but was blocked by Congress. He is finding little resistance from fellow Republicans this time to his move to freeze such funding.

During a special counsel’s inquiry in his first term, Mr. Trump expressed a desire to fire the investigator, but White House lawyers stopped him. This term, Mr. Trump has swiftly forced out a slew of federal officials who had oversight roles over his administration.

In the final days of his first presidency, Mr. Trump tried to hire a loyalist to help run the F.B.I., until Attorney General Bill Barr objected, Mr. Barr said in his book after he left office. Now that same loyalist, Kash Patel, is poised to lead the bureau.

At every step in his second term, Mr. Trump is demonstrating how unbound he is from prior restraints, dramatically remaking both domestic and foreign policy at a scale that has little parallel. His swift moves in his first month back in office underscore the confidence of an administration with a much firmer grip on the levers of government than during Mr. Trump’s last stint in the White House.

Long gone are the veterans of the Bush and Reagan administrations who pushed him to hew to more traditional conservative policies. In their place are a group of mostly America First Republicans helping Mr. Trump radically reset the country’s policies — as well as the billionaire Elon Musk, whom the president has unleashed to barrel through the bureaucracy.

“We’ve never seen anything on the scale of what Donald Trump’s new administration is doing,” said Jeffrey A. Engel, who leads the Center for Presidentia...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

“We’ve never seen anything on the scale of what Donald Trump’s new administration is doing,” said Jeffrey A. Engel, who leads the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. “It’s not just a reversal of previous administration policies — which we always expect to see a little bit of — but a reversal of the fundamentals of American foreign policy since 1945.”

Sounds like "fundamental transformation," doesn't it Mr. Obama?

[madison10]

We voted for this. It is. It is not neatly as invasive for the American citizen as stuff Obama had planned

[dforest]

Unchecked? My arse. You Leftist nincompoops have spent years “fact checking” Trump.

Problem is your so called “facts and checks” were all lies. Tired of these people trying to cover up their grift, theft, and crimes against the decent American people

[ransomnote]

STOP! STOP! I already voted for him!
They keep advertising Trump’s accomplishments.
He’s U.S. Government and Foreign Policy? Well that’s why I voted for him!

[ComputerGuy]

Unchecked, Unleashed, Unbound!

[Responsibility2nd]

I saw the biased and bogus headline and knew. Just knew from which toilet the article came from.

[fhayek]

The New York Times should replace it’s 'All the news that’s fit to print motto' with a disclaimer that notifies it’s readers that the newspaper has been subsidized by the big government deep state, and all of it's content should be viewed accordingly...

[SaxxonWoods]

Great headline from the New York Times, I approve.

[Jonny7797]

Unchecked. Everyone is looking at Trump under a microscope. Lawsuits have been filed for goodness sakes. there is a steering committee over Doge and Musk has been reporting to them. I’d say the only thing unchecked has been the rampant spending for fedzilla.

[Lizavetta]

I used to wake up in the morning and doom scroll, looking for what leftist abomination Biden had inflicted upon the nation overnight.

Now I joy scroll as I read about the latest kick in the junk Trump and his team are inflicting on the people who have been ripping all of us off, libs included.

Every day is a new Christmas morning in my world.

[fhayek]

Checks and balances? Donald Trump is checks and balances.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

There should be chains on the doors of the New York Times. I don’t care whether there are people inside, or not.

[iamgalt]

Unchecked? Whack a mole Judges pop up with preposterous rulings against him on a near daily basis. Articles like these are aimed at GOP squishes and the SC.

[ealgeone]

I’d say FDR, LBJ and Bammy did some things.

[datricker]

So far best presidency ever it’s a whole fire hose of awesome sauce. So much winning!

[ridesthemiles]

I would prefer TRUMP for 20 YEARS OVER I MINUTE OF OBAMA

[ifinnegan]

“ but a reversal of the fundamentals of American foreign policy since 1945.””

Yeah, but not really.

These fundamentals began shifting in the 70’s. It got warped and corrupted.

[webheart]

He’s checked, he’s just doing his job. Foreign policy is the purview of the Executive as stated in the Constitution. Treaties require the Senate for “checking”. I guess they are upset that he is taking us out of the Paris accords which are not a treaty so we can’t actually be bound by them. They probably also don’t like him stopping all illegitimate foreign aid because he might be stopping something they want like income. And then there is the WHO thing. And also stopping the war between Ukraine and Russia. So much uncheckedness.

[Jim Noble]

We’ve never seen anything on the scale of what Donald Trump’s new administration is doing,” said Jeffrey A. Engel

Well, he hasn't sent the army into Maryland to disperse the Legislature to prevent them from meeting yet, has he?

He hasn't voided all contracts payable in Constitutional money yet, has he?

He hasn't rounded up US citizens of a specific ethnicity and confined them to relocation centers yet, has he?

Jeffrey Engel isn't very well informed for someone leading an academic center on the subject of presidential authority, is he?

Perhaps SMU would want to appoint someone who is more knowledgeable.

[madison10]

Absolutely! Obama was such a flim flam man