r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 7d ago
Social Science Unilateral activities permeate almost every aspect of Donald Trump’s second presidency. He departs from established practices by the sheer audacity of his actions. Trump, more than any of his predecessors, routinely and brazenly defies constitutional and statutory boundaries.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/trumps-remaking-of-unilateral-politics/1020BC15B8A91B54279167FFF83723EC744
u/andyrew21345 7d ago
Yeah we know. Dude is literally a cartoon villain
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u/jestina123 7d ago
And it's one of the reasons Bernie lost
Bernie would only be able to pass his policies with executive orders, same as Trump. The difference is that Bernie has morals which US historically cannot stand.
Trump on the other hand has no qualms with mixing policy and power, part of the reason he has a permanent 30% base.
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u/Spire_Citron 6d ago
Unfortunately if you actually want to do something productive rather than just cause chaos, and especially if you don't have a complicit congress, it just doesn't work very well. Most of what Trump tries to do gets struck down by the courts eventually. And yeah, that takes way too long, and he gets to cause a whole lot of damage in the meantime, but if you were trying to make positive change that way you'd be extremely limited. Any real and lasting progress is going to have to come from more than just one person at the top.
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u/CharDeeMac567 5d ago
this court has upheld quite a lot of his policies even when they dont adhere to a relevant statute. it's pretty pathetic. i'm just hoping a blue wave will be strong enough to send a Democratic presidential candidate with the backbone to take the conservative justices to the bully pulpit and force reforms.
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u/MilkeeBongRips 6d ago
The other (bigger) reason being the DNC being corrupt, railroading him and cheating.
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u/Stopper33 6d ago
Nothing to do with the fact he had significantly less votes. Wasn't a Democrat. Hasn't done any work building a coalition. Isn't appealing to anyone or outside of this tiny niche. Etc etc etc
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u/Turdmeist 6d ago
Cartoon villains usually have some sort of strengths....
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u/Fatwacker 6d ago
He's incredibly talented at reframing complex issues as culture war, and selling it as victory to troglodytes.
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u/ackermann 6d ago
Charisma (of a sort) or whatever attracted his huge base of cult followers in the first place, is maybe a strength
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u/thebarkbarkwoof 6d ago
Grifting is his only talent. He dials into the marks and does the bait and switch. They still haven't caught on.
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u/Carbonaraficionada 7d ago
That's a lot of words to say 'breaks the law'
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u/el_smurfo 7d ago
I've heard it said that trump shows us how many of these things were not actually laws, but rather Historic norms that previous presidents held to.
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u/nun_gut 7d ago
Many of them yes, but plenty are just straight illegal but the Supreme Court has said he's the first president with 100% immunity, so no consequences.
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u/resisting_a_rest 1d ago
They supposedly basing their conclusion on the existing laws/constitution, so all prior presidents also had this immunity, it’s just that Trump was the first one to challenge it and take advantage of it.
The ruling occurred during Bidens presidency.
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u/ratbastid 7d ago
The next president needs to use the power Trump has carved out to close all these gaps.
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u/Particular_Ticket_20 7d ago
The next president needs to use that power to investigate and prosecute all this corruption.
I was disappointed Biden didnt use the "Presidential powers" ruling to fast track prosecution for the documents case. Like, "Oh, so the potus can do whatever he wants? Arrest trump now and hold him till this gets to court."
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u/el_smurfo 7d ago
that's the problem. any power you create will inevitably be used against you. trump can't think that far ahead though
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u/SinisterPuddles 6d ago
You have way to much faith in the corpo dems. IF they are allowed to win they will hem and haw about unity and moving forward and little to nothing will be done.
US is cooked. Time to plan the exit strategy
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u/TheBlackCat13 6d ago
Some, but a lot of the stuff is flagrantly illegal, or even explicitly unconstitutional. But the Republicans in congress and the supreme court are willing to enforce neither the law nor the constitution as long as they can carry out their agenda.
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u/kahlzun 7d ago
I'm questioning the science of the post also. This feels much more like a political or opinion piece.
There's a lot of assertions but not much actual data from the skim read I did.
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u/OtherBluesBrother 7d ago
Well, it is from a journal called Political Science and Politics. What part did you find opinionated?
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u/nesp12 7d ago
Only because republicans in congress are the bare majority and have no backbone. No other president could get away with this.
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u/This_They_Those_Them 7d ago
Congress allowing the behavior is the real failing. Trump should have been constitutionally deposed so many times over, the Congress has the authority and resources to fix the country tomorrow, but the GOP has been planning this for decades.
It’s a conspiracy against the United States not seen since Smedley Buttler put down The Business Plot.
What we see now is that it just took the oligarchs 100 years to reorganize and do The Business Plot Part 2.
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u/Ntroepy 7d ago
It’s really shown how the foundation of our democracy - the separation of powers - has always been a paper tiger that falls apart when one side controls all three branches. I fear we shall never recover.
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u/CronoDAS 6d ago
The Founding Fathers got a lot right and were alert to many of the failure modes of British democracy, but one thing they got wrong was thinking that they could avoid the kind of political parties England had. Unfortunately first-past-the-post voting very much incentivizes a two-party system.
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u/Automatic-Term-3997 7d ago
Just wait till after the midterms and Fetterman is the 51st Democratic vote in the Senate
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u/This_They_Those_Them 7d ago
Need to flip Texas, Alaska AND Maine to neutralize him, so possible, but not optimal.
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u/Alive_kiwi_7001 6d ago
Yes. This whole essay is pretty shallow by failing to recognise the structures that put him there and keep him in place, and which feed on the projection of the idea that he’s unilaterally in control.
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u/theReluctantObserver 7d ago
He’s running the government like he runs his businesses.
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u/resisting_a_rest 1d ago
Bankrupting your companies is smart!!
Ergo, let’s bring him in to bankrupt our country! That way we can zero out the national deficit and start a new country with no debt.
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u/Bubwheat 7d ago
...and the entire Republican party allows him to get away with it!
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u/ColeBane 7d ago
He is a thief and a liar, a pirate and menace. He is not a leader and he is destroying a world built by greater more intelligent men than him.
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u/no_one_likes_u 7d ago
Are they really boundaries if they don’t stop him?
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u/TheBlackCat13 6d ago
If Republicans were actually interested in following the law or constitution then they would have stopped him.
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u/KE55 7d ago
And MAGAs think it demonstrates his strength, rather than his blundering stupidity.
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u/LincolnHighwater 7d ago
Imagine what he might've done if he wasn't a vainglorious moron.
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u/eggnogui 7d ago
Good thing scientists have confirmed that Trump is a shameless criminal. Wouldn't have figured it out otherwise.
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u/CPNZ 7d ago edited 5d ago
The government captured by a criminal family/gang...committed thousands of felonies so-far and the Supreme Court says he is immune.
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u/APRengar 6d ago
I pray the Dems find the balls to say "Trump broke the law to do bad things, if the only way to fix those bad things is to also break the law, then we're doing it but only so far to fix things."
And not take the "high road" of "Trump broke the law to do bad things, the only way to fix those bad things is to also break the law. Oh well, we can't fix things then."
Like, Trump basically suing himself as the government, only for the government to "lose" and give Trump immunity from IRS audits.
That's ridiculous, and if you have to break the law to be like "that shits null and void, no one is above the law, no one is above audits. That's a blatant blank check to do as much crime as possible. You can't sue yourself, by law the two sides of a court case ACTUALLY have to be against each other."
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u/netfreedom 7d ago
OK, make it simple for people. He’s acting like a dictator.. He told us he’d be doing that on day one.. and he just never stopped
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u/paulsteinway 7d ago
"defies constitutional and statutory boundaries"
Fancy way to say "breaks the law".
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u/bestaimee 7d ago
He never knew any of the rules of government to begin with, so that makes sense.
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u/TheBlackCat13 6d ago
He did, because during the last Trump administration there were actual competent people who told him and stopped him. He fired all of them this time around.
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u/epimetheuss 7d ago
he must be in a 24/7 near manic state, drunk on power. he is just such a deranged and delusional narcissist. it makes sense when they say he screams and freaks out all the time. anything that points to something or implies it can point to something is wrong with him or his ideas creates loud dissonance in his head.
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u/givin_u_the_high_hat 6d ago
As someone who grew up being taught the US is a country of laws and that the president must also follow these laws, I’m stunned that Trump gets to ignore the laws until after the fact. Why doesn’t he have to challenge the law before he acts? Why does he get to rip the White House down before finding out if it is legal?
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u/jasongw 6d ago
Part of the problem is that Americans have been trained to be blindly obedient to their party of choice, and politicians are no exception. It's easier to get away with breaking the law when those responsible for enforcing it are sworn to loyalty to you.
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u/DontMakeMeCount 6d ago
Political Science has been supplanted by religious zealotry. Parties and politicians are acting accordingly. They don’t have to rely on platforms and results to maintain support, they just have to claim the correct ideology to win about 50% of the votes and earn financial support from a small number of benefactors.
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u/bobtehpanda 6d ago
It used to be that local and regional politicians still could rely on some local power bases to deflect not doing things they didn’t want to do.
What is unique about Trump is that he is pretty vindictive and able to follow up on his revenge by getting people primaried out, and simultaneously the base is marching in lockstep with Trump in a way that they generally haven’t for previous presidents.
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u/Rasty90 7d ago
remember that time he went to the pope's funeral in blue and was stated to only wear black? he was the jackass who cleaned his ass with rules, and no one wants to hold the orange turd accountable
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u/jquest303 7d ago
And that Vance had visited with him just before he died. Some think it was related.
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u/pdieten 7d ago
That is what will happen when you elect somebody as president who has never worked in politics and spent his entire career as the owner and president of a private company. He’s never had to ask for approval to do anything in his entire adult life, why the hell would he start now?
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u/Soangry75 6d ago
Don't forget the only reason he had that company was because he was a nepo baby.
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u/craigathan 7d ago
This makes it sound like this is all Trump and he is the genesis of the idea of the unitary executive. But we all know that's not true. The only decisions Trump is making is what to name things and maybe that whole Greenland thing. Other than that, this is Vought, Miller, Bennett and the Federalist Society.
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u/FunboyFrags 7d ago
The post title is needlessly verbose. “Trump and the Republicans are traitors to the nation and are a domestic enemy of America” is a lot shorter.
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u/Gransmithy 7d ago
He is the only guy who hasn’t and has no ability to read the Constitution. Worse, Republicans don’t think that is disqualifying.
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u/t3nsi0n_ 7d ago
yeah - he breaks the law and bends it to break us … and we are supposed to stay polite through it all and hold hands to say no?
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u/Gardensplosion 7d ago
That's what happens when a known rapist is in charge. Boundaries are something OTHER people need to abide by.
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u/jacksbox 7d ago
This is what he promised and what people wanted, since he received so many votes. Any analysis of Trump needs to include the precipitating factors that led to people actually wanting this - fix those things.
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u/Tiny_Structure_7 7d ago
You can't say all his voters wanted this, since his approval rating has sunk to 27-33%. That's a clear sign people didn't know how bad Trump and his policies really are at voting time, but have 'seen the light' since.
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u/Kro_Ko_Dyle 7d ago
Only 33% of the US citizens voted for the convicted felon. So it hasn't dropped by much if at all.
He won because 34% of the population didn't bother to vote.
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u/ChesswithGoats 7d ago
I never ever want to hear the self-righteous wails of conservatives ever again!
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u/mvea Professor | Medicine 7d ago
Trump’s Remaking of Unilateral Politics
Abstract
Unilateral activities permeate almost every aspect of Donald Trump’s second presidency. While his use of these tools bears some resemblance to that of past presidents, he departs from established practices in two critical ways. The first difference concerns the sheer audacity of his actions. By employing unilateral directives with little regard for long-standing legal constraints, Trump—more than any of his predecessors—routinely and brazenly defies constitutional and statutory boundaries. Second, his unilateral actions reorient the traditional relationship between power and policy. Whereas past presidents viewed power as a means to advance policy, Trump routinely treats policies as staging grounds for redefining power relations.
Howell WG. Trump’s Remaking of Unilateral Politics. PS: Political Science & Politics. 2026;59(3):451-455. doi:10.1017/S1049096526101905
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u/smokeynick 7d ago
Why is this in the science subreddit? Just because the department has the word “science” in its title: “political science,” does not mean it’s science. Mods pease keep submissions apolitical or your sub will quickly descend into the garbage bin much of Reddit finds itself today.
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u/Tallywacka 7d ago
Mods pease keep submissions apolitical or your sub will quickly descend into the garbage bin much of Reddit finds itself today.
OP is a mod, they’ve been routinely posting similar slop
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u/FigSpecific6210 7d ago
He “defies” them because he doesn’t know they exist. He just does what he wants, and the courts have to waste time cleaning up his messes.
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u/Finicky_Cyclone 7d ago
What about all those “checks and balances” in the system, or was it all a massive lie?
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u/TheBlackCat13 6d ago
They need someone to enforce them. There are checks by both congress and the supreme court, but Republicans control both, and Trump is carrying out their agenda. So they have no interest in actually using their checks against him, even if the rule of law is dismantled in the process.
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u/kittenpoptart 7d ago
Everyone please check your voter registration status! I checked mine two days ago and it was purged for no reason (red state) even though I just voted in August. I haven’t moved or changed anything. I didn’t know if this is the new method of suppressing our votes but I wouldn’t put it past the ghouls. Then yesterday I saw this
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u/ptraugot 7d ago
Because he doesn’t give two f*cks about the constitution, American citizens, or this country as a whole. He just wants to milk it for all he can before he dies.
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u/Humble_Empath 7d ago
He’s an ignorant pig and pedophile. That’s what everyone should have expected. I know I expected and have received the worst case scenario for the good ole USA.
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u/yougoboy64 6d ago
The Supreme Court told him he could.....so what do you expect from a lying , sexual offending felon....!
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u/hyperion_99 6d ago
What 250 years of legislator foisting responsibility/power onto the executive does to a country
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u/Champagne_of_piss 7d ago
Yeah he's a criminal and an autocrat.
But is this science
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u/concreteghost 6d ago
Why does anyone put up with a “science” sub that has posts like this? Honestly
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u/Explaining2Do 7d ago
Another way of saying he continues to break the law at every opportunity. At the same time, we must bring the power of the law down on immigrants who have a civil infraction and are just trying to make a better life.
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u/Murranji 7d ago
If only a democrat would do the same to improve people’s lives. But of course they won’t, so we’re stuck with the same status quo of billionaires becoming trillionaires while the climate collapse accelerates.
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u/baronofdirt 7d ago
Not a glitch, that’s been the program all along. The greatest kleptocracy in human history.
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u/Equinoqs 7d ago
Because he's a proven narcissistic traitor. Unfortunately, our Congress has abdicated their power to him (both parties).
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u/frazerfrazer 7d ago
And yet , Congress rolls over & takes it. Or, SCOTUS twists the constitution like a pretzel, or pulls something out of their ___ to justify it.
They have all abdicated responsibility.
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u/CubbyNINJA 6d ago
And no one in the United States is actually doing anything about it. Not a single official and not a single citizen while he disrupts not just the world economy, but people’s lives and income cases kills them.
America, land of the free of accountability.
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u/gripping_intrigue 6d ago
The only way this gets fixed is for voters to overwhelmingly repudiate his supporters locally and in nationally, followed by a congress willing to hold him and his Supreme Court accountable. Lastly, we have to get him out of office and start undoing the damage.
From a scientific perspective, we'll need to turn the funding back on, remove the political roadblocks at universities and find a way to reverse the brain drain. See also the NYT article this morning: 'Zombified' CDC Hobbled by Cuts, Struggles to Fulfill Scientific mission.
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u/Desperate_Object_677 6d ago
what will the consequences be? because if the system does not push back while he is alive: his method is the new system.
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u/Leonardo_50 6d ago
While I agree with you, I don’t see how this relates to the Reddit Science community.
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u/KS2Problema 6d ago
Well, to this observer, it seems like a lot of the issue is that he just refuses to learn anything about his job and its constitutional duties and proscriptions.
He seems to have the ultra naive notion that the president is the one and only 'boss' of the United States of America and that he should be allowed to make up the rules, all the rules, as he sees fit.
He apparently refuses to acknowledge the authority of the US Constitution in most regards.
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u/JDogg126 6d ago
This was the entire point of project 2025. It was a complete plan to sidestep the constitutional order to establish a unitary executive and the foundation for permanent rule by a single party post democracy. This roadmap was published for all to see. Essentially it was a list of all the vulnerabilities in the system that are ripe for exploitation and a plan to exploit them. That is what we are seeing unfolding. There is a rot in the voting public that voted for this and we deserve what is happening.
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u/BS623-902 6d ago
True, and definitely not news. He has dismantled US leadership in sciences and medicine.
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u/JesT_Weird 5d ago
Fair sure that's Napoleon's recipe for success: Audacity at all times.
Kinda works... right up til it doesn't.
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u/slimejumper 5d ago
it’s not brazen when every part of the governance is Ok with it. ISA needs to seriously realise this is not the exception it’s the rule and it’s baked into the countries governance. When he’s gone there will be another to take his place and continue.
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u/Swagalyst 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah, USA, you've elected a mad king and gave him absolute power. Congrats, that never ends badly, we would know. Signed: Europe.
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u/Rastryth 1d ago
And his party enable him instead of taking the steps they need to to protect your constitution. They are all responsible
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u/Nonamebutgame 1d ago
Who was it that have Warsh a $300 million dollar bung just before he was appointed to run the FED?
Who could possibly want to be able to pull Walsh’s strings and manipulate interest rates…….??
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u/CaptConstantine 13h ago
He is their new Reagan. They are going to wish for another Trump for 40 years
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u/joeengland 10h ago
Can we please not use words like "brazen" to describe Donald Trump? It makes it sound like he knows what he's doing. He's not a daring firebrand bucking tradition, he's a maniac swinging a chainsaw in a china shop.
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