By Harold Pease, Ph. D.
The Constitution says, “The executive Power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America.” No administrative power was given to either the Judicial, (especially not independent judges—non-existent at the time) or Legislative branches. There exist only one person elected by every citizen voting in the United States and that is the President. He executes the laws of the land as passed by the Legislative Branch. No unelected bureaucrat or district judge has ANY independent authority This was upheld until recent times. (Article II, Section I).
By the early 1970’s the federal government had become so big and sprawling that the Deep State, then called the Establishment, desired a different system to disperse the funded money authorized and originating “in the House of Representatives“(U. S. Constitution, Article I, Section 7, Clause 1). Normally Congress paid little attention to the money once allocated. They had previously, in 1913, allowed the Federal Reserve System (a private corporation) to create money on demand, debt they then repaid by their inflated currency. It seemed to work for everyone not on a fixed income—retirees mostly, who would soon die anyway.
On November 3, 1961 the Deep State, again then called the Establishment, pushed for even more control over allocation by creating the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Congress’s allocated money would go to it and be distributed by it. A portion—gradually even a majority of it—could go to any cause they liked that had not been approved by Congress— so long as the cause voted on by the House got some of the money. The money spawned Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). Some NGOs were members of Congress whose loyalty could be rewarded by kickbacks. It became self propelling—they proposed and pushed the legislation. That is believed to have made many members of Congress millionaires on public servant salaries—especially Democrats as they saw federal gift giving as enticements, thus recruitments, to their party. Mostly they funded themselves and their left of center causes.
Two things inhibited their intended total control, the Gold Standard, which they were pleased to have Richard Nixon remove in 1974, and an uncontrolled U.S. president as he could, discover their fraud and veto USAID payments to unworthy causes as President Trump and Elon Musk are now doing. The Deep State’s answer to this possibility was The Empowerment and Control Act of 1974. They saw power in the administrational dispersement, after Congress’s allocation, and wanted that removed from the president to themselves. They succeeded until Donald Trump.
President Trump wants this act revoked and the power presidents had prior to 1934 restored to the Executive Branch as was followed our first 146 years. Until then, in keeping with his oath to preserve and defend the Constitution, he is creating a constitutional crises through executive orders constitutionally cancelling billions of dollars going to causes never actually approved by Congress as stipulated in Article I, Section 7, Clause I.
His Executive Order 14215 entitled, “Ensuring Accountability for all Agencies,” Feb. 18, 2025, restores ALL executive power under the president of the U.S. as it was pre 1935. It argues that under Franklin Delano Roosevelt this authority had been “scattered between independent boards, commissions and agencies that have proliferated since the Roosevelt administration.” All is returned under the management of the White House. Such is necessary for the government “to be truly accountable to the American people.” This power “must be supervised and controlled by the people’s elected president” (X22 Report, Ep. 3576b, Feb. 19, 2025, 45:00).
How many federal agencies are there? Forbes counted 443, most of which are controlled by the Deep State, not the president with his executive authority given him by the Constitution (“How Many Federal Agencies Exist? We Can’t Drain The Swamp,” By Clyde Crews Jr., July 5, 2017). Most of these under FDR and since are difficult to justify constitutionally as written and most originated after 1971 when Richard Nixon took us off the gold standard.
Trump’s Executive Order reads in part, “All executive departments and agencies including, so-called independent agencies shall submit for review all propose and significant regulatory action to the office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register. ‘The White House, not the agencies, not the Deep State swamp creatures, will provide interpretation of the law. This in particular is going to stop agencies like the EPA from using their interpretation of law, to increase their regulatory power.’ The President and the Attorney General, subject to the President’s supervision and control, shall provide authoritative interpretations of the law for the Executive Branch. The President and the Attorney General’s opinion on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the context of their official duties. No employee of the Executive Branch, acting in their official capacity, may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law, including, but not limited to, issuance of regulations guidance, and position advance in litigation, unless authorized to do so by the President, or in writing by the Attorney General.”
Translation. “Trump has promptly and fundamentally changed the Executive Branch as it has existed since 1935 in the last month to how it existed from 1789 to 1934, for 146 years. Trump just wiped out 90 years of the Deep State system.” The president is once again in charge of ALL federal agencies. Now none of these swamp creatures can make decisions or authorize anything without his say so. And he is draining the swamp. Formerly the Deep State had taken away presidential power by the Empowerment and Control Act. of 1974. Congress will need to remove that unconstitutional legislation which is likely to follow (X22 Report, Ep. 3576b, 2/19/ 2025, 45:00). Once done they will no longer control the flow of money to a myriad of harmful activities to this country and the world without presidential consent like funding gain-of-function research or illegal immigration.
Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on the United States Constitution and a syndicated columnist. Read his weekly columns at www.LibertyUnderFire.org Column # 811 Help preserve our Republic while we still can by sharing this column.