(NewsNation) — The debate around whether President Trump is wielding executive power differently from his predecessors has become a hot topic.
Recently, Trump has initiated the federal government’s takeover of Washington D.C., said he wants to rename the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” and directed 40 states, five U.S. territories and Washington, D.C., to remove all references to transgender people from their sex education programs or risk losing funding.
So, is he trying to control too much? Allan Lichtman, presidential historian at American University, tells “On Balance” that Trump has been a major contrast from how past presidents in that department.
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“You can point to various examples of possible presidential overreach, but the depth and consequences of what Trump is doing has no precedent in the modern history of the country,” Lichtman says.
President Trump has said he can do what he wants
Lichtman said that Trump has and continues to say he can do anything he wants. That kind of approach hasn’t been seen in nearly five decades, he argues.
“We haven’t heard anything like that since Richard Nixon’s post-presidential interview with David Frost, which sparked a huge backlash.”
Lichtman also provided specific examples of Trump contravening three specific elements of the U.S. Constitution.
“The birthright provision of the 14th Amendment, the time and manner clause of the Constitution regarding elections, which vests administration solely in the states, except that Congress can make laws, not the president,” he said.
“He has no authority whatsoever, and yet, he’s claimed the states have to do what he demands on elections.”
Trump has authorized government authority to unvetted individuals
Lichtman feels Trump has been unlike other presidents by handing individuals, some private, the responsibility to fire hundreds of thousands of federal employees with no cause.
“He has used (his power) in an unprecedented way,” Lichtman said.
He also noted that Trump has made declarations of “national emergency” and placed military forces in Los Angeles in response to immigration policy protests there.
