Trump and Executive Power

The Libertarian

The Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin

History, News, Politics

4.7 • 994 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On episode two of the new The Libertarian podcast, Richard Epstein talks to Charles C. W. Cooke about executive power. What does the Constitution say about it? How has it evolved? What space is there for executive discretion? Can the president fire everyone in his branch for whatever reason? Has Congress abdicated its responsibility?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to episode two of, yep, it's the Libertarian again.
0:11.4	It was briefly on Liberty, but now we are back to being the Libertarian with the Libertarian, Richard Epstein.
0:18.9	This is a podcast of the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at
0:25.1	Austin. My name is Charles C.W. Cook. I am the host. And today we're going to be talking about
0:31.5	the presidency. What power does the president have? How has that changed over time?
0:38.2	What does it look like right at the moment?
0:40.7	Richard, welcome to your own show.
0:42.8	Well, thank you.
0:43.4	It's a pleasure to be on my own show.
0:45.5	Well, it should be.
0:46.0	I should really be the one thanking you.
0:49.7	So let's start with the U.S. Constitution, which separates power at the federal level.
0:55.7	There are three branches, executive, legislative, and judicial.
1:01.7	What power does the president have?
1:05.0	How much of it is intrinsic?
1:06.4	How much of it is reliant on Congress?
1:08.6	What did the founders try to do here?
1:10.7	Well, Charlie, we could spend
1:11.8	several hours on this, but let's just start to say it we begin with the following rigid demarcation,
1:17.8	which does not hold up in practice. So the purpose of the legislature is to make the law,
1:24.0	the person of the president is to take care that the law be faithfully executed.
1:28.3	And the purpose of the judiciary, at least on the original device, is when the president wants to enforce the law, he goes into court.
	...

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