Trump's First 100 Days: An Increase In Executive Power

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When running for office, Donald Trump suggested that he "alone could fix" the ills befalling the United States. In his administration's first 100 days, he and his allies have moved quickly to expand the powers of the presidency accordingly.

This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, political correspondent Sarah McCammon, and senior political editor & correspondent Domenico Montanaro.

The podcast is produced by Bria Suggs & Kelli Wessinger and edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On this week's Wildcard podcast, Brett Goldstein says even though his show's Ted Lasso and shrinking get emotional, he does...
0:07.8	I haven't cried it yet.
0:09.2	I guess I thought you might be like a closet crier.
0:12.0	No. I mean, I write all this stuff because then I don't have to live it.
0:16.0	Whoa.
0:16.7	She's like, I got him.
0:18.8	I'm Rachel Martin.
0:20.0	Brett Goldstein is on Wildcard, the show where cards control the conversation.
0:28.9	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast.
0:31.9	I'm Tamara Keith.
0:32.7	I cover the White House.
0:34.3	This week on the pod, we're doing something a little different, taking a look at some of the
0:38.6	policies and decisions President Trump has made in the first 100 days of his second term. Today,
0:45.2	how the president has used executive power to push through his agenda and reshape the government.
0:51.4	Throughout his times in office, Trump has cast himself as being on one side of a
0:55.7	battle, a fight to rest control from unelected bureaucrats and put it in his hands.
1:01.8	My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore
1:07.8	true democracy to America again.
1:17.6	The idea of a more powerful president acting unilaterally has been a cornerstone of what's called the unitary executive theory. In short, it argues that any power undertaken by the executive
1:23.1	branch is controlled by the president and the president alone. And since his 2016 run for the White
1:29.7	House, Trump has argued he is the one best fit to serve in that kind of expanded role.
1:35.4	I alone can fix it. And as the Supreme Court has recently rejected arguments to restrain a
	...

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