[UNITARY EXECUTIVE THEORY is is a Constitutional law theory according to which the President of the United States has sole authority over the executive branch.]

The President’s Favorite Decision: The Influence of Trump v. U.S. in Trump 2.0

Monday, February 10, 2025

Presidential immunity was not the most important part of the case.

The main critical reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States—both in the dissents in the case, and in public commentary—was that its shield of presidential immunity from criminal law portended a lawless presidency. In a lecture last Fall, I argued that the “decision’s main significance for the presidency” lies not in its holding about presidential immunity, but rather “in its expansive discussion of exclusive presidential powers, independent of the immunity ruling.”

The importance of Trump as an executive branch sword rather than a presidential immunity shield has come into clearer view with President Donald Trump’s early executive orders and actions, and with the actions of his senior subordinates.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-president-s-favorite-decision–the-influence-of-trump-v.-u.s.-in-trump-2.0

I. The President’s Article II Impoundment Authority.

A. Article II vests the power of impoundment in the President.

Article II of the “Constitution vests the entirety of the executive power in the President” of the United States.1 “This grant of authority establishes the President as the chief constitutional officer of the Executive Branch, entrusted with supervisory and policy responsibilities of utmost discretion and sensitivity.”2 “The President’s duties are of ‘unrivaled gravity and breadth.’”3 The President “must ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ and he bears responsibility for the actions of the many departments and agencies within the Executive Branch.”4 The President exercises many authorities that are derived “from the Constitution itself.”5 When he exercises such powers, his authority is “conclusive and preclusive,” meaning that “he may act even when the measures he takes are ‘incompatible with the expressed or implied will of Congress.’”6 “Congress cannot act on, and courts cannot examine, the President’s actions on subjects within his “conclusive and preclusive” constitutional authority.”

https://americarenewing.com/the-presidents-constitutional-power-of-impoundment/