Supported by
By Ross Douthat
Opinion Columnist
A limp caudillo. That was a phrase I once applied to Donald Trump’s pretense to be a strongman, in a first term that was actually characterized by the imperial presidency’s retreat. Barack Obama and George W. Bush were far more successful at consolidating presidential power, and Trump 1.0 mostly demonstrated that an inexperienced, incompetent president could still be pinned down like Gulliver.
But there is nothing limp or constrained about Trump 2.0: It’s an imperial presidency, full stop. We can debate how it compares to prior peaks of presidential Caesarism — Franklin Roosevelt still sets the standard — but the second term of Trumpism has exceeded its recent predecessors in powers claimed and exercised with minimal or ineffective opposition. The only question now is whether the change is permanent, whether Trump’s successors (of either party) will consolidate these powers, or whether this version of the imperial presidency requires a Man of Destiny and will dissolve in the hands of a mere politician.
