“
governance and civil society.” Just ask the recipients of programs administered by USAID who found them suddenly ripped away. The malnourished children who required the food that was left to rot on shelves. Or the older people who required oxygen and other medical assistance to stay alive but did not get it. Ask the career federal employees who lost their jobs and, instead of being thanked for their public service, suffered the additional insult of being labeled unnecessary waste by DOGE. As National Public Radio’s Scott Detrow explained in an interview on All Things Considered, “The choice to unilaterally dissolve a federal agency, one established by Congress, was a shock to Washington. But the concept at the heart of it—that the president has broad authority to act unilaterally without consequence, that the executive branch should reflect his priorities—stems from one idea, the unitary executive theory.” Donald Trump took it and ran with it.
”
”