ANALYSIS — Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s declaration last week that foreign policy “belongs” solely to the Executive Office of the President is undermined by the statements and legislation of a certain former senator: Marco Rubio of Florida.
Rubio’s comment about flouting a federal judge’s order was merely the latest plank on a mounting Trump administration wall of statements and actions that go beyond even the so-called unitary executive theory, which has been pushed by GOP officials such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, George W. Bush-era Justice Department official John Yoo and one of President Donald Trump’s first-term attorneys general, William P. Barr.
The theory posits that the office of the president has vast powers, and those authorities need to be codified by laws, executive orders, legal precedents and agency guidelines. The Trump 2.0 team appears to agree with the “unitary” philosophy, but with a twist: Where Cheney and others at least humored the other federal branches, this administration has been much more dismissive of their roles and legitimacy.
