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by lotsofpulp 1971 days ago
How is the US president a king? Without the legislature, they can’t get any laws passed, and not even appoint people to important positions in the government. Both of the last 2 presidents were severely handicapped once they lost their party’s control of the legislature 2 years after being elected.
1 comments

Don’t executive orders bypass all of that? Isn’t that absolute power?
No, executive orders can only function in areas where Congress has delegated control to the Executive branch but not to a specific body. ie, setting details of employment policy for the federal government, or setting priorities for prosecution of crimes, or making decisions about how administrative policies happen. But the President can’t provision new funds, raise taxes, make decisions that have specific bodies set up for a regulatory purpose (FCC, SEC, Federal Reserve). A lot of what recent Presidents have done with executive orders could be rolled back by Congress if they chose.
No, they do not bypass all of it, or even much of it. Their limits are being stretched, and courts may decide that they’re being used improperly, but I don’t know of any big legal changes enacted by executive order.

But a president just tried to use all of the power in the executive branch to overturn an election. And he didn’t even come close. That doesn’t seem very king like to me.

No they can only issue things related to a law passed by Congress or a power granted to the executive branch by the Constitution. The Judicial branch can invalidate them.
Also the presidential pardons.
That is a huge power, but a president’s pardons are limited to federal crimes. State level charges still apply, and that doesn’t seem very king like. I also forgot to mention the previous president is about to go on trial in Congress starting Monday. Also far from what I would expect of a king.

A couple of US websites even banned the previous president while he was president, and he couldn’t do anything about it.