This article explores the concerning trend of executive order weaponization, particularly within the context of the Trump administration. It argues that this trend, coupled with US-led geopolitical and trade/tech wars, has undermined international cooperation and set the stage for global economic stagnation. The author warns that the situation will worsen with the emergence of Trump 2.0, which is expected to further escalate the use of executive orders for 'national security' purposes. Drawing on historical examples and legal theory, the article analyzes how the concept of the 'unitarty executive' has been used to justify expansive presidential powers, often at the expense of democratic checks and balances. It also examines the implications of this trend for international relations, trade, and national security.
Half a decade ago, I warned that the Trump administration's weaponization of executive orders would result in lethal geopolitics, tariff/tech friction and new wars. Now there's worse ahead. In the past decade, the US-led geopolitics and trade/tech wars have undermined international cooperation, setting the stage for stagnation in global economic prospects. Trump 2.0 will escalate the status quo, weaponizing executive orders in the name of ' national security .
' Over half a decade ago, I first warned about these trends, which the international community has subsequently witnessed, including major wars and genocidal atrocities effectively condoned by democratic institutions. The next half-decade will prove worse. Here are segments of the original 2018/2019 essay. Executive power and the 'state of exception' What looms behind the Trump White House in the early 21st century is a tradition of conservative thought relying on the unitary executive theory in American constitutional law. It deems that the president possesses the power to control the entire executive branch. Its precursors go back to the darkest chapters of the 20th century. According to the controversial German jurist Carl Schmitt, a one-time supporter of the Nazi Reich, legal order ultimately rests upon the decisions of the sovereign, who can meet the needs of 'exceptional times' and transcend legal order so that order can then be reestablished: 'Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.' In post-Weimar Germany, such ideas contributed to the eclipse of liberal democracy. Following Sept. 11, 2001, similar arguments renewed neoconservative interest in Schmitt and the 'state of exception.' In this view, the US response to 9/11 was not unusual because liberal wars are exceptional. Rather, it was a manifestation of ever more violent types of war within the very attempt to fight wars in order to end 'war.' Similarly, it is politically expedient to legitimize a trade war and other political battles in the name of 'national security,' which allows the sovereign to redefine a new order on the basis of a state of exception. In this way, a new national security strategy redefines 'friends' as 'enemies' and 'us' as 'victims' who are thus justified to seek justice from our 'adversaries' — 'them.' But how could the White House establish such a trade war as a sovereign when such wars were initially not supported by many Trump constituencies and were opposed by much of Congress and most Americans? The lure of imperial presidency Historically, the idea of 'imperial presidency' in America is hardly new, as historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. demonstrated in the Nixon era: 'The weight of messianic globalism was indeed proving too much for the American Constitution... In fact, the policy of indiscriminate global intervention, far from strengthening American security, seemed rather to weaken it by involving the United States in remote, costly and mysterious wars.' The first administration to make explicit reference to the 'unitary executive' was the Reagan administration. Typically, the practice has evolved since the 1970s, when President Nixon decoupled the US dollar from the Bretton Woods gold standard and trade deficits began to rise. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 allowed the George W. Bush administration to make the unitary executive theory a common feature of signing statements, particularly in the execution of national security decisions, which divided Capitol Hill and were opposed by most Americans. In the case of Trump, the need for inflated unitary executive power arose with the Mueller investigation. The latter restricted the president's strategic maneuverability to operate with the Republican Congress in 2017-2018 but permitted actions that required only executive power, typically in tax and trade policy. Ostensibly moderate administrations, including President Obama's, have not been an exception to the rule, as evidenced by his multiple decisions to use force without congressional approval. During Obama's first term in office alone, the US expanded its military presence in Afghanistan and increased drone missile strikes across Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. The administration also deployed the military to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean, engaged in a sustained bombing operation in Libya, and deployed US Special Forces in Central Africa. Big Money and peacetime emergency powers The uses of executive power are likely to go far beyond the current rivalry for artificial intelligence (AI), as evidenced by President Trump's efforts to redefine, renegotiate and reject major US trade deals on the basis of national security. By the same token, foreign investment reviews will be heavily overshadowed by national security consideration
Executive Orders Weaponization Of Power Geopolitics Trump Administration Unitary Executive Theory National Security International Cooperation Trade Wars AI Foreign Investment Democracy
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