The Stakes on Presidential Power

We explain the contrasting approaches Donald Trump and Kamala Harris take to the executive office.

Nearly every president has pushed the limits of the office’s power by taking actions that some legal scholars consider an overreach — in directing a military strike, issuing an executive order or filling a job without Congress’s approval. Checks and balances can frustrate a leader who wants to get stuff done. And in an era of polarized politics that can paralyze Congress, presidents often believe that their success hinges on unilateral action.

These pressures apply to both Republicans and Democrats. But that does not mean Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are equivalent. Harris hasn’t said anything to suggest she would expand presidential power as an end in itself.

Trump, by contrast, wants to concentrate more power in the White House and advertises his authoritarian impulses. (Read about his plans.) At Tuesday’s debate, he praised Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, who has eroded democracy in his country, describing him as “one of the most respected men — they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart.”

The Morning is running a series in which journalists explain how the government might work under Harris or under Trump. In this installment, I’ll discuss each candidate’s approach to the separation of powers and the rule of law. I’ve been writing about executive power for two decades, and this cycle I’ve been tracking such issues closely again.

Trump’s radical vision

Trump busted many norms while in office, like when he invoked emergency power to spend more taxpayer funds than Congress approved for a border wall. If he wins again, as my colleagues and I have reported in a series about the policy stakes of his campaign, he has vowed to go farther.

Trump says he’d make it easier to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with loyalists. (He issued an executive order laying the groundwork late in his term, but President Biden rescinded it; Trump has said he would reissue it.) He also says he’d bring independent agencies under White House authority and revive the tactic, outlawed in the 1970s, of refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs he dislikes.

Building on how Trump pressured prosecutors to scrutinize his foes during his first term, the former president and his allies signal that they’d end a post-Watergate notion: that the Justice Department has investigative independence from the White House. He has threatened to order the prosecution of perceived adversaries, including Biden, election workers, a tech giant, political operatives and lawyers and donors supporting Harris.

Trump also wants to use American troops on domestic soil to enforce the law. And he is planning a crackdown on illegal immigration with millions of deportations a year — far higher than the several hundred thousand per year that recent administrations, including his own, managed. To do it, his chief immigration adviser has said, the government would carry out sweeping raids and construct giant detention camps near the border in Texas.

Trump is full of bluster. But there are reasons to believe that a second Trump term would carry out more of his ideas than the first. While he was sometimes constrained last time by judges or his own political appointees, he pushed courts rightward by the end of his term. And his advisers plan to hire only true believers in a second term.

Ordinary boundary-pushing

Unlike Trump, Harris is signaling that she would be a normal president. That would mean usually adhering to a consensus understanding of executive power. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she occasionally pushed the boundaries of presidential authority — albeit within ordinary parameters.

Presidents of both parties have stretched executive powers when they haven’t been able to get new bills through Congress — think of Barack Obama’s attempts to shield certain undocumented immigrants from deportation or Biden’s attempts to forgive student debt. They have also claimed sweeping and disputed power to use military force without congressional authorization — like when Obama ordered airstrikes on Libya and when Trump directed the military to attack Syrian forces.

Notably, when Harris sought the Democratic nomination in 2019, she wrote for an executive power survey I conduct every four years that “the president’s top priority is to keep America secure, and I won’t hesitate to do what it takes to protect our country.” Still, she also said presidents must obey surveillance and anti-torture laws that George W. Bush claimed the power to override — as well as a detainee transfer statute that Obama claimed he could bypass.

If Republicans in Congress blocked Harris’s nominees and legislative agenda, it is likely she would take more aggressive unilateral actions. Those typically lead to accusations of overreach and legal challenges. The growth of executive power has been a story of bipartisan aggrandizement: Presidents take a disputed action, pushing the limits of their legitimate authority; their successors build on that precedent. But based on what Trump has said he is planning to do, I would expect Harris to accelerate that trend much less than Trump.

More on the debate

• Trump called the debate rigged and falsely suggested that ABC gave Harris questions in advance. He said he was “less inclined” to debate Harris again.
• Several Trump advisers privately admitted that he had performed poorly against Harris. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Fox News that Harris “clearly won.”
• Over 67 million Americans watched Harris and Trump debate, roughly a third more than watched Trump and Biden in June.
• Shares of Trump’s social media company fell after the debate, and ended the day at their lowest level since the company went public.

• Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris after the debate could draw in more young voters.

More on the election

• Biden, Harris, Trump and JD Vance commemorated the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center memorial. Harris and Trump, standing a few feet apart, shook hands.
• After Biden spoke about bipartisanship in Pennsylvania, a Trump supporter asked him to put on a Trump baseball cap. He did. See the photo.
• The candidates are staking their campaigns on different views of the country, Peter Baker writes. Trump is betting that Americans are angry; Harris is betting that they’re exhausted.
• The father of an 11-year-old boy who died after an immigrant crashed into his school bus asked Trump and Vance to stop using his son as a political weapon.
• The Capitol will get extra security when Congress meets to certify the presidential election winner, to prevent another Jan. 6 attack.

THE LATEST NEWS

Israel-Hamas War

• The U.N. said the polio vaccination campaign for children in Gaza was going well in difficult conditions.
• Israel struck a school building used as a shelter in Gaza, which it said Hamas had used as a command post. A U.N. agency said the strike killed six of its employees.
• President Biden said he was outraged by Israel’s killing of an American activist in the West Bank, and Harris questioned the Israeli army’s conduct.

More International News

• Alberto Fujimori, who rebuilt Peru’s economy over two decades as president but was later imprisoned for human rights abuses, died at 86.
• In South Korea, men have been victimizing women they know by putting their faces on pornographic clips.
• England’s National Health Service, one of the country’s most revered institutions, is in critical condition, according to a new report.
• North Korea is still sending Russia advanced short-range ballistic missiles, despite sanctions.

Tropical Storm Francine

• Hurricane Francine weakened to a tropical storm, after lashing the Louisiana coast with 100 m.p.h. winds and heavy rain.

• Forecasters warned of flash floods and “life-threatening” conditions in New Orleans and nearby.

Other Big Stories

• Speaker Mike Johnson scrapped a House vote on a government funding bill that members of both parties had opposed, leaving Republicans without a plan to avert a shutdown.
• Inflation continues to slow and is at a three-year low, data from August shows. A gallon of gasoline has gotten 12 percent cheaper over the past year.
• A billionaire in orbit is preparing to walk in space with his crew. Watch the spacewalk live.
• Two years before Boar’s Head deli meats caused a deadly listeria outbreak, federal inspectors found rust, mold and insects at one of the company’s plants.
• Doctors tell Black women to get unnecessary C-sections more often than they do other women, a study found.

Opinions

Getting an IUD inserted can be excruciating. To better serve women, doctors need to stop downplaying the potential pain, Christine Henneberg writes.

Here’s a column by Pamela Paul on the deeper meaning of euphemisms.

MORNING READS

Rest in luxury: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, John Lennon, Nikola Tesla and Aaliyah all passed through the same New York mortuary.

“Man flu”: The internet likes to tease men when they complain about the sniffles. But experts say there are real immunological differences between the sexes.

Greed and gluttony: How a $1.5 billion real estate deal and all-you-can-eat shrimp helped sink Red Lobster.

Kyoto: Its gardens and temples are famous. But the city’s waterways are enchanting, too.

Lives Lived: As an anonymous C.I.A. officer, Edward B. Johnson helped rescue six American diplomats from Iran by casting them as a Hollywood crew — an audacious escape that inspired the Oscar-winning movie “Argo.” He died at 81.

SPORTS

W.N.B.A.: The Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson, the overwhelming favorite to win her third M.V.P. award, broke the single-season scoring record in a win over the Indiana Fever.

M.L.B.: Shohei Ohtani hit the 47th home run of his historic first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

N.F.L.: The Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson will play on Sunday, his coach said, less than a week after a lawsuit accused him of sexual assault and battery.

B-girls: The Australian breaker Raygun, whose routines at the Paris Olympics earned widespread mockery, is now the sport’s top-ranked dancer. Here’s how it happened.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Half a century ago, in 1974, the Emmys introduced a new award: the Super Emmy. The Television Academy pitted the winners in the comedy and drama categories against each other during the telecast. In one, Alan Alda (“M*A*S*H”) won actor of the year over Telly Savalas (“Kojak”).

The award was deeply unpopular — even the winners spoke out against it — and it never appeared again. These days, though, it’s harder than ever to distinguish between comedy and drama (which category gets “The Bear” again?). It’s possible, Brian Lowry writes, that the Super Emmy “might be one of those once-bad ideas whose time has finally come.”

More on culture

• Thousands turned out in San Francisco to watch Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, record a podcast.

• Jimmy Kimmel mocked Trump’s debate performance.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Bake feta with broccolini, tomatoes and lemon.

Squat, even if you have bad knees.

Protect your online accounts with a security key.

Decorate for Halloween.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were burping and upbringing.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow.

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