The authors of Unmaking the Presidency nail the problem at the heart of our current chief executive. As they put it, he does not “even pretend to share a common understanding with his predecessors” of the nature and purpose of the office he holds. Even when he breaks no laws, he rides roughshod by the hour over centuries of accumulated precedent that set the norms for the presidency, an office whose powers are defined only generally by the constitution. Intend on enriching himself and his family, unwilling to listen to anyone who might disagree with him, Trump “adopted a management style as chaotic as it was theatrical.” The authors argue from the evidence that by word and action, the president threatens to warp the office he holds into something the founders feared. Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes are fellows at the Brookings Institution.
