Trump signs order making independent regulators answerable to White House

Donald Trump is attempting to fundamentally reshape the US government, concentrating power in the presidency.Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/AP

Donald Trump has signed an executive order making independent regulatory agencies established by Congress now accountable to the White House – a move that some experts said clashes with mainstream interpretations of the constitution.

The order forces major regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to report new policy priorities to the executive branch for approval, which will also have a say over their budgets.

The sweeping order calls for “presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch” and is a radical power move certain to attract lawsuits challenging the president’s assertions.

In a fact sheet, the White House described the move as, “ensuring that all federal agencies are accountable to the American people, as required by the Constitution”.

“The Order notes that Article II of the US Constitution vests all executive power in the President, meaning that all executive branch officials and employees are subject to his supervision,” the fact sheet said. The order will also apply to the Federal Reserve but will exempt the central bank’s authority over monetary policy.

The latest apparent authority grab from the Trump administration would give the office of management and budget head, Russell Vought, oversight over a suite of major agencies – including regulators of Wall Street, campaign finance, telecommunications companies, labor and even the Postal Service.

The Trump order aligns with campaign promises to make independent agencies accountable to the president and a pledge Vought made in 2023: “What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them.”

Such action is far from typical in US government and appears to be part of Trump’s push to expand or assert powers traditionally kept out of the president’s hands, bringing to center stage a fringe legal premise called the unitary executive theory, which holds that the US president has sole power over the whole of the executive branch.

Earlier this month, Daniel Schuman, executive director of the American Governance Institute transparency group, told the Guardian: “There has been a long strain within Republicans to advance the unitary executive theory, which is basically that the president is a king and can do whatever they want. There have always been people who view Congress and the legislative branch as an impediment to the policies that they wish to advance.”

The move comes as the White House has attempted to fundamentally reshape the US government, including by seizing Congress’s “power of the purse”. The administration has argued it can refuse to spend funds allocated by Congress, in defiance of the Impoundment Act of 1974, which explicitly bars the practice. The main pushback so far has been via the courts, the third co-equal branch of government, not the Republican-controlled Congress.

Most prominent among Trump’s efforts to cut spending are those by “Doge,” or the department of government efficiency – an unofficial department led by the billionaire Elon Musk. Experts argue a wide range of cuts made by Doge are “unlawful” and now the subject of lawsuits.

The president has also summarily fired the independent watchdogs of government agencies; attempted to end birthright citizenship; dismantled the foreign aid agency USAid; ordered severe cuts to biomedical research funding; and imposed a funding freeze, among the many executive orders made in Trump’s first few weeks in office which contravene congressional authority, and are now being litigated.

“The [order] directs that all independent agencies shall subordinate themselves to the office of management and budget (OMB) and Trump’s OMB hatchet man, Russ Vought,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

“Under the [executive order], independent agencies’ rules would be approved by OMB and Vought, their funding would be determined by OMB and Vought, and they would be required to follow White House policy dictates,” said Weissman.

Weissman argued the move was an effort to shield major corporations from the scrutiny of such independent agencies. The SEC, for instance, often investigates major corporations on behalf of shareholders.

“Not incidentally, both the FTC and SEC have ongoing investigations or enforcement actions against companies owned by Elon Musk,” said Weissman.