In a January 30 appearance with Elizabeth MacDonald on Fox Business’s The Evening Edit, American Majority CEO Ned Ryun, author of the best-selling American Leviathan: The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism, advanced a singular proposition for President Trump to utilize an often neglected tool in the executive branch’s workshop for dismantling the “Deep State”: presidential commissions.
Succinctly, the chief executive establishes presidential commissions to address an issue and report directly back to them for prospective further action. The president determines the commission’s scope; appoints its leadership and membership; establishes its charge, functions, and powers; its funding and other administrative support from the executive branch; and sets a deadline for its termination. (See Mr. Biden’s presidential commission on expanding—i.e. packing—the Supreme Court.)
Per Mr. Ryun, there needs to be a presidential commission composed wholly of members of the public to investigate abuses of power and all instances of the weaponization of government by those who were—and perhaps still are—entrusted with the police and surveillance powers of the state.
“I think it is time for President Trump to appoint a special presidential commission, in which he appoints all the members of that commission; gives them full investigative and subpoena powers; and has that commission report directly to him. And then when Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbards, and John Ratcliffe are confirmed, have all of them come before the commission; [and] have those hearings be public.”
Mr. Ryun then went further, explaining what should be done with the presidential commission’s findings:
“[The presidential commission] should do a final report with recommendations, including stripping even more people of security clearances, prosecutions, [proposing] legislative reforms from Congress. It’s time to pull back and have radical transparency and accountability for these institutions that have been massively abused over the last nine years.”
Some may argue that the presidential commission is merely repeating much of the oversight work performed by Congress over the last few years.
This overlooks two important factors.
First, the Biden administration was, shall we say, less than cooperative and forthcoming in responding to Congressional oversight requests, especially from the Republican-led House.
There is likely a lot left on and, more importantly, under the table for a public commission to unearth and investigate.
Given the diminished, though still extant, bipartisan opposition to reforming the administrative state, President Trump is best served by establishing his commission rather than wholly relying upon Congress to do it.
Secondly, as Mr. Ryun stresses, these abuses of power were falsely deemed justified as being done in the defense of the very public whose trust they violated:
“If President Trump were to do this, he should announce: ‘I’m doing this for the American people. This abuse has been done in the name of the American people, they have funded it; and the American people deserve to know the whole truth about what’s happened the last nine years with the FBI, the DOJ, and our intel community.’”
I could not agree more.
As I responded to Mr. Ryun at the time:
“Great idea, @nedryun, for a presidential commission composed of the public for the public to protect the public from government abusing its powers.”
Mr. Ryun is correct, and this renders it critically important that his proposal not be incorrectly perceived.
This or any other prospective presidential commission would be designed by Mr. Trump to facilitate reforming and deciding the future and fate of the components of the executive branch. Thus, such a presidential commission could operate contemporaneously to provide suggestions for current and future reforms to President Trump or could serve as a post-mortem inquest providing to him ameliorative measures for the damage the rogue agency and individuals caused and the prophylactic policies to ensure such abuses of power never again occur.
Above all, as his final term progresses, by keeping the administrative state’s abuses front and center in the citizenry’s mind, any of Mr. Trump’s prospective presidential commissions will maximize the first and best guard against the resurrection of the rogue administrative state: public awareness and transparency.
The deep state thrives in darkness; the deep state dies in daylight.
Consequently, if President Trump implements Mr. Ryun’s sound proposal, I would humbly offer a further suggestion: next up, a publicly comprised, likely post-mortem, presidential commission on the waste, fraud, abuse, and weaponization of USAID.
Talk about lit...
