Washington is hotly debating whether President Trump's wall-building falls within the powers that Congress has delegated to him. But the bureaucracy has been eroding the president's executive power with much less fanfare. Deference to the "experts" in the "non-partisan" civil service has weakened the principle that government officials who are not accountable to the voters require oversight by those who are. Bureaucrats are now thought to deserve their own independent power base, and the president’s rejection of their expertise can be ruled illegal.
Topics: Politics