Yuval Levin writes for National Review Online about debates surrounding President Trump’s use of executive power.

A few weeks into Donald Trump’s second presidency, it is clear we will all have to think a lot about executive power in the next four years. The new administration means to flex its muscles, and the results will raise some complicated questions.

To consider those clearly, we should remember an essential distinction. The president’s power should be understood in two different contexts: in relation to the executive branch over which he presides, and in relation to the larger constitutional system in which he plays a part. Donald Trump clearly wants to exert his authority over both, but the two are not the same.

A rough but useful rule of thumb would be that the president does command the executive branch but the executive branch does not command our government.

When it comes to the work of the executive branch, the president’s authority really is supreme. Article II of the Constitution begins with the stark pronouncement that “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” That means the executive branch is essentially a single individual. Everyone else who exercises executive authority in our government does so on the president’s behalf, with his implicit or explicit authorization.

The Constitution doesn’t trust anyone with truly unrestrained power, so executive authority is purposely entangled with the other branches, and in marginal ways this even extends to the president’s command over his underlings. …

… He is not, however, singularly in charge of the government as a whole. In relation to the larger constitutional system, the president’s role is constrained and is in many respects overshadowed by Congress. His core function is to take care that the laws Congress has passed are faithfully executed. So he is accountable to the law and bound by its strictures. The resources at his disposal are determined by Congress, which alone has the authority to set the levels of taxation, spending, and borrowing.