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The Architects of the Throne

A week ago, nearly seven million Americans poured into the streets—from Madison Square Garden to the Space Needle—defiantly declaring "No Kings. No Crowns."
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Amen to that.
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Yet Indivisible—the progressive organization orchestrating these protests—traces its lineage to a movement that has spent 123 years expanding the presidency’s reach—believing enlightened leaders could wield that power for good. From Theodore Roosevelt through Joe Biden, progressives—and later their conservative rivals—constructed the most powerful presidency in American history.
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They built the throne. Now they revile the man who wields its power.

Roosevelt and Wilson: The Foundation

The transformation began under Teddy Roosevelt. Frustrated by the power of monopolies like Standard Oil, he reimagined the presidency — not as a caretaker of laws, but as a steward of the national will. “My belief,” he declared, “is that it is not only the president’s right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the nation demand, unless such action is forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws.” Through antitrust suits like Northern Securities and hundreds of executive orders regulating commerce, Roosevelt made the presidency a tool for reshaping entire industries — by personal will as much as by law.
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​122 years later, Trump seized equity stakes in private companies and directed his treasury Secretary to set price floors across multiple industries.
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In reshaping industries by decree, Roosevelt left behind a blueprint—one every successor could trace when power was more expedient than process. But Roosevelt still operated within constitutional bounds. Woodrow Wilson did not.
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Wilson entered the White House in 1913 carrying revolutionary ideas. The Constitution's separation of powers, he arrogantly argued, was "outdated"—a relic designed for simpler times. In his view, the president should embody "the democratic will" and lead the nation toward enlightenment. Wilson created the Federal Reserve, placing monetary policy under executive-appointed officials. He established the FTC. These institutions were insulated from Congress yet subject to executive appointment.
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​112 years later, Trump fires Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for cutting interest rates and empowers the FTC to directly threaten critical media.

FDR: The Weaponization of Institutions

Franklin Roosevelt weaponized Wilson's vision. In 1933, he asked Congress for “broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe."
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FDR wanted the throne.
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His first 100 days produced an avalanche: the National Recovery Administration, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Civilian Conservation Corps. Each transferred authority from Congress and states to the executive branch. When the Supreme Court struck down key New Deal programs, Roosevelt threatened to pack the Court with additional justices until it complied. The Court capitulated.
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More insidiously, Roosevelt weaponized the IRS against political opponents—aiming it at populist rival Huey Long, labor leader John L. Lewis, and former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, forcing Mellon through a fourteen-month criminal trial that judges ultimately dismissed.
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​92 years later, Trump purges 37 intelligence officials who investigated Russian election influence and arrests former National Security Adviser John Bolton for criticizing him.

LBJ: The Legislative Bypass

In 1964, Lydon Johnson compelled Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution with only two dissenting votes, granting him power to "take all necessary measures" to repel attacks and "prevent further aggression" in Southeast Asia—justified by incidents the NSA later revealed never actually occurred. This single resolution authorized a seven-year war that would kill 58,000 Americans without a formal declaration of war.
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​61 years later, Trump tells the nation “we’re going to kill people” without Congressional approval.

Obama and Biden: Empowering the Bureaucracy

"We can't wait for action on the Hill; we've got to go ahead and move forward," Barack Obama declared in 2011, launching his "We Can't Wait" campaign.
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When Congress refused to pass cap-and-trade legislation, Obama's EPA reinterpreted a 1972 Clean Air Act provision to regulate entire industries without congressional approval. When Congress rejected immigration reform, Obama issued executive actions granting temporary legal status to roughly four million illegal immigrants, redefining "prosecutorial discretion" to create a parallel immigration system. When the Senate resisted the Paris Climate Accord, Obama joined it anyway, bypassing the Constitution's treaty ratification process by declaring the binding agreement non-binding.
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Elena Kagan—whom Obama later appointed to the Supreme Court—had defended this approach, explaining how presidents could "turn to the bureaucracy to achieve, to the extent it could, the full panoply of domestic policy goals" when facing "a hostile Congress.” Checks and balances be damned.
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​14 years later, Trump bypasses Congress on immigration enforcement using the same "prosecutorial discretion" doctrine and withdraws from international agreements without Senate approval.
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Joe Biden accelerated Obama’s trajectory. He extended the CDC's eviction moratorium after admitting it likely exceeded his authority. He canceled student loan debt affecting 43 million borrowers—a $400 billion expenditure—without congressional appropriation. When the Supreme Court struck down his OSHA vaccine mandate, he simply shifted the policy to Medicare and Medicaid providers, achieving the same end through the bureaucracy.
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​5 years later, Trump reinterprets prosecutorial standards to indicts former FBI Director James and bypasses Congress on immigration enforcement.
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To be clear, conservatives have not resisted this drift—Nixon’s impoundments and secret bombing campaigns, Reagan’s national security directives, and Bush’s surveillance programs and detentions without trial deepened the pattern.

The Throne They Cannot Tear Down

Every structure erected to empower presidents past has empowered Trump to wield unprecedented power and shatter remaining boundaries. Each dissolved limit weakened the barriers meant to restrain whoever came next.
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The Founders understood what Wilson rejected: that separating powers protects liberty precisely because power changes hands. They designed a system constraining every president because they couldn't trust any president with unlimited authority.
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They saw Trump coming.
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Now, seven million march through streets, horrified by their inheritance.
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​249 years later, they recognize the Founders got it right.
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