Modern U.S. leaders have not hesitated to expand, or at least attempt to expand, their presidential powers. None more than the current occupant of the White House.
The Supreme Court last week heard arguments over Donald Trump’s legal ability to set international trade tariffs, a key element of his diplomatic leverage on other countries.
One of the more interesting – and, frankly, ridiculous – consequences of this decades-long grasping for power is the expansion of expectations by Americans in what a 21st Century president can do quickly as an alternative to the institutional lethargy of a Congress designed in the 1700s.
The Founding Fathers intended each branch to counterbalance the intuitive extremes of the others. I'm not sure, though, they envisioned these legislative tortoises.
Presidents are now expected to know pretty much everything about everything and to have measured thoughts that media can mine to fill their story production quota for the next news cycle.
Windstorms. Shootings. Snowstorms. Airplane crashes. Wildfires. Outspoken House members who think talking is action. You name it, someone in an administration is expected to say, “The president has been briefed.” As if, in most cases, they can do anything about it.
The ongoing Schumer Shutdown of much of the federal government is a prime example. It’s due to the inability of Congress to agree on budget spending in general. And the refusal of Senate Democrats to allow passage of a resolution to continue funding operations at the existing level, while negotiations continue from photo op to photo op.
In last week’s 60 Minutes interview, CBS’s Norah O’Donnell kept asking Trump:
Under your presidency, we're talking about more than a million federal workers who are not getting a paycheck, including our air traffic controllers. You see there's traffic snarls out at the airports now. This weekend food aid for more than 42 million Americans is set to expire. What are you doing as president to end the shutdown?
This has become something of a PR predicament for Trump.
The reelected president has been such a whirlwind of executive orders, policy, and diplomatic travels in the first 10 months of his second term that he’s now expected to do everything. Even things that he has no real control over, like plodding Senate Republicans in a stymied Congress or fixing the economy all by himself.
Let's face it, no president is ever prepared to say, “I can’t really do anything about that.”
Trump is by far the best recent presidential communicator since Ronald Reagan, who also got into politics from performative show business. Trump is also much more accessible than other presidents and, in this term, more effectively disciplined on messaging.
In stark contrast to his senile predecessor, Trump is available to media virtually every day, which can be a double-edged sword. He can, for instance, jawbone repeatedly about his multiple peace-making successes in numerous foreign conflicts.
That is satisfying work for U.S. chief executives going back to Teddy Roosevelt. Although the truth is, foreign policy is rarely a top priority in voters’ minds absent active U.S. military involvement.
Trump can also tout repeatedly his commitment and actions to combat the surreptitious import of illegal drugs. This is especially clear in the dramatic explosive evaporation of alleged cartel drug-runners in high-speed boats transiting international waters on a U.S.-bound path.
More recently, Trump has ordered an entire aircraft-carrier strike force to the Caribbean.
Such repeat message-pounding has proven quite effective politically in shaping public perceptions.
Check this out: Just two years after a record-low 24 percent of Americans saw progress in the war on illegal drugs, that number has now surged to 45 percent.
Optimism about that long struggle has also jumped from 23 percent to 52 percent. That’s the most optimism in a quarter-century, according to Gallup.
Now, contrast that with the unimaginative, pedestrian information strategy, or lack thereof, by congressional Republicans over the ongoing government shutdown. The Senate has voted more than a dozen times on a clean resolution to reopen the government at existing levels of spending.
Every single time, Democrats have used the filibuster to keep the government closed. As leverage to pacify their far-left base, they want additional millions of spending for Obamacare subscribers.
Tuesday’s off-year election results produced Democrat wins in several states, which appear to have prompted Schumer's Posse to continue the blockade.
On Friday, Democrats also defeated a measure to pay the military during the government closure. Did you hear a drumbeat from congressional Republicans denouncing this? No, you didn't. They're sequestered in their private cloakroom, plotting the next clever strategy move when it's waiting right in front of them.
The Democrat Senate minority is denying pay to our military men and women, all volunteers and all still dutifully on round-the-clock duty, because Schumer et al. want millions more to subsidize Obamacare premiums, including coverage for illegal immigrants.
So, who do you think should get the blame for prolonging this now record-long work stoppage?
Recent polls by NBC News and the Washington Post show that most people are blaming the GOP, the party that keeps trying to reopen government at existing spending levels. And in the meantime, get the military their pay.
How can that be?
A month-long media study by the Media Research Center provides a definitive answer:
MRC analysts examined every evening newscast on ABC, CBS, and NBC between October 1 and October 31, 2025.
Across the 67 reports and news briefs which discussed the government shutdown, 87 percent of the coverage favored Democrats.
Analysts found 83 evaluative statements in which anchors or reporters were critical of Republicans, but just twelve criticizing Democrats.
Without a loud GOP outcry, it's too easy for mass media to tilt the playing field and focus on their Democrat pals. If congressional Republicans don't get much smarter about messaging through or around a hostile media, enough of them will become unemployed this time next year, and there goes the conservative legislative agenda for the last half of Trump's last term.
And then come more predictable impeachments.
Off-year elections tend to attract the more committed, educated voters instead of the working-class ones that have become the new populist base for Trump Republicans.
Exit polling of those voters last week found that about 7 percent of Democrat voters said they had supported Trump last year. Flipping 7 percent this time might seem minor.
But it’s actually a 14-percent swing, taking away seven from the GOP and adding seven to Democrats. Combining that with the GOP shutdown blame made a significant difference.
Trump can't do it all, but, of course, he's figured it out, telling Fox News’ Bret Baier:
The country is doing very well. But as Republicans, you have to talk about it. Because if you don't talk about it, you know, I saw [the Dems] kept talking about affordability.
Well, Biden was a disaster with affordability … It's no good if we do a great job and you don't talk about it. And I don't think [Republicans] talk about it enough.
That is a crucial reminder for the next 359 days until the midterm results. Trump and his supporters can't complain about biased media coverage. That’s baked into the information menu.
A swing of just a few seats in either congressional chamber, or both, would stymie Trump’s legislative agenda through 2028 and set a legislative stalemate as the backdrop for the presidential election.
Congressional Republicans need to talk repetitively about the existing successes and what’s coming down the pipeline. Don’t let voters take a secure Southern border for granted. A year ago, that was Issue #1. Securing it so quickly was an amazing feat.
But voter memories are short, and not everyone is listening every day. Describe the change over and over and over, as Trump has driven home his military war on drug cartels. Visit the secure border, talk with agents about the dramatic changes from just a year ago. Media has to cover Trump. The president should take some GOP senators along.
Deporting illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds is extremely popular. Drive that home too. Give us social media videos week after week of another plane being loaded with dangerous thugs.
Trump has negotiated major cuts in drug prices, as my colleagues reported here, here, and here. Now, we need to hear about it, over and over.
And the cost of gas. It’s cheaper today than when Trump was reelected. Drill, baby, drill. The administration’s immediate deregulation measures are driving record oil production this year and already lower prices are flowing into the pipeline. People need to know that. And realize who is responsible.
With Trump’s numerous successes, there’s a lot to talk about already. But even a biased media cannot ignore the gains if a president is illustrating the issues and listing the improvements repeatedly.
Price increases hit 9 percent annually during the dark era of Joe Biden. Some have dropped since Trump took office. Egg prices, for example: They’re down 70 percent just since March. Tell us many times what the president’s team is doing to help boost supplies and cut prices. i.e. Beef. Cost of living will be a top concern next year.
No one knows how a 79-year-old Trump maintains his trademark energy on so little sleep while retaining a sense of humor. Even as CBS’ O’Donnell kept asking him on national television about Venezuela and drug boats, the president could quip:
O’DONNELL: Why do we need an aircraft carrier and all of a strike group?
TRUMP: It's gotta be somewhere.
