Presidents have been afforded enormous unilateral authority dating back to the turn of the 20th century. Particularly post-FDR and during the eternal State of Exception that was the Cold War, they accrued massive bureaucracies for a perpetual war-time footing. They gained significant influence over trade and travel via immigration and customs in an era of industrialized transport. And they operated as a choke point for legislation, via the Veto Pen, which made them critically important when lobbyists were bribing policymakers.

Trump is the apex of this consolidation of authority within the executive branch through what is known as Unitary Executive Theory.

Since the Reagan administration, the U.S. Supreme Court has embraced a stronger unitary executive, which has been championed primarily by its conservative justices, the Federalist Society, and the Heritage Foundation.

By clearing the way of obstructionist judicial authority and hobbling the legislature with aggressive use of the filibuster and other neutralizing tactics, the Presidency has effectively hijacked all the levers of power at the national level.

Add in the privatization of the bureaucracy - first through the Military Industrial Complex, the outsourcing of fiscal policy to the regulatory captured Federal Reserve, and the public-private partnership of the international surveillance/police state - and you invest the President and his cronies with millions of workers, trillions of dollars in capital and spending power, and endless latitude in setting administrative policies.

Trump’s tactless deployment of these powers has soured the public on the personage in charge. But the public still doesn’t seem to understand how the Presidency - as an institution - has been able to legally wield all this power precisely because the courts and legislature have surrendered it to the office voluntarily.

Once he’s gone, the next guy will have all the same tools. The only question is how they’re used.