Yesterday, Donald Trump did something extraordinary to return the American government to constitutional principles: He issued an executive order (“EO”) entitled “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies.” The leftists are decrying the EO as the end of so-called “independent” agencies, but that’s exactly the point. Under our Constitution, there are only three branches of government, not four. The agencies are subordinate to the Executive branch, and Trump’s EO properly restores that reality.

By the end of last month, we taxpayers were supporting a staggering 438 federal agencies. There’s no doubt that some of these agencies are useful, even necessary, and some are in the Constitution, of course.

However, as the onslaught of DOGE revelations has shown, even constitutional agencies such as the Treasury Department are money pits. Currently, we have no way of knowing where Treasury spent $4.7 trillion of our money. I suspect many of the payments were legitimate, making this a bookkeeping failure, but probably significant numbers were not.

Image: YouTube screen grab (edited).

And then there are those other agencies. John F. Kennedy created USAID to help combat the Soviet Union. While Congress never passed legislation making it an official agency, it officially recognized it as a money funnel for anti-communist efforts.

However, after the Soviet Union’s fall, USAID refashioned itself as a taxpayer-funded organization to promote Democrat party values and fund Democrat-aligned organizations. Since the 1990s, these values and organizations became increasingly deranged as the Democrat party shifted left, sending our money to “transgenderism,” anti-Americanism, and antisemitism, among other things.

USAID’s trajectory showed the truth of Reagan’s brilliant statement that

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!

Trump, though, is bringing mortality back to these unchecked leftist agencies. He and Elon Musk’s DOGE have been exposing their corruption, both financial and political, as well as their sheer inefficiency.

And then, yesterday, he signed the EO ending the agencies’ supposed “independent” status. You can read the executive order here, but I’ll quote the White House’s fact sheet in full, for it’s short, sweet, and accurate:

RESTORING DEMOCRACY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN GOVERNMENT: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order ensuring that all federal agencies are accountable to the American people, as required by the Constitution. Under this Executive Order:

• The Order notes that Article II of the U.S. Constitution vests all executive power in the President, meaning that all executive branch officials and employees are subject to his supervision.
• Therefore, because all executive power is vested in the President, all agencies must: (1) submit draft regulations for White House review—with no carve-out for so-called independent agencies, except for the monetary policy functions of the Federal Reserve; and (2) consult with the White House on their priorities and strategic plans, and the White House will set their performance standards.
• The Office of Management and Budget will adjust so-called independent agencies’ apportionments to ensure tax dollars are spent wisely.
• The President and the Attorney General (subject to the President’s supervision and control) will interpret the law for the executive branch, instead of having separate agencies adopt conflicting interpretations.

REINING IN INDEPENDENT AGENCIES: So-called independent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have exercised enormous power over the American people without Presidential oversight.

• These agencies issue rules and regulations that cost billions of dollars and implicate some of the most controversial policy matters, and they do so without the review of the democratically elected President.
• They also spend American tax dollars and set priorities without consulting the President, while setting their own performance standards.
• Now they will no longer impose rules on the American people without oversight or accountability.

ENSURING A GOVERNMENT THAT ANSWERS TO THE PEOPLE: This order fulfills President Trump’s promise to restore constitutional governance and accountability to the entire executive branch.

• Executive power without responsibility has no place in our Republic. The United States was founded on the principle that the government should be accountable to the people. That is why the Founders created a single President who is alone vested with “the executive Power” and responsibility to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
• Voters and the President can now hold all Federal agencies—not just Cabinet departments—responsible for their decisions, as the Constitution demands.

Everything in that statement perfectly summarizes constitutional principles. (For a deeper dive into the so-called “unitary executive theory,” which is really just a restatement of constitutional tenets, I recommend Ronald Beaty’s analysis.)

Naturally, the drive-by media, whose members have repeatedly proven that they failed history and American civics, were practically in tears:

• NPR: “Trump claims expanded power over independent agencies”
• MSNBC: “Trump's latest order would fulfill a key Project 2025 goal of taking over independent agencies”
• The Hill: “Trump signs order to expand White House control of independent agencies”
• Politico: “Trump signs order to claim power over independent agencies”
• New York Times: “Trump Issues Order to Expand His Power Over Agencies Congress Made Independent”

As you read those headlines (many of which come from outlets that USAID funded) and see the lamentations of leftist friends on Facebook, remember: There is no such thing as an independent branch of government. The Constitution created three branches, and no amount of legislative action can change that. Once Congress creates an agency, managing that agency passes to the executive’s control.

And while Congress has a say in hiring an agency’s leaders, the Constitution conspicuously fails to give Congress the same say in firing people. That silence means that it’s the president’s job and no one else’s. If leftists don’t like that situation, there’s a constitutional amendment process to change it.

It's certainly true that a future incoming Democrat president can exert over the agencies the same control that Trump did—but of course, that’ll just revert things to the pre-Trump 47 status quo, when the agencies functioned as Democrat party money launderers.