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Thread. In this administration, Cabinet Secretaries with strong views are often able to act as deputy Presidents, as long as what they want to do does not obscure the public’s view of the White House circus. Barr at Justice, Bernhardt at Interior, Wheeler at EPA....
....all wield outsized policy influence because they need not compete with White House staff holding different ideas. Even Mattis, for a time, was a deputy President running his own foreign policy in large parts of the world. There are some similarities to the GW Bush period...
...when — at various times and regarding different subjects — Presidential authority was effectively turned over to the Vice President’s office, to the Secretary of Defense, and to the Secretary of the Treasury. This normally happened during crises, though.
Trump’s strongest Cabinet Secretaries act as deputy Presidents all the time. Barr is a little different, since the President has an active interest in obstructing investigations and covering up evidence that he does not in strictly policy matters.
Barr is thus much more important to Trump than the other deputy Presidents. Otherwise, the “weak President, strong Cabinet” scenario played out during the Bush years has re-emerged with a vengeance under Trump. [end]
