Independent Agencies Oversee Elections and Media. Trump’s Seizing Their Reins.

Amid all of Donald Trump’s power grabs over the past six weeks, one little-noticed executive order may in the long run have the largest impact on the viability of the country’s democratic system of governance.

The February 18 order, misleadingly titled, “Ensuring Accountability For All Agencies,” claims to prevent government agencies from going off on a tear creating policies that stand in conflict to the agenda of the country’s elected leadership. In reality, however, it represents a vast power grab by the executive branch of government, essentially giving the president and the Department of Justice exclusive power to decide whether regulations are in line with political priorities, and to impose draconian presidential controls over agencies that were set up by Congress to be independent.

The executive order’s text gives the game away:

It shall be the policy of the executive branch to ensure Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch. Moreover, all executive departments and agencies, including so-called independent agencies, shall submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register.

In other words, if Trump opposes a regulation, that regulation goes out the window.

The order states that, “The heads of independent regulatory agencies shall establish a position of White House Liaison in their respective agencies,” and goes on to say: “Independent regulatory agency chairmen shall submit agency strategic plans … to the Director of OMB for clearance prior to finalization.” In other words, independent agencies will no longer be independent but will instead be ruled over by political commissars, their every action now scrutinized to make sure they are ideologically sympatico to the aims of the MAGA movement.

Two of the agencies subject to this new system are the Federal Election Commission (FEC) — a historically bipartisan, six-member organization that helps to set ground rules for how elections are run and financed — and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which, among other things, controls access to the country’s airwaves.

Trump has been angling for control of both of these agencies since the start of his administration. In late January, he attempted to fire Ellen Weintraub, the Democratic chair of the FEC. The firing would have broken a 3-3 GOP/Democratic tie on the commission, and it would also have marked the first time that a president had removed an FEC commissioner from the opposing party and not nominated in their place a candidate selected by that party’s congressional leadership.

Weintraub pushed back, arguing that the president had no legal authority to fire her and that she wasn’t going to leave her job. On X, the FEC chair posted a copy of the dismissal letter she had received from Trump and then wrote that she wasn’t going anywhere.

As of this writing, the FEC still lists Weintraub as chair. She has become one of the few high-profile Trump targets in government to successfully resist his effort to push them out of their jobs. Yet, with last month’s executive order, Trump has essentially done an end run around Weintraub, and, indeed, the whole concept of a bipartisan FEC. He has claimed the power to bend the FEC to his will and essentially awarded himself, the Office of Management and Budget and the attorney general interpretative powers over whether FEC actions can go forward or not.

Given Trump’s history of rejecting election results that didn’t come out in his favor, pressuring elections officials to change vote tallies, urging noncertification of votes and currying foreign favor in his election campaigns, it’s hardly a stretch to imagine that he, or his acolytes, could put his new powers over the FEC to nefarious use in the coming election cycles.

A similar sword now hangs over the Federal Communications Commission, led by MAGA follower Brendan Carr, who was coauthor of the Project 2025 report.

Carr has used his time in office to threaten the broadcasting licenses of major networks, including going after CBS for its interview with Kamala Harris during the election campaign; to launch investigations into NPR and PBS, alleging that in mentioning on air who their sponsors are, they are essentially running advertisements in violation of their public mission; and to go after media companies they deem to have promoted “diversity” — despite this being a core part of the FCC mission, as detailed in the Communications Act.

In his chapter of Project 2025, Carr also stressed that there was no legal requirement — only convention — that the president defer to the minority party’s Senate leadership when selecting an FCC commissioner from the minority party. The implication was that a president could theoretically stack the commission entirely with those in favor of the president’s agenda.

Even though the FCC is now headed up by MAGA loyalist Carr, that apparently is still not enough for Trump. In his impatience to acquire absolute control over a commission that has vast powers to shape the country’s broadcast and social media landscape — and, by extension, public opinion — Trump has moved to consolidate presidential power over any and every decision emanating from the FCC.

While on the campaign trail, Trump explicitly threatened to yank the broadcasting licenses of the major television networks. Moreover, he has launched numerous lawsuits against major media companies and has repeatedly sought to defund public broadcasting. This environment signals clear danger of an autocratic assault on the freedom of the press.

Add into the mix the exiling of the Associated Press from White House events because of its refusal to stop calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico, and add in too the extraordinary move to have the White House decide which press organizations to admit into the White House press pool, and the warning signs start flashing red regarding this administration’s intentions toward media outlets that it views as not being subservient enough.

There has been, since January 20, such a flurry of executive orders that it’s easy for some to slip under the radar. The Ensuring Accountability For All Agencies order, however, is too important to get lost in all the white noise. With almost no pushback, a single executive order has concentrated a huge amount of power over critical regulatory agencies in Trump’s hands. There’s great risk that he will now misuse this power spectacularly as he seeks to consolidate his grip over the country.