Jeffrey Rosen on the overinflated presidency

In a commentary for The Wall Street Journal, National Constitution Center president and CEO Jeffrey Rosen discusses how President-Elect Donald Trump will inherit an executive branch whose power has ballooned far beyond its constitutional bounds, as part of a process that started more than 100 years ago.

"During the election of 1912, the Progressive candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, articulated a populist defense of virtually unchecked executive power, declaring that the president is a 'steward of the people' who can do anything that the Constitution does not explicitly forbid," Rosen writes. That vision of expanded executive power, he explains, gained prominence starting with the administration of Roosevelt's distant cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, and has been embraced by presidents since.

"Teddy Roosevelt’s populist vision is hard to reconcile with the vision of the framers of the Constitution, who set out to create a president energetic enough to lead national initiatives but constrained enough that he would not threaten liberty," Rosen writes.

The full article can be read on the Journal's subscription-based website at http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-and-the-overinflated-presidency-1481911622.