Exceptionalism Versus The Unitary Executive

By Michael Ovienmhada

Ordinarily, these two featured terms here may be regarded as polar opposites. It would appear that you cannot possibly exercise power as President in a unitary executive environment, yet have your power curbed in any circumstance whatsoever.

Now, here’s the issue at stake in Trump’s America.

Nothing appears to be off limits.

Trump just fired Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve Governor. Lisa, according to precedent, believed she was protected by the principle of exceptionalism which the current Supreme Court of the United States “carved” out in their ruling in favor of the Trump administration’s decision to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board, (NLRB).

Whereas, under an old precedent known as Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the U.S. Constitution allows the U.S. Congress to enact laws limiting the ability of the President of the United States to fire the executive officials of an independent agency that is quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial in nature. This precedent is supposed to protect certain institutions from Executive rascality.

Having given Trump the authority to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board in Wilcox v Trump, (2025), who are otherwise insulated officials, the Supreme Court then ruled or suggested or opined that – whereas they were doing the ‘wrong thing,’ their action of doing ‘the wrong thing’ must not extend in the direction of the Federal Reserve Board.

You will love the language they used in that ruling.

Here’s what they said:

“The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States.”

One commentator wrote: “What does that even mean?”

I have nothing to add to that.

Trump believes he can fire anyone. It is simple in his mind. It is also simple in my mind. I find myself on the same page with Donald Trump in a vicarious kind of way.

Think of a 2-year old boy in this matter. “Hey mom, you gave me cookies yesterday morning. Why can’t I have cookies this morning?”

For the African mom, she just tells you to “shut up,” and for good measure, she will slap you. Not so for the American mom. They try to reason with the child. Since when did parents start to cede their authority to children?

That is what the Supreme Court has been doing all year long—-ceding authority, allowing itself to be cowered!

The question then arises. If a Fed official can be fired today, what stops the President from firing a Supreme Court Justice for ruling against him tomorrow?

Not only has he mocked several of their rulings and berated them openly, but in fact, looking at how the Supreme Court has ruled on several matters lately, reminiscent of Jim Crow era rulings, few Americans will shed a tear, were the entire Bench to be sacked by Trump one fine Friday evening. By Monday, they would all be forgotten.

A slippery slope is emerging. If the Press can be made to settle; if DC can be taken over by the National Guard without protestations as the Supremes have instructed the lower courts to desist from issuing nationwide injunctions; if a Fed official can be fired—-What next?

If the Press which would normally help to raise an outcry is already being silenced. Who will cry for the Supremes when their time comes?

“That, my friends, is the question.” (Hamlet—by Shakespeare – in his famous quote—To be or not to be).

In the firing of Lisa Cook for as Trump calls it, “cause” and in Lisa saying “No, you can’t fire me,” she is putting her hopes in a Supreme Court whose decisions appear lately to be overwhelmingly favorable to the concept of the Unitary Executive.

Will Lisa Cook be cooked?

Does anyone remember James Comey?

He was FBI Chief under Obama. He, it was who cooked up Hilary Clinton in his ‘decision wrapped in indecision’ in the matter of emails just weeks before the presidential election of 2016. He had a tenure, or so, he thought. Trump took one look at him and said, “You are fired,” after Comey, according to Comey, refused to pledge loyalty and also explicitly refused to let the Flynn investigation “go away.”

End of discussion.

A few days later, he was sent into obscurity by a spiral of silence. The country had other issues to deal with.

Until Comey was fired, only one FBI Chief, William S. Sessions had been fired by Bill Clinton in 1993.

Trump will push and try to expand the limits of presidential powers.

The puzzling question is: Will the system work to push back?

In 1971, then President Nixon, an embodiment of the concept of the Imperial presidency, exerted pressure on the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates to help him win the upcoming election in 1972. The Fed did. Nixon won, but the country paid the price.

What followed was recession from 1973 to 1975, followed by a period of stagflation—an economic environment characterized by high inflation, and slow growth.

That was the Achilles heel of the Carter era.

He had no chance to succeed.

Thankfully, a presidential term is four years. Well, that’s what it is supposed to be. Does anyone at this point think that anything is carved in stone in Trump’s America? One only needs to look to Texas and the mid-decade redistricting that is ongoing to rig the 2026 midterms.

Tariffs, Benefits, the Big Beautiful Bill and Statistics.

Now, what are tariffs, who pays them, and who benefits? Think of it this way.

A manufacturer produces a Laptop in China for $100. With a 25% tariff, it now costs $125 on arriving at the merchant’s store in Atlanta, Georgia. He adds his usual 30% markup. That laptop now costs the consumer $161. From the foregoing analysis, who do you think has just carried the burden of the 25% tariff?

Higher prices have already begun to hit new inventory across the United States.

On the other hand, if you are a poor guy and you do not need a computer to run your life, then, the tariffs would not concern you, but here’s the kicker. The small business person who needs computers to manage his egg selling business is going to spend so much extra money replacing his computers. So, what does he need to do to recover his costs?

What this means is that by imposing tariffs, Trump has just increased taxation on the American people. Anything else is bogus mathematics.

The “news” that tariffs would bring $4 trillion into the American economy over 10 years almost got me cheering until I took a deep dive into the matter with pedestrian economic lenses.

A thorough analysis will correspondingly show that Americans are going to pay $4 trillion more on basic items over the next 10 years while also, hopefully, the budget deficit will be cut by $4 Trillion dollars if the tax cuts do not gobble up the $4 Trillion dollars in gifts to billionaires in tax cuts that they do not need.

Here’s a salute to statistical abracadabrarian economics otherwise known as “Bastiat’s Broken Window Fallacy.”

The usual victims who get victimized over and over again are those in the American Middle Class. They have a family to raise, a house, and a car to pay for, and a marriage to keep from breaking up.

They must slave on!

Another set of victims are retired people who depend on Social Security for their survival. In a normal year, they get what is known as Cost of Living Adjustment, (COLA), of up to 2.5% to help cope with rising prices.

It may be difficult to determine the level of adjustment that needs to be made next year due to uncertainties about the impact of tariffs. Many retirement facilities report that old people are going back to the workforce in droves to cope with inflation as it is already.

The Future of Warfare.

A piece of news about a $200 million dollar F35 Fighter Jet that crashed off the coast of Alaska earlier this year must have nations rethinking the future of wars.

Does anyone really need those million dollar monstrosities when you can use the same amount of money to manufacture thousands of lethal drones that will do more damage than a single jet? That is the question every country must ask itself.

Drones have come into the warfare arena as disruptive technology.

The implications are enormous for the future of warfare.

Only a few months ago in “operation spiderweb,” Ukraine sent 100 drones that together cost less than $1m to destroy fighter jets and bombers deep in the heart of Russia. So, while a country such as Russia may possess up to 6,000 nuclear warheads, a small country that produces 10 million drones at the fraction of the cost of one nuclear bomb potentially may pose a bigger threat to a country with nuclear bombs.

That is a frightening future we cannot wish away. The worrisome part of this future is—if this awareness comes into the horrible minds of terrorists. They can immediately begin to overthrow governments and declare themselves as Emirs. This is a frightening prospect and we must find a way to anticipate this.

The Russia/Ukraine War.

The killings continue in the Russian/Ukraine War. What is especially troubling is news that Ukraine has developed a Missile with a range of 1,200 Kilometers. This means that they can hit targets anywhere in Russia. An escalation like this is what observers have feared from the beginning of this needless war. Ukraine is an advanced nation.

They have advanced capabilities. This war will end when they develop a nuclear bomb. That is the only time Russia will leave them alone.

A trip to the Samba nation.

President Tinubu has just returned from a trip to Brazil. It is expected that this trip will yield results such as increased trade, tourism, investment in agriculture, infrastructure, and especially air travel between the two countries.

For added measure, it would be fun to have a Brazilian Club visit Nigeria on a whirlwind tour of the country. Brazil at 92 million probably has the second largest population of Black people in the world if we are to regard the Mixed race population as black.

Nigeria of course has a population of over 200 million people with the Black population in the United States at about 36 million, and South Africa at 52 million.

A collaboration between Nigeria and Brazil is certainly a good idea, but we must sound a warning. Brazil is not more advanced than Nigeria on many indices. We are mates, so, our government officials in signing any agreements with Brazil need to be well informed not to be undercut.

Kudos to the Tinubu administration for the strengthening of ties between both nations.
It cannot hurt.

Edo State Rising.

Finally, governance in Edo State is responding to the
cries of the people. There is a sense of optimism in the air as, so far, there have been no known interferences from Godfathers in the affairs of State. The Governor appears to be doing a fantastic job.

Happy birthday, dear Governor. It is your time to sparkle by showing the world that governance is not that difficult. In a conversation with an UBER driver last week, he expressed the following thoughts—-“it is so easy for a governor to make us happy in this Benin. All he needs to do is establish a Public Works Department which will just be going round Benin City to fill up potholes every week, and finding ways to redirect the flood away from major roads into the moat.”

Mr. Governor, you have heard from your people.