Washington sources reported that US President donald trump is moving fast in the wake of his impeachment trial to use the government to punish his enemies and pursue his political ends, underlining how his acquittal has helped make him one of history's most powerful modern Presidents. Meanwhile trump has meted out retribution to officials who testified against him in the impeachment inquiry, is making a push to defy congress in funding his border wall and appears to be seeking new ways to hector former Vice President Joe Biden after facing down a mortal threat to his presidency.
Furthermore he is completing his project of fashioning the office around his own personality. It's unrestrained, unaccountable, often profane, impervious to outside influence and factual constraints of normal governance. The President has established dominance over his party, his cabinet and his own media complex. He loosened Congress's constraints by refusing to cooperate with the impeachment probe. The result is that there are very few political constraints on his behavior left.
Further trump sent a strong signal of Washington's new power realities friday by ignoring pleas from the Republican senators who acquitted him and who had hoped to protect those who testified against him. Moreover Republican senators have correctly pointed out that the President has the power to fire anyone in the executive branch and has the right to a team in which he has confidence.
