In his first term, President Donald Trump came into office promising “the deconstruction of the administrative state,” but this traditional conservative priority has taken a back seat in the second term. Adam J. White, the Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance, shows how the president is expanding federal administrative power while disregarding legally required processes in much the same manner as the Obama and Biden administrations.

While the first 100 days of the Trump administration have been dominated by executive action, the House Ways and Means Committee has now released the full text of Republicans’ central legislative priority—extending the 2017 tax cuts. AEI tax expert Kyle Pomerleau breaks down the bill’s provisions and budgetary arithmetic.

Republicans are attempting to offset the costs of tax cuts with cuts and reforms to federal welfare spending. In a new AEI report, Kevin Corinth evaluates the potential effects of cost-saving reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Even though the tax bill provides an opportunity to increase federal welfare programs’ efficiency and effectiveness, by ignoring entitlement reform and pursuing unfunded tax cuts, the bill will only magnify the United States’ growing debt and deficit. Yuval Levin highlights the growing gap between the rhetoric and reality of the GOP’s commitment to fiscal responsibility.

The president’s decision to accept a $400 million luxury aircraft from the Qatari royal family is one of several actions in his second term that raise serious issues of propriety and legality around foreign gifts. Jack Landman Goldsmith and Bob Bauer analyze the requirements of the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause and propose reforms to limit improper influence and self-aggrandizement from those in public office.