Executive Functions

Jack Goldsmith: the Comey information was filed not by the U.S. Attorney or the National Security Division, but by Attorney General Blanche’s "cronies." The matter "is so obviously a sham." And the statute of limitations has run. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

A wide swath of voters appeared willing to let Trump enrich himself as long as they believed he was also enriching them. Bob Bauer on why corruption is increasingly breaking through with voters, and why reformers should take note:

If Democrats hold back on accountability, does the Trump administration’s worst conduct go unanswered? If they don’t, does the cycle just keep escalating? Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith each make a case. Full episode: open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Jack Goldsmith: Sen. Slotkin’s wish to scare young people out of working for Trump borrows Trump’s own philosophy of deterrence by trauma. What does this episode suggest about the road ahead?

Bob Bauer and @frankfukuyama.bsky.social discuss Professor Fukuyama's intellectual arc, American state capacity and reforms, education, friendship, and so much more.

Jack Goldsmith and Catherine Grace Katz discuss Zeppelins, the 1925 U.S. helium ban, and what the Hindenburg disaster might suggest about controlling AI.

Just in from Executive Functions: Bob Bauer and @persily.bsky.social discuss the impacts, both realized and potential, of AI on elections.

From Faculty Director Bob Bauer’s new “Elections 2026” essay with @execfunctions.org— “The Politics of AI: A Campaign Finance Reform Proposal”

Jack Goldsmith writes that even in the unitary executive, "IGs can still facilitate executive branch accountability, as two recent IG reports—from the Trump-appointed, Senate-confirmed Pentagon IG, and the non-confirmed Federal Reserve IG—illustrate." www.execfunctions.org/p/inspectors...

Jack and Bob discuss the legality of the three advertisements praising President Trump that have recently aired with the tag “Paid for by the U.S. Government” and were reportedly paid for with Department of Homeland Security funds.

Bob Bauer argues that the administration’s recent taxpayer-funded ads featuring President Trump violate the federal ban on spending appropriated funds for propaganda, but that consequences will likely depend on Congress—which “faces a major legal and policy challenge in giving any teeth to the ban.”

The latest from Bob Bauer:

Is Trump Media’s early-access feed lawful? Jack Goldsmith and former SEC GC John Coates discuss: open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Quick thoughts from Bob Bauer on last night's emergency order:

🚨Next up in the Elections 2026 series: Faculty Dir. Bob Bauer — "In Missouri, A Judicial Response to Politicized Election Administration" We're publishing daily essays on potential threats to the election process & mechanisms available to manage them Read here: democracyproject.org/posts/in-mis...

Where Republican pushback against the administration's election program is showing up: (1) the Missouri map dispute, (2) Justice Department monitors in Wyoming, (3) a Supreme Court brief from 38 current and former election officials. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

The Court that held last Term that elections are different for standing just told the states challenging Trump's election order that their harms were hypothetical. What happened to Bost? Bob Bauer on the choice the Justices face before the midterms.

Building a bioweapon used to require a PhD and a government lab. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall says the work “can now be done in the wild with a laptop and an AI account.” She and Jack Goldsmith discuss her case for deterrence by resilience. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Jack Goldsmith writes that the Trump administration cannot "have it both ways" by claiming "extreme unitariness and fir[ing] people for failing to follow the president’s demand to indict enemies" AND "that the prosecutor in the Comey case made an independent[, uninfluenced] decision to prosecute..."

Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith on the White House's abstract hypothetical executive privilege question and OLC's strange, misleading answer:

Bob Bauer on Truth API (which sells traders faster access to the president's posts) and Trump's "business model" conception of the presidency: open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Can a state prosecute a federal official who shows up armed at a polling place? Danielle Friedman of @uwlawdemocracy.bsky.social walks through the relevant statutes, and why Supremacy Clause immunity is a weaker defense in the election context than elsewhere. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Bob Bauer writes that the Senate's new conflicts of interest bill is the wrong model, as it polices one narrow "digital assets" problem while blessing the underlying conflict across Trump's holdings. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

President Trump had (loudly) promised that he would ask #SCOTUS to grant rehearing of its June 30 decision blocking his executive order purporting to limit birthright citizenship. The deadline for such a request was yesterday—and ... crickets.

Jack and Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson discuss how Congress's power over war has eroded, the constitutional and practical obstacles to reasserting it, and the war in Iran as a live example. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Bob Bauer writes that the networks' refusal to air Trump's "election integrity" address is unprecedented; the question now is how he strikes back: a legally vulnerable claim of emergency powers over the media, or the more tested route of the weaponized DOJ. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

The Trump administration's subpoenas of NYT reporters "highlight the fragility of judicially enforceable legal safeguards for journalists, who are protected from government subpoenas and prosecutions more by norms than by law," Jack Goldsmith writes. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

This is among the best videos/transcripts I've seen in laying out what Trump has already done to meddle with the midterm elections, what he may have up his sleeve as election year continues, and what sorts of constitutional crisis could result. /1

Bob Bauer writes that the Senate vote on Blanche isn't about who runs DOJ; it's about whether the Senate ratifies his model of a weaponized department, with its election-intervention role in the imminent midterms as the most urgent count. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Bob Bauer on why "it's probably legal" is the wrong verdict on Trump's self-enrichment — and why a self-pardon defense is more vulnerable, legally, than most assume. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Jack Goldsmith argues that the Court's temporizing strategy has "preserved and possibly enhanced its authority vis-à-vis the president and has resulted in the successful enforcement of significant legal constraints on the presidency, all in the face of a nearly unprecedented set of challenges."

Bob Bauer on the Federal Election Commission after Slaughter: Bipartisan, independent civil enforcement was already collapsing, but formal presidential control will end it—and a weaponized DOJ may fill the vacuum. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Bob Bauer at @execfunctions.bsky.social explains how AG nominee Todd Blanche was up to his neck in the unethical and unprofessional conduct that drew such a strong rebuke from Chief Judge Schiltz in the Minnesota case.

Jack Goldsmith argues that the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 prevents Trump from waiving Iran sanctions as pledged in the memorandum of understanding with Iran. But, he writes, that won't keep Trump from doing it. www.execfunctions.org/p/the-presid...

Essay on how two centuries of sporadically expanding presidential power (and Congressional abdication) led up to Trump's being in a position to start and wage a substantial war without bothering to consult the Hill, and in what ways exactly this chief executive went beyond his predecessors.

"The Iran adventure is the latest instance of the 'one person decides' principle of U.S. foreign policy that Trump has taken to new extremes, and that undeservedly has received less critical attention than Trump’s domestic unilateralism," Jack Goldsmith writes. www.execfunctions.org/p/the-iran-d...

Todd Blanche nomination will test whether the Senate will green-light the new model of the U.S. Department of Justice as an undisguised weapon wielded against the President’s enemies.

"The Senate is responsible for the sorry ethical state of affairs at DOJ, having looked the other way when confirming Blanche the first time," Bob Bauer writes. "The question now is whether senators will take up the challenge Trump has thrown down." www.execfunctions.org/p/the-high-s...

Bob Bauer writes that Kash Patel's libel lawsuits seem to run afoul of the DOJ’s Standards of Conduct. www.execfunctions.org/p/the-fbi-di...

Sarah Isgur: Trump’s harsh reactions toward the Supreme Court's tariff decision were a “gift to the Chief Justice." www.execfunctions.org/publish/post...

@jacklgoldsmith.bsky.social spoke with Sarah Isgur about her new book, Last Branch Standing. They explore the Supreme Court’s approach to executive power in the Trump era, which can be seen as both empowering and constraining the presidency in different ways. www.execfunctions.org/p/the-last-b...

Bob Bauer on potential reform to help protect against a DOJ that answers reliably to a president’s personal and political demands. www.execfunctions.org/p/dojs-bleak...

EF is hiring! We are seeking a paid full-time executive editor to start mid-July. www.execfunctions.org/p/executive-...

One month in, Epic Fury is the second most consequential unauthorized presidential uses of force in all of American history. It’s also a new nadir in the decline of Congress’s check on presidential war. Here's Bob Bauer and @jacklgoldsmith.bsky.social: www.execfunctions.org/p/the-second...

Bob Bauer on Robert Mueller's passing: Professionalism and integrity are no match for the forces of polarization. www.execfunctions.org/p/when-rober...

Bob Bauer on the perilous war over legal ethics in government and politics: On its current course, it cannot end well. www.execfunctions.org/p/the-perilo...