Informal sources of presidential power: The Executive Office of the President

Question 1

What is EXOP an umbrella term for?

Answer 1

The top staff agencies in the White House that assist the President in carrying out the major responsibilities of office by providing advice, cooperation and administrative support

Question 2

What prompted the creation of EXOP in 1939?

Answer 2

The Brownlow Committee reported to FDR that ‘the President needs help’

Question 3

List the three main reasons why Presidents now needed more support

Answer 3

• Westward expansion and industrialisation had increased the remit of the federal government and meant that by 1939 the President now had 8 government departments to oversee instead of 5
• FDR’s New Deal made the federal government a major employer
• The USA was becoming a major player in would politics, meaning as commander-in-chief, the President would have to spend much of their time dealing with the impact of the Cold War

Question 4

How many offices did EXOP grow to include across the 20th century and which were the most notable?

Answer 4

A dozen, with the WHO, NSC and OMB becoming he most important

Question 5

How many EXOP employees were there by the end of the 20th century?

Answer 5

Over 2000

Question 6

What made Trump’s relationship with EXOP unique?

Answer 6

There was an 86% turnover of top officials and a culture of sackings and resignations, this contrasted with a long standing culture of stability within EXOP

Question 7

What is the White House Office?

Answer 7

The personal office of the President within EXOP containing the staff that facilitate presidential communication with Congress, department and agency heads and the public

Question 8

What kind of people will make up WHO?

Answer 8

The Presidents most trusted aids and advisers

Question 9

Who is in charge of running the WHO?

Answer 9

The White House chief of staff

Question 10

What does the WHO act as a liaison between?

Answer 10

The WH and the vast federal bureaucracy

Question 11

What is the most important appointment the President will make in the executive branch?

Answer 11

WH chief of staff

Question 12

What is the best model for a WH chief of staff?

Answer 12

Someone who seeks the President’s interests over their own and always protects the President from political harm

Question 13

What did Dick Cheney say about his role when he was Ford’s WH chief of staff?

Answer 13

‘He takes credit; I take blame’

Question 14

Why was Trump’s relationship with the role of WH chief of staff?

Answer 14

He only appointed one because he felt obliged, dismissing and undermining whoever held the role

Question 15

Why was Trump’s dismissal of the role of WH chief of staff a bad political choice?

Answer 15

It is necessary to have people around you who will tell you the truth, because the Presidency is such an isolated position. The fact that Trump refused to have anyone critical around him left him with a blind spot. This could cause the President to sour crucial relationships

Question 16

How was the OMB created?

Answer 16

When Nixon revamped the Bureau of Budget in 1970

Question 17

List the three principle functions of the OMB?

Answer 17

• Advise the President on the budget
• Oversee spending in federal departments and agencies
• Act as a clearing branch for executive initiatives

Question 18

Why must all executive initiatives go through the OMB?

Answer 18

So they can be analysed for their budgetary implications and their conduciveness to the President’s policy programme

Question 19

What is the National Security Council?

Answer 19

The part of EXOP that acts as the President’s official forum for deliberating security and foreign policy ideas

Question 20

When was the NSC established?

Answer 20

1947

Question 21

Who heads up the NSC?

Answer 21

The National Security Advisor (NSA)

Question 22

How did Nixon change the way the NSC worked?

Answer 22

He decided to use it as a means of coordinating foreign policy from the WH because he didn’t trust the state department, seeing it as too liberal

Question 23

What was the problem with the way Nixon changed the NSC?

Answer 23

It enhanced and politicised the role of the NSC, which caused problems for future Presidents

Question 24

What did Bush Jr, Obama and Clinton do to the NSC?

Answer 24

Changed it from its new role of foreign policy creation to its old role of foreign policy coordination

Question 25

What will the NSC do to coordinate foreign policy?

Answer 25

Gather information coming in from, the CIA, State Department and Department for Defense and liaise with Congress on behalf of the President

Question 26

Why did the NSC take a back seat under Obama?

Answer 26

Because Clinton was Secretary of State

Question 27

What did Condeleeza Rice do as Bush’s NSA?

Answer 27

She was his enabler and enforcer, a translator of his instincts and intuitions into actual policy

Question 28

Describe Obama’s NSAs

Answer 28

Men like general James Jones and Tom Donilon who fitted the ‘honest broker’ style of working and had a ‘passion for anonymity’, which is meant to characterise those who work in EXOP

Question 29

Why were Trump and Nixon unusual in how they dealt with NSA?

Answer 29

They did not read briefing notes, preferring to receive oral reports

Question 30

Why were Nixon and Trump still different here?

Answer 30

Because while Nixon would listen to Henry Kissenger, numerous sources suggested that Trump was resistant to advice that countered his own views

Question 31

What was Trump thinking when he appointed his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, as a permanent NSC member?

Answer 31

It seemed to signal his intention to use the NSC as a political - rather than a coordinating - forum