Summary of Introducing “Master Plan: The Kingmakers,” from The Lever

Overview of Introducing “Master Plan: The Kingmakers,” from The Lever

This episode introduces the second season of Masterplan and frames it as an investigation into the long campaign to expand presidential power in the United States. Hosted by David Sirota, the season argues that Donald Trump’s most authoritarian moves are not an anomaly, but the latest result of a decades-long project by legal and political “kingmakers” to weaken checks on executive authority. The premiere focuses especially on Richard Nixon, using his battles over federal spending, war powers, and executive discretion as the blueprint for the modern “unitary executive” theory.

Main Themes and Thesis

The central argument

• The episode argues that the U.S. presidency has been steadily enlarged over the last 50 years.
• This growth in power did not begin with Trump; it was built through legal theories, court battles, and political strategy dating back to Nixon.
• The key concept is the unitary executive theory: the idea that presidential power should be concentrated in the White House with minimal constraint from Congress or the courts.

Why “kingmakers”?

• The season frames a network of conservative ideologues, lawyers, and political actors as “kingmakers” who worked to turn presidents into near-monarchs.
• Their goal was to make it easier for presidents to implement unpopular policies without legislative resistance.

Episode Narrative: From Trump Back to Nixon

Trump as the latest expression of imperial power

• The episode opens with contemporary examples of authoritarian-style governance:
  • military parades
  • federal agents in U.S. cities
  • threats to invoke the Insurrection Act
  • rhetoric suggesting a president can act without meaningful restraint
• It connects protest slogans like “No Kings” to public fears that Trump is acting like a dictator rather than an elected leader.

Nixon’s playbook

The episode then jumps back to the early 1970s to show that Trump’s behavior mirrors Nixon’s attempts to expand executive power:

1. Power of the purse

• Nixon withheld congressionally approved funds, including highway money for Missouri, arguing he could refuse to spend money if he believed it was inflationary or otherwise unwise.
• This practice, called impoundment, became a major constitutional fight over whether the president can override Congress’s spending decisions.
• The transcript uses a simple analogy: Congress “ordered” the spending, but Nixon refused to deliver the funds.

2. War powers

• Nixon secretly expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia without new congressional authorization.
• The episode highlights:
  • secret bombing campaigns
  • the public backlash after the Cambodia escalation
  • Kent State
  • Congress’s eventual effort to rein in presidential war-making through the War Powers Resolution

3. Tariffs and unilateral economic authority

• Nixon also claimed broad authority to impose tariffs, again bypassing Congress.
• This is presented as another example of executive overreach that normalized the idea that a president can act alone in areas meant for legislative control.

Congressional Backlash and Reform

Watergate-era pushback

• The episode emphasizes that Nixon’s abuses triggered a real congressional counterreaction:
  • the War Powers Resolution
  • limits on impoundment
  • restrictions on unilateral tariff action
  • broader reforms tied to Watergate-era oversight
• It describes a rare moment when Congress reasserted itself and successfully clawed back authority.

The “Watergate babies”

• The 1974 midterms brought in reform-minded lawmakers committed to anti-corruption and anti-authoritarian oversight.
• The episode presents this as a high point for the constitutional system of checks and balances.

The Bigger Historical Point

A backlash to the backlash

• The episode argues that the victory over Nixon was temporary.
• Even as Congress reasserted itself, a counter-movement emerged among those who believed congressional limits interfered with presidential power.
• Since Nixon, presidents of both parties have repeatedly pushed boundaries on:
  • war
  • surveillance
  • spending
  • privacy
  • citizenship and executive enforcement

How the theory becomes modern politics

• The episode suggests that figures like Stephen Miller echo a much older legal project when they speak as though executive power is the full embodiment of democratic will.
• The Constitution’s Article II “vesting clause” is presented as the textual hook that later legal strategists used to justify a stronger presidency.

Key Takeaways

• Trump’s power grabs are portrayed as the culmination of a longer historical project, not a sudden break with the past.
• Nixon is the model for modern executive overreach, especially in spending and war powers.
• Congress once fought back effectively, but those restraints weakened over time.
• The unitary executive theory is the legal and ideological backbone of the effort to concentrate power in the presidency.
• The season will trace how this theory became a tool for reshaping American government into something closer to an elective monarchy.

Notable Lines and Ideas

• “We don’t serve a king.”
• “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
  • Used as Nixon’s most infamous expression of executive supremacy.
• The episode repeatedly warns that a country founded in rejection of monarchy can still drift toward kingship if power is allowed to consolidate.

What to Expect from the Season

• Investigative reporting on:
  • legal memos
  • court decisions
  • archival tapes
  • congressional fights
  • hidden history behind executive power
• A historical arc that begins with Nixon and follows the rise of modern presidential maximalism up to Trump.

Credits and Listening Info

• Hosted by David Sirota
• Produced by The Lever
• The New Yorker introduces the episode and encourages listeners to follow the series on major podcast platforms.
• The episode closes by previewing that the next installment will continue tracking how Nixon-era ideas helped shape the modern presidency.