Donald Trump has done what presidents of the United States have actively declined to challenge in the past – and it could greatly expand his power, experts say.

Trump’s second term in office has already been marked with a flurry of executive orders being signed, including renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, tax tariffs on Canada and China, and one targeting transgender women in sports.

Earlier this month, the father-of-five also signed orders to end Covid-19 vaccine mandates in schools, eliminating the procurement of paper straws and creating a new White House Faith Office to replace the ‘White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives’.

Donald Trump has signed a slew of executive orders since resuming office (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

On Tuesday (February 18), President Trump, 78, signed his latest executive order to bring notoriously independent agencies under the White House’s control.

How the executive order would affect independent agencies

This now means all agencies – such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – must submit draft regulations for the president to review instead of just giving them the green light themselves.

They must also consult with politicians on their ‘priorities and strategic plans’.

It’s also stipulated that there will be ‘no carve-out’ for the former independent agencies. The only exemption to this rule is the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy functions.

The order states that all executive branch officials and employees are now subject to Trump’s supervision and that the Office of Management and Budget will ensure tax dollars are being ‘spent wisely’.

“The President and the Attorney General (subject to the President’s supervision and control) will interpret the law for the executive branch, instead of having separate agencies adopt conflicting interpretations,” the order continues.

The FTC, the SEC, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are the three former independent agencies named in the document.

Trump claims they have all previously ‘exercised enormous power over the American people without Presidential oversight’.

The executive order alleges that this trio have issued rules and regulations that cost the country billions of dollars in the past and that they will ‘no longer impose rules on the American people without oversight or accountability’.

According to the writ, executive power has ‘no place’ in the United States.

Independent agencies must now report to the White House (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

“Executive power without responsibility has no place in our Republic. The United States was founded on the principle that the government should be accountable to the people,” the order reads.

“That is why the Founders created a single President who is alone vested with ‘the executive Power’ and responsibility to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’.”

According to Politico, it will now be up to Russell Vought – acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – to ‘establish performance standards and management objectives’ for the heads of the independent agencies’.

It’s said that he will ‘report periodically to the president’ on the agencies’ performance and efficiency while making ‘necessary and appropriate’ changes to the agencies’ budgets.

This will all be completed in line with the advancement of the President’s ‘policies and priorities’.

How the executive order could make Trump one of the most powerful presidents in history

By ‘reigning in’ and intruding on the independent agencies, Trump has greatly expanded his power as the 47th President of the United States, says Politico.

He is also breaking the mould, as former leaders like Barack Obama have not only declined to challenge the independent nature of the FTC, the SEC and the FCC in the past but have actively tried to avoid the appearance of interference.

The publication claims that some leaders of the independent agencies – who will now have to report to Trump – have lasted longer in office than actual presidents.

This is reportedly in an effort to ‘help shield them from political pressure’.

The White House has made a controversial new change to who can report on President Trump.

For decades, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) has been responsible for creating a pool of journalists and news organizations that were able to access the president for press purposes.

But this is all set to change as the White House will now decide which news outlets can regularly cover the POTUS.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the changes would rotate traditional outlets from the group and include some streaming services.

She cast the change as a modernization of the press pool, saying the move would be more inclusive and restore ‘access back to the American people’ who elected Trump.

“Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team,” Leavitt said at a daily briefing yesterday (February 25).

“A select group of DC-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House.”

Her announcement came after the Trump administration won a temporary ruling that prohibits Associated Press (AP) from accessing many presidential events as a result of the news outlet refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its new name, Gulf of America.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the announcement yesterday (NBC News)

After being banned from the events, AP sued Leavitt and two other White House officials, citing the First Amendment.

But US District Judge Trevor N McFadden said that AP had not demonstrated it had suffered irreparable harm.

He urged the Trump administration to reconsider its two-week-old ban, however, saying that case law in the circuit ‘is uniformly unhelpful to the White House’.

Judge McFadden’s decision is only temporary, and he told lawyers for the Trump administration and the AP that the issue required more exploration before ruling.

Another hearing was scheduled for late March.

The Trump administration took issue with AP for not calling the Gulf of Mexico by its new name (LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The WHCA has since reacted to the White House’s plans to take over its job to create a press pool — and it’s safe to say it’s not in favor of the change.

The organization’s president, Eugene Daniels, said, as per The Guardian: “It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.

“For generations, the working journalists elected to lead the White House Correspondents’ Association board have consistently expanded the WHCA’s membership and its pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets.”

It seems the Trump administration is in no hurry to make friends with America’s neighboring countries.

In less than two weeks of being back in office, President Trump has made an influx of amendments to the way the US is run.

From changes to passports and immigration to transgender people no longer being allowed to serve in the armed forces, Trump broke records for the number of executive orders signed on his first day as president.

President Trump’s thought to have signed hundreds of executive orders already (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Arguably one of his most controversial orders was to have the Gulf of Mexico renamed to the Gulf of America; which Google officially changed on its maps for US users earlier this week.

Now the Trump administration has stuck to its word in regards to its plans to bring in higher tariff imports on countries like China, Canada and Mexico – with the hiked percentages coming into force today (February 1).

For Mexico and Canada, import tariffs are now at 25 percent, while there’s 10 percent tariffs on goods from China.

Why has Trump imposed the tariffs?

President Trump had been threatening the tariffs to ensure greater cooperation from the countries on stopping illegal immigration and the smuggling of chemicals used for fentanyl, but he has also pledged to use tariffs to boost domestic manufacturing.

“Starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday (January 31).

“These are promises made and promises kept by the president.”

Canada, Mexico and China’s response to the tariffs

As you can imagine, the new changes haven’t gone down well with Canadian, Mexican and Chinese officials.

Both Canada and Mexico have said they have prepared the option of retaliatory tariffs to be used if necessary.

“We’re ready with a response, a purposeful, forceful but reasonable, immediate response,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of the hiked tariffs coming into force.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada’s ready to respond to the change (Attila Husejnow/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Elsewhere, Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, insisted that ‘there is no winner in a trade war or tariff war’ like the one Trump is starting.

During a press briefing on Friday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said: “We have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, depending on what the government of the United States decides. It is very important for the people of Mexico to know that we will always defend the dignity of our people, that we will always defend respect for our sovereignty, and engage in dialogue as equals, as we have always stated, without subordination.”

Meanwhile, a study conducted this month by Warwick McKibbin and Marcus Noland, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, found the 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10 percent tariffs on China ‘would damage all the economies involved, including the US’.

“For Mexico, a 25 percent tariff would be catastrophic,” the study said.

“Moreover, the economic decline caused by the tariff could increase the incentives for Mexican immigrants to cross the border illegally into the US – directly contradicting another Trump administration priority.”

American investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett has spoken out ahead of Donald Trump’s tarriffs coming into effect.

At midnight tonight (March 4), Donald Trump‘s 25 percent tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico and 20 percent on China are set to be imposed.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has hit out at the order, imploring the US to reconsider alongside the country issuing its own counter-tariffs too.

And Chairman and CEO of multi-industry holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, has since weighed in on how the tariffs could impact the economy.

Despite pausing the introduction of the tariffs for 30 days, the US is set to move forward with ‘imposing 25 percent tariffs on Canadian exports and 10 percent tariffs on Canadian energy’ as part of its ‘bold action to hold Mexico, Canada, and China accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into [the] country’.

During an appearance on CBS Sunday Morning with Senior Correspondent Norah O’Donnell, Buffett reflected on the ‘state of the economy’, noting he believes it’s ‘the most interesting subject in the world’.

Despite Buffett saying he ‘won’t talk’ or ‘can’t talk about it now’, when questioned how he thinks ‘tariffs will affect the economy’ Buffett reflected the US has ‘actually’ ‘had a lot of experience with them’ and he considers them ‘an act of war to some degree’.

And how could the tariffs impact inflation?

Donald Trump is set to go ahead with imposing tariffs on Canada (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

Well, Canadian President Trudeau released a statement earlier today (March 4) vowing Canada will ‘not let this unjustified decision go unanswered’ and should the tariffs ‘come into effect tonight’, the country will be responding with its own ’25 percent tariffs against $155 billion of American goods’ ‘effective 11.01am EST tomorrow’.

The tariffs being imposed by Canada on the US will begin with ‘tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods immediately, and tariffs on the remaining $125 billion on American products in 21 days’ time,’ Trudeau warned.

And the tariffs will ‘remain in place’ until ‘the US trade action is withdrawn’.

Buffett continued: “Over time they’re a tax on goods. […] The Tooth Fairy doesn’t pay them. And see you always have to just… And then what?

“You always have to ask that question in economics – ‘And then what?'”

Warren Buffett has weighed in on the tariffs (CBS Sunday Morning)

He added: “Technology changes, all kinds of things, but Washington is Washington and the problem with politics is that you tend to have to make tiny compromises as you go along.”

O’Donnell then questioned Buffett’s thoughts on Elon Musk cutting costs as part of him working with Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.