Trumpism is officially the new fourth branch of government

Who exactly is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)? Yes, she is a member of the House of Representatives from Georgia serving her second term. She is also one of the few people so far who has done at least much or even more damage to Ukraine than the soldiers in Russia’s invasion force by refusing to allow aid to flow to that besieged country.  

Whether she is a “useful idiot” in blindly supporting Russia or playing a more sinister role is unknowable.

Greene is also the source of an unusually large number of conspiracy theories from “Jewish space lasers” to a child trafficking pizza parlor. She has told a well-respected British journalist “to f…k off”  in an interview. And she told British Foreign and former Prime Minister Lord David Cameron to “kiss my ass.” One wonders if that would be accomplished in the Capitol Rotunda or perhaps in the Oval Office depending on who wins the next election.

But, in fact, Greene’s real role is as lead hit woman for Donald Trump in the vanguard of an imaginary, unconstitutional and dangerous fourth branch of government that is dominating the other three. This is the Trump branch. And it wields more raw power than the legislative, judicial and executive branches combined.

Trump has a whim and the Senate compromise bill on funding the border, Ukraine and Israel evaporates in a micro-second. One of the Senate’s most senior and long-standing leaders of his party, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), expresses a disagreement with Trump and he is politically toast, exiled to a Republican Siberia. Congress wants to and must extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act but waits for  Trump’s blessing.

A majority of members of Congress recognize the need to support Ukraine at a time when the war is hanging in the balance. Trump has given Marie Antoinette’s response to “let them eat cake”: Ukraine can cede Crimea, Donbas and Luhansk to Russia and the war ends happily. But does it?

The question is not so much how did we get here.  The question is why no one is alert to the emergence of an all-powerful fourth branch. Oh and about the judiciary: Who appointed the majority that seems destined to follow the great leader’s every wish? 

Indeed, Trump has had the good luck or divine intervention of having one of his appointees, a very junior judge, preside over the classified materials case in Florida. Will it be any surprise if that case is dismissed or deferred indefinitely?

FDR was accused of being a dictator. So was Andrew Jackson. Compared with Trump, both were minor leaguers. At no time in America’s history has anyone outside the government had such power with the possible exception of J. P. Morgan when he bailed the country out of the financial crisis of 1907. However, it was a one-shot affair. Now what will happen if Trump wins or loses the election? One can make the argument that his power may only increase.

Speculation about a second Trump administration is rife with predictions of calamity and chaos. Trump is a good learner. And he learned in his first term how to be an even more authoritative leader in a second. While The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 does not speak for Trump, many of its authors served or supported Trump the first time around, and no doubt, would become part of a Trump II regime.

With heavy hitters such as Greene spreading the most malicious, nonsensical and dangerous messages, along with deceptive “deepfake” AI videos and a complete disregard for truth, facts or reality, the Trump branch of government will become supercharged if it takes over the executive. With the Supreme Court in his pocket and no need to control the remaining legislature, it is not difficult to imagine less-than-happy outcomes. Still, his supporters will be in denial about how the Trump branch has managed a silent coup.

If Trump loses, he still will be in charge of his party and 2028 will not be out of the question. After all, the Donald will only be Biden’s age then — 81. If healthy and dynamic, perhaps the Trump branch will find that the third time brings luck.

What is so extraordinary is, that if this column were written in 2021, it would be dismissed as delusional. Today, it may actually be prescient.

Harlan Ullman Ph.D. is a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council and the prime author of the “shock and awe” military doctrine. His 12th book, “The Fifth Horseman and the New MAD: How Massive Attacks of Disruption Became the Looming Existential Danger to a Divided Nation and the World at Large,” is available on Amazon. He can be reached on Twitter @harlankullman.