Brian took a few days off, so we're revisiting a report from this past July which is even more relevent as the Trump administration takes shape: Would the Founding Fathers Have Embraced Having Unfettered Power for the Presidency? Not Likely. Anti-authoritarian feelings ran high in the years before and after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, as the Declaration’s litany of complaints against the King suggests. So it’s unlikely the founding fathers would have supported expansion of Presidential powers, and absolute immunity for “official acts.”