The line-item veto, which allows presidents to veto specific parts of a bill, is currently a constitutional power of the president.

What is the primary role of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the executive branch?

Many bureaucrats have employment protections and serve through multiple presidential administrations, making it more difficult for the president to control and discipline them.

While presidents may sometimes talk about bureaucratic reorganization in terms of reducing waste and increasing efficiency, the goal may be to increase presidential control in service of political aims.

Ambassadorships are sometimes given as patronage appointments to reward political supporters.

Congress might sometimes pass bills specifically to compel the president to veto them, making the president look extreme to the public.

Because only Congress has appropriations powers, Donald Trump was left without any options to increase border wall funding beyond the limited amount that Congress had already explicitly allocated for that purpose.

The doctrine of acquiescence suggests that Congress’s silence on presidential actions implies approval of those actions, such as executive orders.

The two-presidencies thesis posits that presidents are:

Presidents may in limited circumstances exercise “ex post” budget influence by reallocating federal funds after legislation has already passed.