The Government's Branches: Executive Edition

This is PART ONE of the branch series. One branch each day for three days. Ever wondered what happened inside the Executive branch? This episode gives you the breakdown of all things president, vice president, executive office, and cabinet. Enjoy!

Transcript

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Hello everyone. Welcome back to Red, White, and You, a podcast dedicated to informing the public about our American history and civics in an accessible, digestible way, because let's be honest, we all need a little bit of a refresher course. I'm your host, Evan Hyman Muchnik, and today we will be covering a branch, but not from a tree, from our American government surprise. And this will be part of a three-day series of new podcast episodes every day of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Everything you need to know, 10 to 15 minutes a day. Basically a Duolingo Streak, Civics Edition. Let's get fluent and executive branch. Welcome to the pod. In this branch, there are four major components or players. Number one, we have the president. Then we have the vice president, who we talked about. Number three, we have the executive office of the president, and finally, the cabinet. Starting with the president, this person serves as the main face vogue cover of our government. The constitution lists only three qualifications for the presidency. A, the presidency the president must be 35. B, they must be a natural-born citizen. And C, they must have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years. They're also the most powerful person in the American government. Now wait, you might be like, Evan, what the freak? I thought Congress was the most powerful part of the American government. And you're right. And I know you're right because I know that you have been listening to these episodes religiously and expanding your brain and knowledge. What I mean, though, to clarify, is that the presidency, the president is the most powerful single person. Their power doesn't outweigh bodies of people like the legislative branch or Congress. But singul singularly, if we broke everyone up into one-person jobs, the president would have the most things to do. And this is really important to know, especially right now, that the president is does not have more power than Congress. The president is just a single person. Let's let's chill out. Um, and what are these things to do that the president has to do? You may be asking, let me tell you, um, they are the head of the executive branch, so they oversee federal agencies, which we'll talk about in a sec. Um, they issue, they can issue executive orders to manage operations, and they can appoint key officials. And these key officials have a lot of range. The US president appoints over 4,000 people to key government positions, and about 1,200 of those require Senate confirmation, hashtag, checks and balances. We love to see it. Um, some key appointments include Supreme Court justices, federal judges, cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, military officers, and heads of independent agencies like the EPA, which is environmental protection agency, just all about um environment vibes. It operates under an appointed by the president administrator and focuses on enforcing environmental laws, conducts research about the environment, and sets regulations for air, water, and land quality. So presidency vibes. Um legislatively, uh the the president can sign bills into law or veto them. They can propose legislation, they can submit an annual budget to Congress, but Congress has to approve this budget, and we saw what happens when they don't recently with the government shut down in October 2025. Also, the president has a duty to uphold and enforce the laws created by Congress. So if the president is breaking the law, they are being a bad president. This sounds simple, but I think it's important to emphasize. In regards to foreign policy, the president acts as the nation's top diplomat. The president's the president will negotiate treaties and appoint ambassadors and just make sure that we're not always fighting with other countries. Also, the president runs the military pretty much. As commander-in-chief, the president oversees the U.S. Armed Forces. This means Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and the Space Force, which is cool. Um, all of that is under the president's rule. But there are, of course, other people that are very significant in running these parts of government. Finally, the president has the power to grant reprieves and pardons for federal crimes, but these powers exclude impeachment cases. So we saw this recently: this power of pardoning, as Trump has pardoned numerous January 6th insurrectionists. Um, moving on to the vice president, a professional Robin, one might say. I wonder who said that. Oh, it was me in the last podcast episode. Um, they are really the right-hand man or woman. Shout out Kamala Harris. And we really went in depth last episode about this role, so I'll keep it short. The vice president is the president of the Senate, and they also take over the presidency if the president dies, resigns, or is removed. Um, and ja. Next we have the executive office of the president. Now, what is this? You may be wondering. Well, it all started in 1939 when FDR was like, the president needs help, I need help, I need support. The vice president just wasn't enough. And this was because the government really expanded quite a lot during his New Deal. So he created this executive office. And by the way, the president doesn't need Senate confirmation for most of the positions in these offices. But as I said, most of the positions, not all, an exception, once again, who knew? Uh, positions like the Office of Management and Budget Director and U.S. trade representatives need to be confirmed by the Senate. And the executive office is made up of several offices, duh, and councils. Some of the most important include the White House office, which is the president's closest advisors. So that's like chief of staff, the press secretary, etc. Um, we have the Office of Management and Budget, which prepares the federal budget, surprise. The National Security Council, which advises on foreign policy and national security, the Council of Economic Advisors, which advises on economic policy. Again, what a surprise. And the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which handles trade negotiations. So a lot of advising, a lot of handling. Um, and there are also several, several others. It really just depends on the administration. Then we have the cabinet, which is similar to the executive office of the president, except they need to be confirmed by the Senate. And they advise the president on policy and they lead major federal agencies. The cabinet is not mentioned by name in the constitution, but it's based on Article II, um, which allows the president to seek advice from department heads. So the founding fathers, they were like, look, like we're giving a lot of power to this president, and we don't want just the president to be drowning in work, not knowing where to look. So let's get some advice. So always look for advice, I guess. And the executive branch shows that. Um, the cabinet includes the vice president and the heads of 15 executive departments. So let's do a quick, quick rundown, a quick list off of these departments. We have number one, Department of State, which handles foreign affairs and diplomacy. Number two, Department of the Treasure Treasury, which manages government revenue, taxes, and finances. Number three, Department of Defense oversees the military. Number four, Department of Justice, um, enforces federal law and includes the FBI. Number five, Department of the Interior, which manages public lands and natural resources. Number six, Department of Agriculture oversees farming and food programs. Number seven, Department of Commerce promotes economic growth and trade. Number eight, Department of Labor protects workers and labor laws. Number nine, the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees public health and social services. Number 10, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Handels, Housing and Urban Development. Number 11, Department of Transportation, which manages national transportation systems. Number 12, Department of Energy, which oversees energy policy and nuclear safety. Number 13, Department of Education, which administers federal education programs like public schools. Um, number 14, Department of Veterans Affairs, provides service to military veterans. And number 15, which is probably the department that's been in the news the most, um, is the Department of Homeland Security, which handles national security and disaster response. And boom, that's the executive branch. Proud of you guys. We made it through part one. Um, quick recap in case you missed anything, we have the president, who's the big boss, the vice president, who's the right-hand man, right-hand man or woman, the executive office of the president, which is advisors that most of the time don't have to be confirmed by the Senate, and then the cabinet, which are the official advisors that run their own departments and that need to be confirmed by the Senate. All right. So I want to start this thing after each podcast episode, where I give you all some questions to consider at the end of each episode. Kind of just give you some provoking questions to see how these, all of this knowledge is relevant, especially right now. Um, so number one, our questions for today. Uh, should the United States Electoral College still decide presidential elections? Is it truly representative? This is kind of a throwback to when we talked about voting in electoral colleges, but I think it's just an interesting thing to think about. Like, um, when we're looking at the president who has so much power and who gets to appoint all of these people, even though they need Senate confirmation, that's still a really big job. And we want to make sure that it is the most democratic way possible that we are getting this, that we are electing this person. So interesting. Uh, number two, are executive orders a necessary tool or are they just a way to bypass democracy, bypass checks and balances? We see Trump using all of these executive orders recently. And does this seem right? Does this seem balanced? What do you think? And lastly, where do we draw the line on Trump's unconstitutional actions? Because, like I said earlier, the tr the president has a duty to uphold the laws passed by Congress and uphold the constitution, as does any elected governmental official. So where do we go when when we look at Donald Trump's President Trump's actions in the past in his past term? We're looking at multiple, multiple sketchy, uh, could it be unconstitutional actions? And I just think it's really important to look at that, just to notice it, to see does this follow what the constitution outlined for the executive branch? Is he doing right by the presidency, by America? Um, and on that note, let us end this podcast episode. I will see you when I see you, which will be tomorrow. And thank you so much for listening. Have the best day. Come back for the next episode of Red, White, and You. Bye.