Democracy's Chief Executive

About Democracy's Chief Executive

Donald Trump says he knows nothing about Project 2025. Yet the Heritage Foundation and its collaborators call it "the Presidential Transition Project." In "Project 2025: Revealed!"--season 3 of "Democracy's Chief Executive: The Podcast--Peter Shane and Dale Russakoff explore Project 2025's ambitious right-wing agenda and recruiting effort, designed to empower a hoped-for, but unnamed “next conservative president.” Experts on education, reproductive rights, immigration, the environment, DEI, labor, and much else answer Peter and Dale's questions about the Project's overall ideology and specific

Publisher

Peter M. Shane

Category

government

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

10 Feb 2023

Latest episode

23 Jun 2025

Latest episodes

16 of 34 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   23 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Broken Law x Democracy's Chief Executive - Turning Checks and Balances Upside Down

   Peter Shane and Lindsay Langholz analyze President Trump's unprecedented flexing of executive authority over independent agencies and its implications for checks and balances in this interview.

2. 

   25 Oct 2024TRANSCRIPT

   Project 2025: The Rule of Law or Retribution?

   Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection(ICAP) and Visiting Professor of Law at theGeorgetown University Law Center, discusses with Peter Project 2025’s dangerous vision of a deeply politicized Justice Department acting in lockstep with a president bent on punishing his adversaries. She also explains why such a president is now likely freed of criminal liability for corruption in supervising the Justice Department (or the IRS or the CIA or . . .), given the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision in Trump v. United States.

3. 

   23 Oct 2024TRANSCRIPT

   Project 2025: A Tax Plan to Help the Wealthy and Burden the Middle Class

   Brendan Duke, senior director for economic policy at American Progress, explains to Peter the likely burdens on middle-income and lower-income families if Congress were to enact the near-term and longer-term/fundamental tax reform programs recommended by Project 2025. (As a bonus, he even explains tariffs!)

Inside a recent episode

Broken Law x Democracy's Chief Executive - Turning Checks and Balances Upside Down

Published 23 Jun 2025 · Transcript excerpt

[…] But these agencies are created by Congress, and their job is mainly to do, you know, what Congress tells them to do. So, fine. The president, you know, has executive power during these executive departments. How do these executive departments function? Congress has the power under Article one to make all laws, I want to say all laws, I'm quoting all laws, necessary and proper for carrying into execution any power, any power, that's italicized also, that the constitution vests in the government of the United States or any, any department or officer thereof. It's been left to Congress to design these agencies. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 56 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

73

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

96

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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