Previewing Tuesday’s State of the Union address, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer pledged that, if necessary, the president will bypass Congress and take executive action to enact his agenda in the coming year.
“If Congress doesn’t act, the president will,” Pfeiffer told Fox News’s Chris Wallace on Sunday. The American people, he said, want to see “progress” whether it comes from Congress “or from the president on his own.”
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Pfeiffer recently sent a three-page memo to the president, which has been discussed in the West Wing, urging him to distance himself from Congress, where his legislation has been stymied, and to use “the pen and the phone” to enact policy, including a climate action plan. He will also look to engage the public directly, traveling the country to stump for his legislative priorities.