Trump vows to put federal bureaucrats 'back in their place,' establish civil service exam

Former President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to rein in unelected federal bureaucrats and to tighten oversight of regulatory agencies to prevent them from becoming a "fourth branch of government."

Trump made the remarks as part of his Agenda47 video series in which he has begun to articulate his policies across issues in detail.

"As I work to quickly save America from Joe Biden's 'economic disaster'... I will restore my famously successful executive order requiring that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated and I will ask Congress to make it permanent," he said.

"We will again implement a regulatory budget, putting a hard cap on the costs of regulations to the U.S. economy," he went on. "Instead of growing the size and scope of the federal government... we will shrink it every year with aggressive cost reduction targets for each federal department."

He further proposed the creation of a federal database in which all agencies must post their regulatory guidance publicly so as to eliminate so-called "stealth regulations and threats." Trump also proposed barring federal bureaucrats from taking actions on the basis of informal guidance alone.

"I will bring the independent regulatory agencies... back under presidential authority as the Constitution demands. These agencies do not get to become a fourth branch of government issuing rules and edicts all by themselves," he continued.

Trump then returned to his idea of developing "freedom cities," and vowed to create a regulatory framework for their creation and operation.

"I will require every federal employee to pass a new civil service test demonstrating an understanding of our constitutional, limited government. This will include command of due process rights, equal protection, free speech, religious liberty, federalism, the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure... and all other constitutional limits on federal power."

"We will put unelected federal bureaucrats back in the place," he declared.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.