Dick Cheney’s Expansive Vision of Presidential Power Lives on in Trump’s Agenda

Dick Cheney Started All Of This

The former vice president lived long enough to see his vision fulfilled — and to regret the monster he created.

Dick Cheney’s expansive vision of presidential power lives on in Trump’s agenda

Vice President Dick Cheney appears at a Washington D.C., event in 2007. AP Photo/Charles DharapakThis is an updated version of a story that first published on Oct. 7, 2025. Former Vice President Dick Cheney will be remembered for many things. He was arguably the most powerful vice president in American history. He was a paragon of conservatism. He was the architect of many of the more extreme measures in President George W. Bush’s “war on terror…

Trump’s imperial presidency is Dick Cheney’s final legacy

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney in 2011. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s final political act was also his most admirable. Warning that then-candidate Donald Trump “can never be trusted with power again,” Cheney, a Republican, urged 2024 voters to elect Trump’s Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, as president — a rare example of a prominent political leader placing principle over party. Yet…

From Executive Overreach to Undeclared Wars, We Are Living in the World Cheney Made

Dick Cheney, former VP and Iraq War architect, is responsible for much of the current US executive culture, from unchecked power to undeclared wars.

How Cheney's Presidential Power Push Paved the Way for Trump to Go Further

(News Analysis)

Dick Cheney’s Expansive Vision of Presidential Power Lives on in Trump’s Agenda

Former Vice President Dick Cheney will be remembered for many things. He was arguably the most powerful vice president in American history. He was a paragon of conservatism. He was the architect of many of the more extreme measures in President George W. Bush’s “war on terror.” But Cheney’s legacy, after his death on Nov. 4, 2025, will also include a crucial development that dates back a half-century, when he served as President Gerald Ford’s ch…