CNN – no paywall: “The deal that President Donald Trump reached with his own administration to set-up an “anti-weaponization fund” for his allies is the latest example of how his second stint in the White House has focused on undermining checks on presidential power and insulating himself from future investigations. The agreement highlights the new hurdles Trump is erecting that that could stymie probes by congressional Democrats, successor administrations and even authorities outside the federal government. On several fronts, Trump is dismantling post-Watergate transparency mandates, attacking Congress’ power of the purse, rewarding loyalists accused of committing crimes that support his causes, and assaulting independent agencies and executive branch watchdogs. Trump has done so by capitalizing on and accelerating an expansion of presidential power embraced by the conservative Supreme Court, and by blowing through norms and political gravity that reined in other presidents, former government attorneys and constitutional scholars told CNN. When Congress in the 1970s passed constraints on the presidency in response to the scandals of the Richard Nixon administration, courts at the time backed those laws. “What we’ve now seen is this dramatic pendulum swing in favor of just more executive power that’s consolidated within the president himself, that’s no longer dispersed,” said University of Southern California Gould School of Law Professor Adam Zimmerman. “We also see someone who’s willing to use that power to push that power to the limit.” The latest gambit – a controversial agreement arising from a legally dubious lawsuit Trump brought against the IRS – is more sweeping in its protections for the president than initially reported. Its language could shield Trump from more than just tax-related probes. And the broad criteria for whom could benefit from the nearly $1.8 billion fund could incentivize individuals to not comply with congressional investigations into the president…”