Former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young has issued a stark warning about the deep institutional damage she says is being inflicted under the current Trump administration — and what it will take to repair it.
Speaking on MSNBC’s The Weekend, Young said the next Democratic president will need to “take a page out of the book we’re seeing now” in order to rebuild a government “after its desecration.”
“The next Democratic president will have to take a page out of the book we’re seeing being written now,” Young said. “To rebuild a government after its desecration, one will have to move quickly. Four years goes quickly — trust me.”
Young, who served as OMB Director under President Joe Biden, reflected on her years managing federal agencies and overseeing budgets during periods of political chaos. Her comments come amid growing concerns about the Trump administration’s handling of the ongoing government shutdown and its increasingly aggressive use of executive power.
“These things that we thought were laws that turned out to be norms — that Congress or the courts don’t care about — guess what? A Democratic president is going to use some of these tools to operate and to rebuild a government,” she said, adding it is bad for America.
Young’s tone was somber as she described a system in which the balance of power between the executive branch and other institutions has eroded, leaving future leaders with few choices but to operate within a broken framework.
“It’s not good for the country,” she said. “It’s not good for our foreign policy. When one president comes in and has a completely different philosophy than another president, how can our allies trust where we are as a country?”
The former budget chief, now a lecturer teaching about the structure of the executive branch, said her students are grappling with the same question — what happens when presidential norms collapse and courts, especially the Supreme Court, allow it to happen?
“But what do we think happens when these things are torn down,” she asked, “and the courts, frankly — not the lower courts, but the Supreme Court — have let these things come to bear?”
Young’s remarks underscore a growing anxiety among former officials and scholars about what they describe as “executive overreach” and “norm erosion.” Her message was not just a critique but a cautionary tale — one aimed squarely at both parties.
As the country faces prolonged gridlock and political polarization, Young’s warning suggests that the next administration, regardless of party, will face the monumental task of rebuilding public trust in government institutions — while resisting the temptation to wield power as bluntly as those before them.
