The directives bore
Trump's name, but another man's fingerprints were also on
nearly all of them: Jeff Sessions. The early days of the Trump presidency have rushed a
nationalist agenda long on the fringes of American life into
action--and Sessions, the quiet Alabamian who long cultivated
those ideas as a Senate backbencher, has become a singular
power in this new Washington. Sessions' ideology is driven by
a visceral aversion to what he calls ``soulless globalism,''
a term used on the extreme right to convey a perceived threat
to the United States from free trade, international alliances
and the immigration of nonwhites. And despite many reservations among Republicans about that
world view, Sessions--whose 1986 nomination for a federal
judgeship was doomed by accusations of racism that he
denied--is finding little resistance in Congress to his
proposed role as Trump's attorney general. Sessions' nomination is scheduled to be voted on Tuesday by
the Senate Judiciary Committee, but his influence in the
administration stretches far beyond the Justice Department. From immigration and health care to national security and
trade, Sessions is the intellectual godfather of the
President's policies. His reach extends throughout the White
House with his aides and allies accelerating the president's
most dramatic moves, including the ban on refugees and
citizens from seven mostly Muslim nations that has triggered
fear around the globe. The tactician turning Trump's agenda into law is deputy
chief of staff Rick Dearborn, Sessions' long time chief of
staff in the Senate. The mastermind behind Trump's incendiary
brand of populism is chief strategist Stephen K.
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