That&#x27;s the theory of the Unitary Executive, made famous by Bush&#x27;s OLC head John Yoo.<p>But there are statutes that delegate powers directly to agency heads and cabinet members, and not to the President, others that expressly limit the President&#x27;s authority over agencies, and there are independent agencies that the President can appoint people to but cannot directly control --- despite residing in the Executive Branch.<p>Also, the Constitution gives Congress the authority to vest the appointment of &quot;public ministers, consuls, and all other officers of the United States&quot; directly to the heads of departments, explicitly bypassing the President, who is mentioned earlier in that sentence of the text.<p>Ultimately I think you&#x27;re mostly right in one sense, and the President has so much authority over the DOJ that resignation is the only real authority the AG has --- which explains things like the Saturday Night Massacre --- but that the day-to-day authority of the AG and the leverage they have over the President by threatening to resign makes the balance of power here tricky.<p>Again: John Ashcroft thwarted not just Bush but the real President at the time, Dick Cheney; so far as we know, he didn&#x27;t threaten to resign in protest, but rather just refused to authorize STELLARWIND. And, unlike the Saturday Night Massacre, Bush&#x27;s party controlled Congress, and was not hostile to what he was trying to do.