The First 100 Days of a Nicholas Gluba Presidency: What the Record Suggests

Photo: Diego Delso/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 The record and the scenario

Nicholas Gluba is the Libertarian Party's 2026 candidate for Governor of Iowa — though the ballot itself has been the campaign's fiercest fight. A lifelong Iowan born in Iowa City and raised on a cattle ranch and pig farm near Williamsburg, he joined the United States Marine Corps after high school and served as an infantryman in Iraq, per the Libertarian Party's candidate page. He has served as a city council member in Lone Tree (Johnson County), and was the Libertarian candidate for Congress in Iowa's 1st Congressional District in 2024 — a race he ultimately ran as a write-in after a state panel removed the Libertarian candidates over the party's convention procedures.

The 2026 gubernatorial campaign has carried that fight forward. Gluba says he submitted 8,300 nominating petitions; the Secretary of State's Office refused to accept the Libertarian convention certificates, and Gluba and fellow Libertarians filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in Polk County District Court to compel placement on the ballot. He has framed the episode in structural terms: “We have a party that is actively suppressing Iowa's ability to choose. What we need to do is suppress their ability to suppress us.” He continued campaigning regardless, appearing at the Iowa State Fair Political Soapbox in August 2026 to lay out his priorities: restoring election integrity, overhauling property tax policy, ending eminent domain abuse, and improving both Iowa education and water quality.

The philosophy underneath is consistent across every interview: a small government that cannot dictate the lives of citizens, strong individual and property rights, and a live-and-let-live social rule. “If you're at home or on your own property, you should be free to do what makes you happy, so long as it doesn't harm your neighbor,” he told The News (Iowa). He describes himself as proof that Libertarians are not “Democrats that want guns” or “Republicans that want weed”: fiscally conservative — lower taxes, smaller federal government — while supporting LGBTQ+ rights and access to abortion.

This article does not predict that Nicholas Gluba will become president. It examines how the individual's documented positions and record could translate into executive priorities if placed in presidential office.

Analysis — not prediction. N43 and Hermes AI grounds every scenario in the documented record as of September 21, 2026; where evidence is incomplete we say so.

02 Day One: what a president could do alone

Gluba's record is unusually self-aware about the presidency, because he has spent two years arguing that the office has grown too strong for anyone's comfort. “The executive branch has too much power, whether that's by the (International) Emergency Economic Powers Act or whether that's by executive order,” he said at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox in 2024. “That effectively makes the president of the United States a king. We fought against a king back in 1776. We don't need to do it again.” The first honest observation about a hypothetical Gluba presidency is therefore paradoxical: the record gives a clear view of what he would do with executive power, and simultaneously a stated intention to shrink that same power.

Likely Day-One Actions (unilateral)

• AI-surveillance directives. He has “focused heavily on removing AI-powered camera systems, such as Flock cameras and automatic license plate readers, because I believe they violate Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless searches and seizures.” The presidential translation is direct: an executive order imposing warrant requirements on federal access to plate-reader and camera-network data, an inventory of federal AI-surveillance programs, and conditions on the grant streams that fund state and local networks.
• An executive-power rollback order. His stated desire to rebalance the branches — “so nobody has to be absolutely terrified of who wins the executive branch” — points to Day One directives rescinding or narrowing prior emergency-authority uses and tightening internal review of executive orders, within the office's own procedures.
• Veterans' care directives. He has argued veterans' health care should be incorporated into the broader health care system, that older veterans should be exempt from Medicare deductibles, that mental-health access for veterans needs expansion, and that prescription access is “so far the only good thing” in VA health care. Much of this can begin as VA guidance within existing authority.
• Eminent-domain review. His most consistent issue — ending eminent domain for private projects like carbon sequestration pipelines — binds federal agencies and federal permits through executive action; a Day One review of federal pipeline permitting where eminent domain is in the chain is the available step.

Actions the Candidate Could Not Do Alone

• Statutory limits on eminent domain — his anti-eminent-domain bill passed the Iowa House and Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Kim Reynolds; the federal equivalent is legislation, not an order.
• Dramatically reducing the size of the IRS, or targeting the ATF — the two agencies he named first when asked how he would shrink the federal government; both are creatures of statute and appropriations.
• Term limits for Supreme Court justices — he has said justices should serve 12 to 16 years “at the most” instead of life terms; that is a constitutional-level change Congress and the states would have to drive.
• Property tax overhaul — his signature tax issue is a state levy; a president has no property-tax authority at all.
• Balancing the branches as such — structural rebalancing beyond executive self-restraint requires Congress acting on itself and on the statutes that delegate power.

03 Days 2-30: reorienting the executive branch

Two agencies dominate the documented Gluba agenda: the ones he has named by name, in reverse order of constitutional difficulty. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Internal Revenue Service were his first targets when asked about shrinking the federal government, and the surveillance concern — Flock cameras, license plate readers — runs through DOJ, DHS and the grant-making apparatus in parallel.

• DOJ, DHS and the surveillance grant complex. Warrant requirements for federal access to plate-reader data; inventories of AI-camera programs; conditions on the federal funding behind state and local camera networks — the anti-commandeering-compliant route to his best-documented position.
• OMB and the IRS. A president can direct enforcement priorities and freeze hiring, but the agency's size is appropriations; the realistic first-month step is a spending-and-enforcement review, not abolition.
• VA. The veterans' health care positions — integrate with the broader system, exempt older veterans from Medicare deductibles, expand mental-health access — begin as directives and demonstration authorities inside existing law.
• Permitting agencies. Where federal pipeline and infrastructure permits intersect eminent domain for private projects, a Gluba theory of executive review is defensible; the statute itself is Congress's.

His personnel philosophy is implicit rather than published: the campaign's repeated framing — “a purely logical system of government that is small enough it cannot dictate the lives of citizens” — suggests appointees selected for restraint-mindedness over program-building. There is not enough public evidence to determine Gluba's approach to the State Department, the EPA, the Department of Energy or the intelligence community; this analysis flags the gap rather than filling it with the Libertarian Party's national platform, which is the party's document, not automatically his position.

04 Days 30-60: the first legislative package

Gluba has done something most minor-party candidates have not: he has pointed, twice, at actual bill text. The anti-eminent-domain bill — drafted by fellow Libertarian candidate Thomas Laehn in 2025, passed by the Iowa House and Senate, vetoed by Gov. Kim Reynolds — is his template, and he has said he would bring it back and be “the governor that says yes.” A federal legislative package would start there.

High evidence

• A federal anti-eminent-domain act. Prohibiting the use of eminent domain for private projects — the carbon sequestration pipeline being the reference case — is his most repeated position, backed by bill language that has already passed a legislature once. The federal analog restricts federal action and federally conditioned state action.
• A surveillance-privacy act. Statutory warrant requirements for government access to AI camera networks, plate readers and location data — the legislative companion to the Day One directives, and the version that binds state and local users through spending conditions.

Moderate evidence

• Branch-rebalancing statutes. He has named the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as an abuse vector; narrowing emergency economic powers is a plausible Gluba bill, though he has not published federal text.
• Veterans' health legislation. Integrating veterans' care into the broader health system and exempting older veterans from Medicare deductibles are stated positions awaiting a bill.
• IRS downsizing. “Dramatically reducing the size of the IRS” is a stated goal; the mechanism is appropriations law, which is Congress's to write.

Low evidence: a Gluba immigration bill, a Gluba trade bill, a Gluba climate bill — he has not detailed federal positions on any of these, and no such items are inferred here.

05 Days 60-100: where governing meets reality

The structural fact a Gluba presidency would run into first is the one he has diagnosed most accurately: the executive branch's power grew through decades of statutes delegating authority, and one administration cannot undelegate it. An executive-power rollback beyond the office's own house rules needs Congress to legislate against its own convenience — the same dynamic that has stalled national emergency reform for decades. His stated remedy for the presidency-as-king problem is, ironically, mostly a congressional project.

The surveillance agenda splits along the federalism line. A warrant requirement binds federal agencies from Day One; it reaches the state and local police who operate most of the camera networks only through conditional spending — waivable, litigable, and reversible. Rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act adds notice-and-comment years to any binding privacy rule. The eminent-domain bill has already demonstrated its own obstacle course at the state level: passed twice by the Iowa legislature, vetoed once, awaiting a federal version and a Congress willing to pass it.

What is genuinely fast: surveillance directives inside the executive branch, grant conditions, VA directives, and the symbolism of an administration that audits its own powers. What is years-long: the IRS and ATF question, judicial term limits, statutory eminent-domain limits, and anything approaching “armed neutrality” — reorienting foreign policy away from alliance commitments toward a defensive posture is a treaty-and-appropriations structure built over eighty years, not a 100-day project. A Gluba first 100 days would be an executive-branch self-audit plus a privacy directive, in front of a Congress that owns every structural item on his list.

06 The policy record in detail

Property Rights and Eminent Domain

His most documented position. He opposes eminent domain “abuse,” which he has called “rampant” in Iowa and nationally, specifically its use for private projects like the carbon sequestration pipeline; he champions the 2025 Laehn bill that passed both chambers of the Iowa legislature before Reynolds's veto. As a congressional candidate in 2024 he said his first act would be working with other representatives to eliminate eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines.

Civil Liberties and Surveillance

He has “focused heavily on removing AI-powered camera systems, such as Flock cameras and automatic license plate readers,” on Fourth Amendment grounds. He also opposes regulating abortion — the government should stay out of the matter — and frames Libertarian social policy as freedom so long as no one else is harmed. The opposition is specific and documented; a federal privacy program beyond it is not published.

Executive Power and Branch Rebalancing

He wants a rebalancing of federal powers because the executive has “unfairly” superseded the legislative and judicial branches and now “write[s] their own laws”; he has named the IEEPA and executive orders as abuse vectors and equated the modern presidency to “a king.” He has proposed 12-to-16-year terms instead of life tenure for Supreme Court justices.

Foreign Policy and Defense

As a Marine infantryman who served in Iraq (Afghanistan is also cited in one 2024 interview), he supports “armed neutrality” to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars. It is a posture, published but un-elaborated: no force-structure, alliance or budget detail accompanies it.

Fiscal Policy and Government Size

Fiscally conservative: lower taxes, smaller federal government, “trillions the federal government does not have to be saving.” He would start with the IRS and the ATF, end corporate bailouts, and let the free market decide who succeeds. His property-tax overhaul and data-center moratorium are state policies, and the data-center position is conditional: “I wouldn't have an issue with them if they generated their own power and didn't rely on eminent domain.”

Education

He lists “improving the quality of Iowa education” and “fixing the shattered education system” among his priorities, arguing that pro-hemp agricultural policy would replenish Iowa's soil while using less water and fewer pesticide applications. The detail is thin: a priority named, not a program published.

Veterans and Military Affairs

His stated positions: incorporate veterans' health care into the broader health care system, exempt older veterans from Medicare deductibles, expand mental-health access, and preserve prescription access — “so far the only good thing” in VA care.

Water Quality and Agriculture

A state-level “water clarity act” modeled on Minnesota's and Wisconsin's — expanded fines for illegal dumping and restrictions on pesticide application near open waterways, with the caveat that “pesticides are necessary” and spraying will not stop. State policy, not a federal program.

There is not enough public evidence to determine Gluba's position on immigration, trade, or federal technology regulation beyond surveillance. His ballot-access fight is documented but is an election-law position about voter choice, not a federal voting-rights program.

07 What could not happen alone — and what could

What President Gluba Could Not Do Alone

• Statutory limits on eminent domain for private projects — an act of Congress; the state template needed a legislature and a governor's signature.
• Dramatically reduce the IRS or abolish the ATF — both agencies rest on statute and appropriations.
• Impose 12-16 year terms on Supreme Court justices — life tenure is Article III; changing it is a constitutional project.
• Repeal or narrow the IEEPA and other emergency powers — Article I text and Congress's own prerogatives.
• Ban state and local camera networks by decree — anti-commandeering leaves only funding conditions.
• Move the country to “armed neutrality” — treaties, basing agreements and defense appropriations all run through Congress.
• Overhaul property taxes — a state levy; the presidency has no lever.
• Declare a moratorium on data centers — land use and utilities are state and local questions; a president reaches only federal siting and power marketing.
• Restore national “election integrity” by decree — election administration is mostly state law.

What Could Change Within 100 Days

• Executive warrant requirements for federal access to AI camera networks and plate-reader data.
• A public inventory of federal AI-surveillance programs and emergency-authority uses.
• Grant conditions on federal funding of state and local camera networks.
• VA directives on veterans' mental-health access, prescription access and deductible relief for older veterans, within existing authority.
• A federal-permitting review of pipeline projects involving eminent domain for private gain.

Potential Coalition Partners

The surveillance opposition has genuine cross-party energy — the same Flock-camera and license-plate-reader concern that Libertarians like Gluba and Donald Kissick and Eric Mulder have made central also draws civil-liberties Democrats and privacy-minded Republicans. Eminent-domain limits for private pipelines unite property-rights conservatives and environmental-justice progressives; the agricultural-water-quality piece pairs with farm-state conservation interests. Executive-power restraint is a cause with institutionalist allies on both sides of the Senate aisle. Veterans' care is close to consensus territory.

Areas of Likely Conflict

Appropriators and the appropriations-dependent agencies — the IRS and ATF targets are payroll and statute. Law-enforcement associations on surveillance limits. National-security hawks on “armed neutrality.” And the structural item itself: Congress acting to claw back its own delegated power has been a decades-long stalemate, and a president elected on that platform inherits the fight, not the outcome.

08 The 100-day scorecard and what the record tells us

The scorecard grades the documented record, and Gluba's is a Constitution-first record: the strongest evidence sits on eminent domain, the Fourth Amendment and the scope of executive power — areas where he has been specific, repeated and even legislative. The thin rows are the traditional presidency — immigration, trade, technology regulation — where the record is silent, and this analysis leaves them silent.

The paradox at the center of a Gluba presidency is that its best-documented theme is self-limitation. The candidate who says the modern presidency “effectively makes the president of the United States a king” would hold the office he has spent two years criticizing. The record suggests he would begin by auditing the office's own powers — and that the substantive fast movers would be the surveillance directives and veterans' care, both executable inside the executive branch.

Everything structural is Congress's: the eminent-domain statute, the agency downsizing, the judicial term limits, the emergency-power repeal. That is not a weakness of the analysis but its finding — a Gluba first 100 days would be unusually honest about what a president cannot do, because honesty about the office's limits is the candidate's defining theme.

Where he differs from both major parties: on executive power he is to the restraint side of both — his position that whoever wins the presidency should not be “absolutely terrifying” is an argument neither major party's 2026 campaign is built on. On social policy he breaks the state-party pattern — supporting LGBTQ+ rights and abortion access while being the LP's property-rights standard bearer — which is the “entirely separate thing” he says Libertarians are.

The honest conclusion of the record: the first 100 days of a Gluba presidency would be an executive-branch self-audit, a surveillance directive, and a veterans' care push — in front of an eminent-domain bill, an emergency-power reform and a judicial-term-limit proposal, each of which would wait on a Congress that has shown decades of appetite for neither.