Experts in the News | Miller Center

One bigly unindicted co-conspirator and other bunches of them, including some in Epstein files now

Trump's efforts to lean on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is reminiscent of the way Nixon created a team of secret investigators, known as "the plumbers," to find incriminating or embarrassing evidence about his enemies, said Ken Hughes, a leading Watergate authority and research specialist at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Ken Hughes

Whither the American republic?

Donald Trump's second term has brought to the surface long-term challenges that have tested constitutional government in the United States: partisan polarization, presidential aggrandizement, economic inequality, and conflict over who belongs to the American political community. Are the country’s present discontents unprecedented? What other moments in history have strained constitutional norms and institutions? What are the prospects for resolving the political battles that have fractured the nation? Join a panel of experts including the Miller Center's Sid Milkis, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, Laura K. Field of the Brookings Institution, and UVA's James Hunter.

Sidney Milkis

Biden, aides project optimism in cancer fight, but some close friends worry

Barbara Perry, a presidential scholar at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said presidents who leave office on negative terms — whether they lost reelection or were unpopular — are often able to rehabilitate their image in their post-presidential years.

Barbara Perry

On the precipice of illegal war

Eric and Eliot debate the merits and deficiencies of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s attempt to present “Trumpism with a human face” at the Munich Security Conference before turning to the dilemmas Trump faces in Iran. They discuss the administration’s uncertain strategic objective, the failure to consult Congress and the public, and the potential for a much longer military engagement than Trump is accustomed to.

Eric Edelman

Trump Charts New Trade Path After Supreme Court Blocks Key Tariff Hammer

“This is such a key part of the Trumpian and MAGA vision of America in the world,” says Barbara Perry, a University of Virginia political scientist who has written books about both the presidency and the high court. “It is a major, major piece of not only economic policy, but of populism in this country and ‘America First’ in the world.”

Barbara Perry

American diplomacy militarized by Donald Trump

“It is not unusual for the U.S. government to delegate senior officers to high-level diplomatic discussions, especially when the topics discussed directly concern military security,” notes Spencer Bakich, director of the national security program at the Virginia Military Institute. “Military contacts are essential in peacetime because they allow countries to reduce uncertainty.”

Spencer Bakich