Experts in the News | Miller Center

Enemies, enemies everywhere

Ken Hughes is a master researcher of the White House tape recordings of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. His two books, Chasing Shadows and Fatal Politics, are among my favorites on the subject of Nixonian malfeasance. In our podcast conversation, he delved into why Nixon is important in the Age of Trump. “The enemies list is unfortunately all too relevant. The enemies list was one way Richard Nixon tried to weaponize the federal government against people who got in his way politically,” Hughes says.

Ken Hughes

POTUS v. SCOTUS: How America’s Presidents Dared and Defied America’s Highest Court

Pres. Trump is not the first U.S. president to have strained relations with America's courts, including our Highest Court - the Supreme Court of the United States. In fact, more than one U.S. president has openly expressed his personal animosity toward one or more Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Barbara Perry

Trump uses power and police to help DOGE access independent agencies

“These are among the most aggressive assertions of presidential power we have ever seen in peacetime,” said Russell Riley, co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Russell Riley

How Marco Rubio Is Staying Above the Fray in Signal Controversy

"I think Rubio in this group was probably watching his words very closely," said Mara Rudman, a former senior national security official in the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Mara Rudman

Trump 2.0 and the future of U.S.-China relations

What are the prospects for U.S.–China relations in President Trump's second term? In Trump’s first term, his administration initiated a trade war against China, followed by the “China Initiative,” restricting visas for Chinese students and scholars. Now the new Trump team is threatening even heftier tariffs on Chinese imports. But China is a different economic competitor than it was eight years ago. A panel of experts discusses this new reality and what it means for the future of this consequential relationship.

Mara Rudman

The Authoritarian Playbook

Former Ambassador Eric Edelman joins Mona to discuss Trump's systematic dismantling of US moral authority, alliances, and leadership in the world.

Eric Edelman