Experts in the News | Miller Center

UVA to Host Presidential Ideas Festival

Charlottesville is gearing up for the Presidential Ideas Festival – a gathering that will feature one former president and top officials from many administrations -- talking about how the chief executive makes decisions, how the office has changed and where it may be headed.

Melody Barnes

Another Rule Trump Could Break: Primary Challengers Doom Incumbent Presidents

Trump seems to have a stronghold on his party that no candidate can shake. As Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center put it, Trump has simply proven, time and time again, "that all previous rules do not apply." "When we look back at the lessons of history, they may repeat themselves, but they haven't so far," Perry said. "He may get a challenge by either a strong gadfly or a strong personality or a strong presence in the party," just as Ronald Reagan was to Ford in 1976 and Ted Kennedy was to Carter in 1980. "But I don't see that person on the horizon."

Barbara Perry

Trump revolving door creates 'unprecedented' vacancy mess in government

While Trump has blamed the pace of confirmations on the Democrats, Chris Lu, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia Miller Center and former White House Cabinet secretary in the Obama administration, said each nomination eats up a large amount of manpower. "It's chewing up a huge amount of time in these agencies and in the U.S. Senate," said Lu, who's gone through the nomination and confirmation process. "Federal agencies are like big ocean liners — you need time to move them."

Chris Lu

Trump v. Congress: Trump's top lawyer 'should brush up on the law’

Former Obama aide Chris Lu tells Lawrence that "any first year law student" should be able to come up with legitimate legislative purposes for investigating the president, something Trump's White House counsel said couldn't be done. Lawrence also discusses with Rep. Madeleine Dean and Lisa Graves.

Chris Lu

Trump Can’t Afford to Go Soft on Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be playing dumb, but he’s not stupid. The strongman plunked down a deposit for Russia’s advanced S-400 air-defense system in December 2017—months after Congress passed a law that triggers painful U.S. sanctions on governments that purchase Russian armaments. Now Mr. Erdogan wants an exemption, and he apparently believes President Trump is inclined to give him one. Mr. Trump likely cannot do so without congressional approval. But even if he could, he shouldn’t.

Eric Edelman

The 2020 Presidential Candidates’ Families Look Like Americans’

Today, “we’re still caught in this kind of post–World War II mold of what families look like,” says Barbara Perry, the director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for presidential scholarship. “People sometimes jokingly talk about the old-style ‘American family’ of the sitcoms in the 1960s. But that’s been the standard that we applied for our presidents, too, because that’s how society viewed the ideal American family—with the mother and the father and the 2.2 children.”

Barbara Perry