Experts in the News

The political impact of Donald Trump’s personal finances

The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker, former Obama White House cabinet secretary Chris Lu and former Florida Republican Congressman David Jolly join NBC’s Kristen Welker to discuss the potential public reaction to revelations made by the New York Times about the President's personal finances.

Chris Lu

Will Trump's use of executive privilege help him avoid congressional oversight? It didn't help Richard Nixon

Like Donald Trump, Richard Nixon tried to stonewall congressional investigations into crimes allegedly committed in the White House. “Why, we’ll just let it go to the (Supreme) Court. Fight it like hell,” Nixon said. But the stone wall crumbled under pressure from the public, Congress and the courts, and its rubble formed the foundation for an article of impeachment.

Ken Hughes

Trump voter base would recoil at attack on Venezuela or Iran, backers warn

Nicole Hemmer, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia, said Trump might convince most of his base to support a war, but that there would be near-term costs. “There is a part of President Trump's base that is avowedly anti-intervention, and will strongly protest intervention in Venezuela or Iran. This strain runs from libertarians and paleoconservatives into the darker recesses of the alt-right,” Hemmer said.

Nicole Hemmer

How Trump has attempted to recast his response to Charlottesville

“It is a misrepresentation of what was happening in Charlottesville to say it was a statue protest that went wrong,” said Nicole Hemmer, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center who lives in Charlottesville and attended the rally as an observer. “Anyone who was there that day would have walked into a park of people waving Nazi flags and people who were Klansmen. It was not a secret who put that rally on that day.”