Experts in the News | Miller Center

Trump Uses Flags, Military Troops to Make a Political Point

Barbara Perry, presidential studies director at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, said Trump “didn’t want to be embarrassed by only a small group of players showing up, so he told them to not come.” “It’s a thumb in the eye of the players who didn’t want to come, and it’s a thumb in the eye of those who support them kneeling,” she said. “It’s not the first time a president has used the military like this. But this time, there are partisan, racial and emotional aspects that’s just beyond the pale as someone who cares about the office and what it has stood for.”

Barbara Perry

Can the President Pardon Himself?

President Trump's recent assertions that he can pardon himself have many wondering whether the president legally can and what it could mean for U.S. politics. University of Virginia law professor Saikrishna Prakash joins Forum to discuss the history of presidential pardons as well as the political nature of impeachment in the context of today's political climate. Join us with your questions.

Saikrishna Prakash

With a Chorus of Tweets, Administration Officials Mark Trump’s 500 Days

“What’s unusual is the thanking of the president, which just kind of seems a little obsequious, but it’s entirely in keeping with the ‘Dear Leader’ tone of that meeting last year,” said Chris Lu, who managed the cabinet during President Barack Obama’s first term and is a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “You almost wonder whether this is orchestrated from the White House, or cabinet members themselves know by now that this is what the president wants to hear.”

Chris Lu

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist explains how Trump pardoning himself would make him 'a dictator'

Miller Center Senior Fellow Douglas Blackmon explained on Twitter why President Trump's declaration that he has the "absolute right" to pardon himself of crimes is setting up a fight that could end up giving America's executive branch dictatorial powers.

Douglas Blackmon

The new U.S. policy of separating immigrant children from their parents has chilling historical echoes

America has never treated families—nonwhite families, anyway—as sacrosanct, Nicole Hemmer writes on Vox.

Nicole Hemmer

The Score: Happiness Curve, Young Voices, RFK Assassination, Conspiracy Theories

This coming week, on June 6, Americans will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Robert F. Kennedy, who was gunned down during a tumultuous year that also saw the murder of Martin Luther King Junior, riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, and a turning point in public opposition to the war in Vietnam. I spoke by telephone to presidential scholar Barbara Perry of the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia about the significance of Kennedy’s death fifty years ago.

Barbara Perry