Trump Episode 2: The Imperial Presidency Strikes Back

Recent presidencies — and notably Donald Trump’s second term in office — have been marked by unilateral commands and dramatic confrontations. On issues ranging from immigration and trade, from budgeting to the war powers, Trump and his predecessors have made aggressive claims to expansive executive authority. In the 1970s, Congress responded to Vietnam and Watergate by constructing elaborate legislative checks on the presidency. But those constraints crumbled over time. What are the implications for present and future governance? Will Congress – and the American public - respond again, or is a newly rebooted “imperial presidency” here to stay?

Andrew Rudalevige is Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College in Maine, USA, as well as a fellow at University College London's Centre on US Politics. He was a visiting professor in American Studies at UEA, 2007-2009. Rudalevige studies American political institutions, with an emphasis on the modern presidency, and is the former chair of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section. His books include By Executive Order, The Politics of the Presidency, Managing the President's Program, and The New Imperial Presidency.

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