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Donald Trump and the Modern Presidency

This presentation was given by presidential historian and UCLA Professor Emeritus Robert Dallek and George Washington University professor Matt Dallek.

In recent decades, critics on both left and right have deplored the growth of executive power and the “imperial presidency” in the United States, a problem highlighted by Donald Trump’s recent declaration of a national emergency to fund the construction of a border wall.  Is Trump a departure from earlier presidential precedents or is he an outgrowth of trends in the modern history of the presidency? Renowned presidential historian Robert Dallek, author of bestselling biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon (the latter a Pulitzer Prize finalist), and his son Matthew Dallek, author of prizewinning histories of twentieth century America and a regular news commentator, discussed Donald Trump’s norm-defying administration in the context of recent presidencies.