Experts in the News | Miller Center

AI, national security, and democratic accountability

The role of artificial intelligence in U.S. national security creates potential challenges for democratic accountability. A panel of experts examines how Americans can be confident that the federal government's use of these AI systems comports with American values, including rationality, lawfulness, and accountability.

Ashley Deeks

From Truman to a kind of Versailles: the story of vanity and power in the metamorphosis of the White House that culminates in Trump's ballroom.

The White House remains one of the world's most iconic landmarks, representing the ideals and power of the United States of America and its long history of liberal-democratic nationalism. Since its inauguration in 1800, the building has undergone numerous changes . Donald Trump was by no means the first president to seek to make a difference by attributing symbolic significance to it.

Marc Selverstone

Radical constitutional change

Prakash describes how and why radical constitutional change occurs and the vertigo that it precipitates.

Saikrishna Prakash

How Jackie Kennedy Transformed the White House

“But by 1960, when John F. Kennedy is elected, that number was 80 percent of households,” says Barbara A. Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center and author of several books on the Kennedy presidency. “Most people who had televisions only got two channels, NBC and CBS, so if you were going to be watching TV on February 14, 1962, chances are you would be watching Mrs. Kennedy."

Barbara Perry

How Trump's tariff feud with Canada spiraled in 48 hours over an ad featuring Ronald Reagan

What began as a Canadian ad campaign quickly turned into a full-blown trade dispute between the United States and Canada. In just 48 hours, a TV commercial — featuring the late President Ronald Reagan's warning about the dangers of tariffs — led President Donald Trump to accuse Canada of "fraud" and impose fresh levies.

Russell Riley

Paranoia and Purges Are Consuming the Pentagon

Eric and Eliot discuss appeasement and the striking similarities between Putin’s recent demands and Hitler’s insistence that the Czechs surrender the heavily fortified Sudetenland. They then turn to the latest idiocy coming from the administration, including Trump’s demolition of the East Wing, the Pentagon’s new exclusively right-wing press corps, and the live-fire Marine exercise that sent ordnance onto I-5 in California during a salute to Pete Hegseth and JD Vance. They also examine Putin’s phone call with Trump and the situation in Ukraine, along with Trump’s accelerating campaign of regime change in Venezuela. They end the week’s conversation with thoughts on the No Kings protests and the daunting prospects for a sustained ceasefire in Gaza.

Eric Edelman