Experts in the News | Miller Center

White House Moves Obama Portrait to Make Room for New One of Trump

“Can you imagine Gerald Ford having a portrait painted of himself ducking?” Ms. Perry said of an assassination attempt against Ford, the 38th president, in 1975. She added, “This would be viewed as lacking in taste in days gone by.”

Barbara Perry

Trump’s New World Order

Eliot and Eric note this week’s jackassery—tariffing McDonald Island and Heard Island off Australia, almost exclusively inhabited by penguins, and Trump’s plan for a four-mile-long military parade to mark his birthday on June 14 and the anniversary of the United States Army. In a more sinister vein they discuss the absolute craziness of the NSC staff purge apparently orchestrated by conspiracy theorist and MAGA influencer Laura Loomer and the subsequent cashiering of NSA Director and Cybercom Commander Gen. Timothy Haugh (as well as his deputy) and the firing of Adm. Shoshana Chatfield as the U.S. military representative to NATO for various imagined DEI sins.

Eric Edelman

Illumination Spring 2025

What’s up with Trump’s fascination with two obscure 19th-century presidents?

“We were building, with Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the bridge to the 21st century,” said Barbara A. Perry, professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, referring to the campaign slogan of the 1996 Democratic ticket. “Now apparently we’re building a canal back to the 19th century, since [Trump] also seems to be enamored with canals.”

Barbara Perry

Grawemeyer World Order winner reflects on the evolution of American democracy

University of Virginia professor John Owen IV is the winner of the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for World Order for his book, "Ecology of Nations: American Democracy in a Fragile World Order."

John Owen

The Rector's Forum: Lets Talk About Understanding Democracy

From all points on the political spectrum come concerns about the future of democracy. What exactly is "democracy?" What are its origins and how has it evolved? What is its future? Barbara A. Perry, co-director of the Presidential Oral History Program at the Miller Center, discusses whether democracy is the best form of government.

Barbara Perry