Experts in the News | Miller Center

Plan to merge Education, Labor departments is just more 'hot air' from Trump administration

Every president comes to Washington wanting to show that he can transform government. With a few exceptions, every president leaves Washington having made only incremental progress in that transformation.

Chris Lu

President Trump Is Looking for Suggestions for Pardons. So We Asked 7 Historians for Their Thoughts

My nominee for a posthumous presidential pardon is the intriguing Vermont congressman Matthew Lyon. A member of Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican party, Lyon was convicted in 1798 of violating the Sedition Act and sentenced to four months in jail.

Barbara Perry

Jeff Sessions, religion, and the public square

Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited Romans 13 to justify the separation of families at the U.S. border. What can this tell us about the role of religion in public life? And what does it have to do with Abraham Lincoln? Join us for a fascinating and important discussion with Chuck Mathewes, one of our senior fellows and a professor in the University of Virginia's Department of Religious Studies

Charles Mathewes

Trump to Let Small Businesses Offer Cheaper Health Plans

Chris Lu, former deputy secretary of labor in the Obama administration and now a senior fellow at the University of Virginia Miller Center, said the rule is designed to undercut the ACA. Trump campaigned on a vow to repeal Obama’s signature law. “The overall effect of today’s action will be skimpier health plans and higher insurance premiums, which will lead to more Americans getting sick and dying,” he said by email.

Chris Lu

Why Donald Trump Was Right About George Washington

Douglas Blackmon, an author and senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said Trump either does not understand the history of the Confederacy or he’s sympathetic to white nationalist views.

Douglas Blackmon

The Score: Korea Summit, Net Neutrality, Primary Elections, Napoleon Bonaparte

I went to the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia to speak with political scientist Todd Sechser. Dr. Sechser’s research interests include military coercion, reputations in international relations, the strategic effects of nuclear weapons, and the sources and consequences of military doctrine. Sechser is co-author (with Matthew Fuhrmann) of Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy, published in 2017 by the Cambridge University Press. A few weeks ago, he spoke to us on The Score about the Iran nuclear deal. I asked Dr. Sechser for his overall impressions of the Trump-Kim Summit in Singapore.

Todd Sechser