The Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government has been tapped by the US, UK, and Australian media in recent days and weeks for his insight into US politics as the presidential election approaches.
![With his son Hunter currently facing federal firearms offences and scheduled to go on trial for tax offenses later in the year, President Biden is likely to be under significant emotional strain, said Rudalevige in a June 6 interview with ABC (Australia). However, he added, his son’s legal troubles could actually help Biden and his campaign by highlighting the President’s “willingness to let the justice department operate independently”—this at a time when GOP voices are accusing Biden of “weaponizing” the department to go after Donald Trump. On June 4 Rudalevige was featured on Live Now Fox television talking about the impact of Trump’s recent felony conviction in the so-called “hush money” trial. When asked how the conviction may influence the election, Rudalevige predicted that there could be some effect “at the margins, in that little group of people who might genuinely be undecided or might have some qualms about voting for someone who is … a convicted felon.” With the upcoming election expected to be very close, he added “every vote counts quite a lot and every little shift could matter.” NPR quoted Rudalevige in a May 31 report titled “What Trump can and can't do on Day 1 —providing he wins reelection.” He told reporter Franco Ordoñez how Trump and his team are looking for creative ways to bypass Congress, combing through decades and sometimes centuries-old laws to see if they can be reinterpreted to fit their goals. “Effectively,” explained Rudalevige, “if you can't get new laws passed, then your temptation will be to find new meanings in old laws, and there's [there are] a lot of old laws out there.” One such law that Trump and his circle have been discussing, he said, is the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. This week, President Biden took some long-expected executive action when he announced plans to limit asylum seekers at the southern border. Nearly a month previously, on May 7, Rudalevige explained to The Washington Post how presidents typically tend to “ramp up” executive actions as election day nears. “Presidents are trying to show that they are leading despite congressional gridlock. In the months leading up to the election, they try to get some wins for their constituencies in hopes of inspiring them to be enthusiastic and to turn out.” (Rudalevige could also be heard recently on BBC Radio and Bloomberg Radio discussing Trump’s conviction, although links are not available for those reports.) Rudalevige’s most recent book, By Executive Order: Bureaucratic Management and the Limits of Presidential Power (Princeton University Press, 2021) explores how the executive branch—not the president alone—formulates executive orders, and how this process constrains the chief executive's ability to act unilaterally.](../images/ar-on-abc-australia-screenshot.jpg)
With his son Hunter currently facing federal firearms offences and scheduled to go on trial for tax offenses later in the year, President Biden is likely to be under significant emotional strain, said Rudalevige in a June 6 interview with ABC (Australia).
However, he added, his son’s legal troubles could actually help Biden and his campaign by highlighting the President’s “willingness to let the justice department operate independently”—this at a time when GOP voices are accusing Biden of “weaponizing” the department to go after Donald Trump.
On June 4 Rudalevige was featured on Live Now Fox television talking about the impact of Trump’s recent felony conviction in the so-called “hush money” trial. When asked how the conviction may influence the election, Rudalevige predicted that there could be some effect “at the margins, in that little group of people who might genuinely be undecided or might have some qualms about voting for someone who is … a convicted felon.” With the upcoming election expected to be very close, he added “every vote counts quite a lot and every little shift could matter.”
NPR quoted Rudalevige in a May 31 report titled “What Trump can and can't do on Day 1 —providing he wins reelection.” He told reporter Franco Ordoñez how Trump and his team are looking for creative ways to bypass Congress, combing through decades and sometimes centuries-old laws to see if they can be reinterpreted to fit their goals. “Effectively,” explained Rudalevige, “if you can't get new laws passed, then your temptation will be to find new meanings in old laws, and there's [there are] a lot of old laws out there.” One such law Trump and his circle have been discussing, he said, is the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
This week, President Biden took some long-expected executive action when he announced plans to limit asylum seekers at the southern border. Nearly a month previously, on May 7, Rudalevige explained to The Washington Post how presidents typically tend to “ramp up” executive actions as election day nears. “Presidents are trying to show that they are leading despite congressional gridlock. In the months leading up to the election, they try to get some wins for their constituencies in hopes of inspiring them to be enthusiastic and to turn out.”
(Rudalevige could also be heard recently on BBC Radio and Bloomberg Radio discussing Trump’s conviction, although links are not available for those reports.)
Rudalevige’s most recent book, By Executive Order: Bureaucratic Management and the Limits of Presidential Power (Princeton University Press, 2021) explores how the executive branch—not the president alone—formulates executive orders, and how this process constrains the chief executive's ability to act unilaterally.
