Matters of Policy & Politics

The Media vs. Donald Trump

Recorded on April 13, 2017 No presidency in the post–Watergate era has had this contentious a relationship with the Fourth Estate. Rarely have correspondents and news outlets been this boisterous in their objection to the policies and personality of a sitting president. Dan Balz, chief correspondent for the Washington Post and best-selling author and veteran observer of the Washington scene, assesses the current state of political journalism and what if anything can be done to mend the Trump-media rift. (Playing time: 31:49)

Trump’s First Hundred Days

As the Trump presidency approaches its first notable milestone, we check in with Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover senior fellow and proprietor of The Classicist podcast, on the administration’s early moves. It was Victor Davis Hanson who saw the Trump train approaching long before it overran the political establishment. Does he think Trump’s “traditionalist” appeal is still working? Where is there room for presidential improvement? (Playing time: 42:21)

The Environment

As Earth Day approaches, Hoover senior fellow Terry Anderson rates the new interior secretary and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator and suggests some free-market environmental principles for the two to pursue. Also should the Trump administration revisit the century-old monument-designation authority used as never before during the Obama years but wildly unpopular across parts of the American West? (Playing time: 38:49)

North Korea

As tensions mount on the Korean Peninsula, the possibility increases of a US military strike against the rogue regime of Kim Jong-un. Tom Henriksen, a Hoover senior fellow emeritus and author of multiple books on US military and diplomatic approaches to the non-Western world and rogue regimes, discusses the policy options available to the Trump administration in dealing with North Korea.

The Gorsuch Nomination

As the US Senate decides the fate of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, we look at the fragile state of the federal judicial nomination process. Hoover senior fellow Michael McConnell, who served alongside Gorsuch on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, offers insights into the judge, the merits of the Senate’s “nuclear option,” and what it’s like to endure a confirmation process.

Education Reform

Recorded on March 9, 2017 President Trump calls it “the civil rights issue of our time,” offering low-income families their choice of better schools. Checker Finn, a Hoover Institution senior fellow and chair of Hoover’s Task Force on K-12 Education, assesses the state of vouchers, charter schools, and the Trump administration’s willingness to take on an establishment “blob” that’s dead set against reform.

US Military

President Trump wants a nearly 10 percent increase in defense spending. Is the new administration on the right track? Hoover research fellow Kori Schake, coauthor with Defense Secretary James Mattis of Warriors and Citizens, a book detailing the civil-military gap–civilian leaders out of touch with the realities of military life and wartime service–discusses the peaks and valleys of a military buildup.

Immigration Reform

Comprehensive immigration reform is dead in Washington, but Hoover Institution fellow Tim Kane discusses a step-by-step approach on the economics, safety, and fairness of immigration reform that’s feasible if the president and congressional leaders are willing to try it.

US and Russian relations

What to make of US-Russian relations? Michael McFaul, the Hoover Institution’s Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow and US ambassador to Moscow from 2012-2014, deciphers the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, that is the coming diplomacy between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

The Art of Presidential Transitions