Whether consciously or by reacting to his own political incentives (which the Constitution itself creates), Trump has become a stouter defender of our original governing document than his critics. He has fought off the efforts of so-described progressives, who have wanted to revolutionize our constitutional order by vesting ever more power in a permanent bureaucracy with virtually limitless authority but without democratic accountability. Skip to main content Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Bush administration John Yoo offered his. Bush - to defend the rights of his office. University of California, Berkeley law professor and former deputy assistant attorney general in the George W. Instead, he has become, by the end of his four years, an unexpected constitutional traditionalist who has relied on theories of executive power held by his predecessors - even (gasp) Barack Obama and George W. University of California, Berkeley law professor and former deputy assistant attorney general in the George W. He has not played the role of standard populists, who usually seek to remove constitutional barriers to their reform agendas.

Trump represents something new, but not in the way his critics imagine and fear. Is Trump a dictator or a cypher? Has Trump rumbled like a populist bull through the constitutional china shop, or did he fail in his executive responsibilities by not effectively seizing the energy and dynamism inherent in the presidency? 'As the Democratic and Republican parties open their nominating conventions this month, and the presidential campaigns begin in earnest, they will ask the American people to choose between these two competing realities. At National Review, I discuss the main themes of Defender-in-Chief: To view the transcript of this conversation, click here. In Defender in Chief, celebrated constitutional scholar John Yoo makes a provocative case against Donald Trumps alleged disruption of constitutional rules.

It’s a fascinating and often humorous discussion that could not be more timely. In his book and on this show, John Yoo argues the opposite: that the Founders would have seen Trump as returning to their vision of presidential power, even at his most controversial and outrageous. In the 2020 primaries, the candidates have rushed to accuse Trump of destroying our democracy and jeopardizing our nation’s very existence. Mainstream media outlets have reported fresh examples of alleged executive overreach or authoritarian White House decisions nearly every day of his presidency. The conventional wisdom is that Donald Trump is a threat to the rule of law and the US Constitution. On the occasion of his new book, Defender in Chief: Donald Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power, Hoover visiting fellow and Berkeley Law School professor John Yoo joins the show to make a spirited case against the criticisms of Donald Trump for his supposed disruption of constitutional rules and norms.

Defender in Chief by John Yoo