Mark your calendars for this timely, research-based presentation by Dr. Warber – includes a raffle of a few gifts from the White House Historical Association!!!!
April 9, 2025, (Wednesday), 10:00 am – 11:30 am, Hybrid, “Presidential Executive Orders: Real Governing or Building a House of Cards?” with Dr. Adam Warber, author of Executive Orders and the Modern Presidency: Legislating from the Oval Office. Executive orders can be very tempting for presidents to use to try to navigate through some of the stormy waters of the policymaking process and to enhance the power of the American presidency. Donald Trump relished his executive order power during his first term and is using it in his second administration to rebrand the executive branch at breakneck speed. This should not be surprising given that every chief executive tries to build a lasting policy legacy, and executive orders are seen as one avenue to achieve political success. However, Trump is a vastly different president in terms of his brash personality, attempts to “rip up” many customs of the presidency, and his eagerness to demolish parts of the federal bureaucracy. As a result, we might suspect that given Trump’s unconventional approach to his presidency and his desire to leave a lasting impact in American politics that he might be drawn more to using executive orders than previous presidents. This research talk will discuss the president’s executive order power, how Donald Trump’s use of this power during his first term compared to presidents since Eisenhower, and it will provide a preliminary assessment about how he is using this power in his second term.
contact vmushef@clemson.edu for the Zoom link
Speaker Bio
Dr. Adam L. Warber is a professor of political science at Clemson University. He received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in political science; his M.A. from Western Michigan University in political science, and a B.A. from Hope College in political science and history. His area of specialization is the American presidency, and his research has focused on the administrative and unilateral presidencies. He is the author of the book, Executive Orders and the Modern Presidency: Legislating from the Oval Office, and of articles appearing in journals, such as Political Research Quarterly, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and Congress & the Presidency. His recent research has focused on how President Trump used a variety of unilateral tools, such as executive orders, to shape policy during his first term in office and how his exercise of this power compares to presidents since the Dwight Eisenhower administration.
