Research Assignment

Pick one:

Option 1

If you are playing an administration figure or witness in the Congress simulation, you may write your paper about the individual you are portraying.  Explain what you did in the simulation, and why you did it.  Cite your own notes or prep memo. Quote from what you said in the simulation, and the questions you received from simulation senators.

Most of the paper should focus on the person in real life. What issues matter most to that person?  What political advantages and constraints does this person have in achieving her or his goals? How does this person interact with Congress, and with what effect?

Option 2

Choose one currently serving Trump-appointed Supreme Court justice, executive official, or Republican congressional leader. Analyze the relationship between this individual and President Trump. Specify where it has aligned and where it has diverged. Identify specific instances (decisions, votes, public statements, or policy actions during the second Trump administration) in which your chosen figure has clearly pleased President Trump. and disappointed, resisted, or diverged from Trump. What formal and informal tools does Trump have to shape this person’s behavior?  Anchor your analysis in primary sources such as speeches, interviews, social media posts, Congressional Record entries, hearing transcripts and judicial opinions.

Option 3

Choose your favorite movie (not TV series) in which a U.S. president (real or fictional) is a central character. It can be a serious historical drama about an actual president (e.g., Lincoln (2012) or Frost/Nixon) or a fictional film with a president as protagonist (The American President, or the 2025 Netflix film A House of Dynamite). The only rules: the president must drive the story, and it must be about the person's actions as president, not a pre-presidential career (e.g., The Apprentice, Young Mr. Lincoln).

Dissect how the film got the presidency right, where it went Hollywood-wild, and what it teaches -- or misleads -- us about executive power, leadership, and politics. This is your chance to blend pop culture with serious political science. Rewatch the movie like a scholar, apply course concepts, and back everything up with evidence.

In your essay, explain what drew you to this film and how you initially reacted to it.  Does it seem different to you now that you are studying the presidency?   Give very specific examples of what it got significantly right and wrong, with citations. Overall, does it enlighten or misinform?

Option 4

Devise your own topic, subject to my approval and revision.

The specifications:

• Essays should be typed (12-point), double-spaced, and no more than six pages long. I will not read past the sixth page.
• Please submit all papers in this course as Word documents, not Google docs or pdfs.
• Read Strunk & White and my stylesheet (with links to model papers). Watch my writing lecture.
• Cite your sources. Please use endnotes in the format of the Chicago Manual of Style. Endnotes do not count against the page limit. Please do not use footnotes, which take up too much page space.
• Misrepresenting AI-generated content as your own work is plagiarism and will result in severe consequences
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you.
• Return essays to the Canvas dropbox for this class by 11:59 PM, Friday, April 17. (If you have trouble with Canvas, simply email it to me as an attached file.) I reserve the right to dock papers one gradepoint for one day’s lateness, a full letter grade after that.

The Broader Executive Branch

For Wednesday, finish ch. 10.

Next assignment

Problems of coordination, complexity, and control

What is implementation?

Presidents talk about solving domestic problems but states & localities do most of the domestic policy implementation (Edwards 314-315).  Discuss examples.

COVID

Types of Federal Bureaucracies

Cabinet Departments	15 major executive departments responsible for broad policy areas, headed by a Secretary in the President's Cabinet.	Departments of State, Defense, Treasury, Education.
Independent Executive Agencies	Agencies outside the Cabinet departments, usually focusing on specific missions, reporting directly to the President.	NASA, CIA, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Independent Regulatory Commissions	Agencies that regulate specific industries or parts of the economy, officially free from political influence.	Federal Reserve System, FCC, Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Government Corporations	Agencies that perform services that the private sector could do, but are government-run for public benefit.	Amtrak, U.S. Postal Service, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Redundancy, Duplication, and Overlap

GAO: "Services funded under the Older Americans Act of 1965 (OAA), as amended, overlap with 36 other federal programs but do not duplicate the social services and assistance they provide to older adults, according to GAO’s analysis. GAO found that these programs differ in the population served, goals and services provided, or both. The overlapping programs can complement OAA-funded services, for example by providing more specialized services relevant to an agency’s expertise. The areas of need served by these programs include health, nutrition, transportation, and employment. Nine departments and agencies administer the 36 non-OAA programs, which indicates there is fragmentation of services for older adults."

Federal law enforcement 

Administrative Procedure Act:  rules for rulemaking

• Obama and DAPA
• Trump and VOA

Federal civilian employees

Category	Approx. Number	Share of Workforce	Notes
Career Civil Service	~2,050,000	~99%	Core bureaucracy
SES (career + political)	~8,800	<0.5%	Senior managers
Political Appointees	~4,000	~0.2%	Leadership layer
Schedule F (proposed)	~50,000	~2–3% (if enacted)	Would come from civil service

Iron triangles, issue networks, and the "Deep State"

Decisions

 For a week from Monday, Edwards, ch. 10.

Questions on the paper?

The cabinet

• Different from cabinets in parliamentary systems?
• Criteria for selection? (More after break)

FLOTUS

• HRC
• Michelle Obama
• Melania
• Dr. Jill Biden

VEEP:  "All vice presidents eat enormous bowls of feces. That's the job." -- Jonah Goldberg (P `25).  Meaning??

• Nixon and Agnew as attack dogs
• Mondale and Biden as liaisons to official Washington
• Cheney as prime minister (start at 25:00).

DECISIONS

Stereotypical Rational Decision

What is the problem in the first place?

Cognitive and epistemological issues

Before the Iraq War, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said:

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.

Intelligence on intentions and capabilities. Beware of

• Errors and incomplete information
• Disinformation
• Groupthink (299-300)
• Faulty assumptions: Pearl Harbor
• "SUCCESS has always been the greatest liar." -- Nietzche
• Faulty analogies (Munich) and figures of speech (domino theory)
• Viewing adversaries as mirror images (LBJ and a TVA on the Mekong) or totally inhuman.

Decisions are seldom purely rational

Organizational Processes and SOPs:  

• Getting with the team (Iraq intelligence)
• Rationalizing what the government has already done.
• In the case of the run-up to war, allies and assets take huge risks that will blow up on them if the war does not happen.

Personal politics

• Knowledge and experience of decision-makers.  Analyze background and history
• Who has influence with whom?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QVA.aA0l.b_nKBPEcPsW_&smid=nytcore-ios-share

• What was Netanyahu's stake?
• Why did he have influence with DJT?
• Why did his government have influence with the US intel community?
• How did complexity and uncertainty complicate scenario planning?
• What was the "intelligence coup" that triggered the attack?
• What did the administration assume about the Iranian response? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/us/politics/how-trump-miscalculated-iran-response.html?unlocked_article_code=1.SVA.yJMv.Gwegd7GPVPBa

Staff

Sit Room sequence from House of Dynamite

Questions on the assignment.

On Wednesday, VP, FLOTUS, the Cabinet, and decisionmaking.  Read ch. 9.

If you want to play a part in the simulation, see here.

I have a lunch meeting, so we adjourn at 12:10.

The West Wing

The  EOB

Why do people want to work in the White House?

West Wing documentary

How do you get a White House staff job?

 Brandi Hoffine on her path to the White House staff (start at 7:30).

Why did 19th century presidents have practically no staff?  Lincoln had two staffers.

Brownlow Committee (p. 234).  Why did FDR need a lot more staff?

The Executive Office of the President Edwards 234-35

Chief of Staff  (237-239)

Dates back to Ike, developed by Haldeman under Nixon.

Dick Cheney picks up the story:

The roles of the chief of staff -- a lot depends on the individual president:

• Gatekeeper:  meaning?
• Insulator and scapegoat
• Advisor/guardrail

Comms (review from last week)

• Press Secretary
• Office of Communications
• Office of Public Liaison (3-cushion billiards)
• Clip from West Wing starting at 16:00

OMB

• Preparation of budget
• Domestic policy
• Regulatory review

NSC

• Role of Nat Sec Adviser varies with the president
• The Sit room

Presidents and the Media

For Monday, read Edwards ch. 8.

For writeups, apply what you have learned in the past 2 weeks to war news.  How is the administration trying to gain support for the action in Iran?

Questions on the assignment?

Theodore Roosevelt wore this ring featuring strands of Abraham Lincoln’s hair while being sworn in at his inauguration of tomorrow 1905. T.R. used to say that he would ask himself, “What would Lincoln do? pic.twitter.com/lr3BQikpvK

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) March 3, 2026

Photographs good and bad (Edwards 169-171) 

• Why Trump hates the wind.
• Mrs. Carter's unfortunate photo

The in-party national committee and outside spending groups.

The presidency online

• White House website
• Social media
• Disappearing data

Presidents and the Press

• Contentious from the start (Edwards 189)
• Did TV tip the scales to the president?

Staff

• Press Secretary
• Office of Communications
• Office of Public Liaison (3-cushion billiards)

Direct transmission: Full coverage of speeches and press conferences

Press Conferences from the first term (195-196) did not always work to the advantage of POTUS

In private, however, Trump was different:

WH COVID coordinator Dr. Birx reacts to the bleach comments

Mediated transmission

• Leaks
• Intentional leaks (trial balloons)
• Internal sniping
• Accidents: Full text
• Backgrounders
• Working the refs

Things that can go wrong.

• Biden  at the signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010:  the origin of the acronym BFD
• A good example of what a president should not joke about.
• Other presidential hot mic moments
• Even when a mic is nowhere near....

Talking to the media:

• "On the Record," "Off the Record," "Background"
• Do not assume that the other person uses these terms the same way.
• In an internship or entry-level job, NEVER talk to the media without specific authorization from your boss.

Reflections on pre-Trump press relations.

19:00, 40:00, 50:00

Leading the Public

For Wednesday, Edwards, ch. 7.

Questions on assignment? 

Iran

• Iran attack, politics, CNN poll and war powers
• Problem with writing about Iran is that the situation is changing quickly.

Wag the Dog.  Called it!

State of the Union Nielsen ratings (% of TV households watching)

Problems facing a president (Edwards 154-157):

• Multiple cable alternatives
• Cutting the cord in favor of streaming
• Preaching to the converted.  The biggest share viewed it on Fox.

Speeches directly to the TV audience (Edwards, pp. 159).

Why do presidents make such speeches?

Modes of persuasion

• Logos
• Pathos
• Ethos

Bush 1991 on Desert Storm:

Note similarities & differences with Trump 2026 on Epic Fury:

Message from President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/Xhk3ibylSQ

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 1, 2026

Framing (Edwards 162-166).

• What does the term mean?
• The war metaphor:  examples?  Why>
• Labeling proposals and the framing war
• Cambodia "incursion" v. invasion
• Economic Recovery Act v. "trickle-down"
• Affordable Care Act v. Obamacare
• One Big Beautiful Bill v. tax cut for the Wealty

Modes of communication

Events

• Why? Local media, coverage on national media
• Logistical challenges are formidable
• Motorcade (start around 2:00)
• Advance teams

Photographs good and bad (Edwards 169-171) 

• Why Trump hates the wind.
• Mrs. Carter's unfortunate photo

The in-party national committee and outside spending groups.

The presidency online

• White House website
• Social media
• Disappearing data

Speech, Speech!

For next time, Edwards ch. 6

For writeup: what presidential event from 2025 sticks in your mind?  Why?

QUESTIONS ON THE ASSIGNMENT?

STATE OF THE UNION REACTION?

Presidents gave relatively few speeches in the 18th and 19th centuries. Washington delivered his Farewell Address in writing.

Norms were different.

Households with Radio Sets:

1922	60,000
1927	6,750,000
1932	18,450,000
1937	24,500,000
1942	30,600,000

Source: Historical Statistics of the United States, 796.

FDR and the radio:  Day of Infamy (skip to 4:05).

.....

"A speech is a fondue pot." -- Peggy Noonan, p. 72

On March 8, 1983, President Reagan spoke to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, He expressed his views on the Soviet Union, famously calling it an "evil empire." He defended the Judeo-Christian traditions against the Soviet Union's totalitarian leadership and lack of religious faith, saying that these differences were at the heart of the conflict between the two nations.

Click here to see the typescript of the speech.  

This document makes clear that Reagan did not simply read the words before him:  he played a very active part in writing the speech itself.  One amusing sidelight:  speechwriter Tony Dolan included a spurious quotation from Alexis deTocqueville -- which Reagan changed:

Here is the official text.

And here is video:

 Reagan, religion, and the spurious Tocqueville line.

And of course, the "evil empire."

Trends and Events

• Bread and butter/War and peace
• Rally events (Edwards 144-146)
• Disasters and scandals

Bush 41

Clinton

Obama