A potential lame-duck Trump presidency 'looms as nation's most serious danger,' experts argue
Former President Herbert Hoover has emerged as a popular historical comparison for President Trump because of their respective responses to the Great Depression and the coronavirus pandemic. More recently, though, two University of Texas Scholars — Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Tulis — argued in The Bulwark that Hoover's final months in office could be a precedent of what's to come for Trump.
Suri's and Tulis' warning is reliant on Trump losing his re-election bid to his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden (a Trump victory would render it moot). The academics write that after a resounding 1932 defeat to former President Franklin Roosevelt, "Hoover was so committed to a vision of the public interest at odds with that of his opponent that, during the interregnum, he sought to advance it and to thwart the policy designs of the incoming administration with every tool in his constitutional arsenal" while also attempting to "sow discord" and "undermine the economy."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Actions they anticipate from a lame-duck Trump include pardoning his friends and making "deals with foreign leaders in return for personal favors and ego boosts." That's why, in the eyes of Suri and Tulis, the last several weeks of a Trump presidency "looms as the nation's most serious danger," regardless of whether there's a threat to a peaceful transition of power. Read more at The Bulwark.
-
Why quitting your job is so difficult in JapanUnder the Radar Reluctance to change job and rise of ‘proxy quitters’ is a reaction to Japan’s ‘rigid’ labour market – but there are signs of change
-
Gavin Newsom and Dr. Oz feud over fraud allegationsIn the Spotlight Newsom called Oz’s behavior ‘baseless and racist’
-
‘Admin night’: the TikTok trend turning paperwork into a partyThe Explainer Grab your friends and make a night of tackling the most boring tasks
-
EU and India clinch trade pact amid US tariff warSpeed Read The agreement will slash tariffs on most goods over the next decade
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
Maduro pleads not guilty in first US court hearingSpeed Read Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty to cocaine trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracy
