Presidential power—what the Constitution permits and forbids—has been debated since the founding of the United States, and views on this issue have shifted over time. For example, Theodore Roosevelt believed that a president’s authority is restricted only by what the Constitution and law explicitly prohibit. This interpretation gave rise to the modern presidency, making the office far more powerful than originally intended. Now, Donald Trump is aiming to expand presidential power even further. His strategy involves asserting powers that contradict established laws and judicial precedents, effectively seeking to push the courts to redefine the limits of the presidency. The outcomes of these legal battles will shape the scope of presidential authority for years to come. 

Presenter Dr. Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press with the Harvard Kennedy School, is a nationally recognized expert on media, public opinion and democratic governance as well as a prolific author. His influential books include “Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Reporting,” “How America Lost Its Mind: The Assault on Reason That’s Crippling Our Democracy” and “Is the Republican Party Destroying Itself?”— each tackling the challenges facing American democracy today. Other works, such as “The Vanishing Voter” and “Out of Order,” have shaped political communication scholarship with “Out of Order” earning the American Political Science Association’s 2002 Doris Graber Award for best political communication book of the decade.