Andrew Rudalevige
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rudalev.bsky.social
Andrew Rudalevige
@rudalev.bsky.social

Bowdoin College professor of political science; affiliated with UCL's Centre on US Politics and UVa's Miller Center. Feed includes posts on presidential power, bureaucratic politics, and carping about Boston sports and European football .. more

Political science 77%
Economics 9%

Small suggestion - not co-equal, but superior. Article I for a reason! Congress can fire the president - the president can't fire Congress. (Only Congress can do that to itself - sadly, it has.)

Reposted by David R. Miller

No time to read the transcripts of his special envoy selling him (and Ukraine) out to the Russians, but plenty of time for extra meetings on the golden ballroom... I guess Ms Leavitt did tell us that was his top priority.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Trump wants a bigger White House ballroom. His architect disagrees.
The president and James McCrery had argued in recent weeks over the project’s size, with Trump pushing him to expand the ballroom.
www.washingtonpost.com
This reporter will get vile death threats and may need security just for doing her job. Not acceptable.

Reposted by Andrew Rudalevige

careers.insidehighered.com/job/3430267/... Come be my boss as director of the SNF Agora Institute. It is a great place, and a big opportunity to reshape debate.
Director, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute - Baltimore, Maryland (US) job with Johns Hopkins University | 3430267
Johns Hopkins University seeks the next director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Agora Institute, an effort to address the deterioration o...
careers.insidehighered.com

Reposted by Andrew Rudalevige

Analysis | Zelensky must convince Trump to give him a better deal to end the war. He should at long last open an investigation into Hunter Biden.

In which case Ms. Leavitt should agree with those who remind the Pentagon about its responsibility to the law?
Leavitt: "Not a single order this president or administration has given to our military has ever been illegal, nor will it ever be. This administration respects and abides by the law."
Leavitt: "Not a single order this president or administration has given to our military has ever been illegal, nor will it ever be. This administration respects and abides by the law."
If every order the President has given is legal, why is the Department of Defense (sorry, no Dept of War since 1947) so worked up about a member of Congress stating a truism?
latest sham investigation just dropped
latest sham investigation just dropped
The Trump administration inherited an economy that the Economist called "the envy of the world" in a cover story a week before the election and easily could've coasted on that success (again) but instead they set it on fire.

The administration's new (though not surprising) invention of a newly extended "unitary executive" logic to wipe out most civil service protections.

www.govexec.com/workforce/20...
Final Schedule F regulations to describe civil service protections as ‘unconstitutional overcorrections’
OPM officials told agency HR leaders Tuesday that President Trump has Article II constitutional authority to remove tens of thousands of career federal workers in jobs over potential “resistance to po...
www.govexec.com

In light of the claim that civil service protections are unconstitutional or even just problematic to the presidency (see the next post for a link to the new OPM claim) -- here's Gerald Ford in 1974 in the wake of Watergate.

Reposted by Andrew Rudalevige

Michael Beschloss: LBJ's notes for his first Cabinet meeting as President, today 1963:

The claim that UET is somehow textual is truly bizarre, given a text without popular election of the president.
Buckle up for the speedy production of some vast literatures.
President insists his word is the one and only law in this land.

Reposted by Daniel Stone

Great @jamellebouie.net piece tying together many of the administration's grafts - for cash, for power...

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/o...
Opinion | The White House Gold Rush Is On
www.nytimes.com
Is it a threat to free speech when the President of the United States threatens to yank the broadcast license of a channel whose reporters are asking him challenging questions?

I ask because I feel like there used to be tons of pundits worried about free speech. Where'd they go?
Trump in response to an Epstein question: "ABC, your company, your crappy company is one of the perpetrators. I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, a chairman, who should take a look at that."
Trump in response to an Epstein question: "ABC, your company, your crappy company is one of the perpetrators. I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, a chairman, who should take a look at that."
Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
"Quiet! Quiet, Piggy."
79-year-old Paul Bojerski was born to Polish parents in a WWII German refugee camp. His family legally emigrated to the U.S. when he was 5.

He’s been taken by ICE in Florida.

www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/11/16/s...
Sanford grandfather, born in refugee camp, nabbed by ICE after 70 years in U.S.
Paul Bojerski never gained official residency, but he checked in regularly with ICE for years. Then in July, at age 79, he was detained and sent to Alligator Alcatraz.
www.orlandosentinel.com
"highly trained specialists have been pulled into immigration work, such as analysts who assist in money laundering and counterterrorism"

"new duties have included compiling addresses of undocumented immigrants...and making arrests at traffic stops [and] big-box store parking lots"
Homeland Security Missions Falter Amid Focus on Deportations
www.nytimes.com
“Homeland security agents investigating sexual crimes against children…have been redeployed to the immigrant crackdown…hampering their pursuit of child predators…efforts to combat human smuggling and sex trafficking have languished…”

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/u...
The Department of Deportation
www.nytimes.com
Seriously, what is wrong with these people?
Four months ago, Bondi's DOJ declared that Epstein files warranted no further investigation. But it took Bondi four hours to open an investigation anyway once Trump demanded--and only into Democrats @ericalgj.bsky.social @glennthrush.bsky.social @alanfeuer.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/u...
Justice Department to Investigate Epstein Ties, but Not to Trump
www.nytimes.com
oh…my god
I know this is old man yells at cloud but there is something in the constitution about this
Alan Dershowitz is one of those claiming Epstein was not a pedophile because he pleaded guilty to one count of having sex for money with a 17-year-and-10-month-old person. "That’s not a pedophile." See this important response from Julia Brown, the brave reporter who broke the news on this

Reposted by Andrew Rudalevige

For no particular reason, a thread of books on presidential power that I recommend. 🧵📚