President Trump’s far-reaching executive actions have given rise to a debate about whether the president is acting within the tradition of presidential power—or whether recent events represent a departure from the constitutional order and precedent. Melody Barnes of the University of Virginia Karsh Institute for Democracy, Charles Cooke of National Review, Joanne Freeman of Yale University, and Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the American tradition of presidential power and evaluate analogues to our constitutional moment from across U.S. history.
This conversation was originally recorded on February 20, 2025, as part of the NCC’s President’s Council Retreat in Miami, Fla.
Please subscribe to We the People and Live at the National Constitution Center on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
Today’s episode was produced by Samson Mostashari and Bill Pollock. It was engineered by Bill Pollock and Advanced Staging Productions. Research was provided by Yara Daraiseh and Gyuha Lee.
Participants
Melody Barnes is executive director of the UVA Karsh Institute of Democracy and a professor of practice at the Miller Center. She is also a distinguished fellow at the UVA School of Law. A co-founder of the domestic strategy firm MB2 Solutions LLC, Barnes has spent more than 25 years crafting public policy on a wide range of domestic issues. Barnes earned her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated with honors in history, and her JD from the University of Michigan.
Charles C. W. Cooke is senior writer for National Review and the former editor of National Review Online. After studying modern history and politics at the University of Oxford, his work has mainly focused on Anglo-American history, British liberty, free speech, the Second Amendment, and American exceptionalism. He is the co-host of the Mad Dogs and Englishmen podcast and is a regular guest on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.
Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of National Affairs, he is also a senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at New York Times. He holds an MA and Ph.D from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.
Joanne B. Freeman is the Class of 1954 Professor of American History and of American Studies at Yale University. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Virginia. Her most recent book is The Field of Blood: Congressional Violence in Antebellum America, which explores physical violence in the U.S. Congress between 1830 and the Civil War.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Yuval Levin, “A Rule of Thumb for the Executive Power Debates,” National Review Online (February 5, 2025)
- Melody Barnes et al., Karsh Institute of Democracy Statement of Principles
- Melody Barnes, Corey D. B. Walker and Thad M. Williamson, “Introduction: Can We Make American Democracy Work?,” in Community Wealth Building and the Reconstruction of American Democracy (2020)
- Charles Cooke, The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right’s Future (2015)
- Charles Cooke, “The American System Works, and It Will Work If Trump Wins Again,” (December 15, 2023)
Stay Connected and Learn More:
- Questions or comments about the show? Email us at [email protected]
- Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr.
- Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate.
- Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen.
- Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube.
- Support our important work.
