Examines how Trump's election as President signals a rollback of the Obama yearsIn 2008, in what seemed a seminal moment for the country's politics, the United States elected an African American as President. Yet, eight years later, in the form of Donald Trump, the nation put in office a man who was the very antithesis of his predecessor. This book determines what can legitimately be regarded as the legacy of the Obama presidency and investigates how far the Trump administration has reversed it. The analysis is embedded in a historical context, based on examination and scrutiny of how, and...

This book evaluates the presidency of Donald Trump from a comparative, historical approach to connect his populist style to his predecessors. Trump's method of communication through social media obviously differs from previous candidates and presidents with populist platforms, but his themes - a disdain for elites, grassroots support, majoritarianism, anti-intellectual discourse, and nativism borrow variably from such figures as Andrew Jackson, Huey Long, Barry Goldwater, and Ross Perot. As such, Trump's approach to governance falls within a long tradition of populism dating to the 19th...

Midterm elections have forced presidents to adjust course, reshaped their relationship with the party they lead, and heralded the rise or fall of new electoral coalitions. This book presents a fresh perspective on the American presidency by analysing how midterms modify in crucial ways the mandate that a president gained at the time of their election to the White House. Midterms not only provide an important opportunity for voters to evaluate the record of a president so far, but also have consequences for an administration's pursuit of the president's agenda over the two years that follow....