In 2020, Donald Trump is the Republican party’s only platform.

At this year’s Republican National Convention, for the first time in more than 150 years, the GOP decided not to agree a new party platform ahead of the 2020 presidential election, instead deciding to endorse President Trump’s priorities, whatever they might be. Jeffrey K. Tulis writes that, just when it seemed there were no more democratic norms for Donald Trump to tear up, he has done it again

Alexis de Tocqueville, pandemic virtue and selfishness, and American democracy in decline

The 19th century French political thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, observed that in America, motivation almost universally came from self-interest understood in a new way, rather than from virtue, which was often the case in European aristocracies. Jeffrey K. Tulis writes that the COVID-19 pandemic has seen deviations from this tendency, with a rise in both brute selfish and virtuous behavior. He attributes this mutation of American “self-interest rightly understood” to the decay of democracy, and the rise of white supremacy and anti-democratic sentiments

How the Electoral College could deny Donald Trump the presidency.

The 2016 election is not yet over – on December 19th Electors from across the US will meet to cast their votes for president as part of the Electoral College. Jeffrey Tulis writes that the Electoral College – which began as a deliberative institution – could be used to deny Donald Trump the presidency. He argues that a bi-partisan coalition of Electors could choose a Republican other than Trump, thus splitting the Electoral College and handing the election to the House of Representatives

The crisis is not over. Congress: get to work.

The final few days leading to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden are a time of great peril, writes Jeffrey K. Tulis, who gives recommendations for emergency government—including starting impeachment proceedings against President Trump

Long read: Trump’s ‘Hail Mary’ pass and the questions it raises about how presidents are elected

Despite media projections that Joe Biden is the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump continues to make claims to the contrary. Jeffrey K. Tulis writes that Trump’s legal challenges to vote counts and pressure on state officials to change their Electoral College votes in closely contested states are a “Hail Mary” tactic to keep the presidency. Contrasting Trump’s current efforts to influence the Electoral College with 2016 calls for electors to be “faithless” and to not vote for Trump, he writes that the Electoral College has lost one of its original functions: to prevent demagogues from entering the White House

To counter Donald Trump's permanent campaign Joe Biden must show what it means to govern

Trump’s ‘permanent campaign’ mentality has affected the nation’s crisis response. Jeffrey K. Tulis argues that the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, must seek ways to look presidential while campaigning from home

Book review: The president who would not be king: executive power under the constitution by Michael McConnell

In The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution, Michael McConnell explores presidential power and its limits under the Constitution. Jeffrey K. Tulis gives an overview of the book, and discusses the merits and serious defects of its legalistic approach to presidential power. The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution. Michael McConnell. Princeton University Press. 202

How a lame-duck Trump could imperil the United States, and what Congress can do to stop him.

If he is defeated on Election Day, a lame-duck President Trump could wreak havoc during the eleven weeks before inauguration day write Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey K. Tulis

Long read: trump v. thompson shows that when the supreme court weighs in on executive privilege it’s bad for congress, for a sitting president, and for the court.

The US Supreme Court has recently rejected former President Trump’s request to stop the National Archives from releasing White House records from during his tenure. Gary J. Schmitt and Jeffrey K. Tulis look at the recent history of disputes over executive privilege between Congress and the executive, and argue that while hyper-partisanship in the legislature has necessitated the Supreme Court’s involvement in resolving these disagreements, this is not good for Congress – or for the Court