When The Bully Pulpit Backfires

When The Bully Pulpit Backfires

Good morning! It’s Friday, May 9, 2025. 179 days until Election Day 2025. 543 days until Election Day 2026. There may have been white smoke from the Vatican yesterday, but there was black smoke from the Capitol. — GabeThe American president is endowed with various powers by the Constitution, but one of his greatest assets is supposedly one that is found nowhere in the document: the power of communication.In a nod to Theodore Roosevelt, we often …

The bully’s pulpit: Finding patterns in Trump’s use of military force

“We are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis, effective immediately,” said US president Donald Trump from the Oval Office on Tuesday. The announcement, which came out of nowhere and apparently in response to the Houthis’ apparent agreement to halt their attacks on US ships in the Red Sea, highlights how Trump’s decisions to use or not use force are often surprising to observers. In his first term as president, from 2017 until 2021, Trump fre…