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Julia R. Azari, Professor of Political Science, Marquette University

The president as partisan warrior: Trump’s rejection of traditional presidential statesmanship

After taking control of the board earlier in the year, President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 13, 2025, the nominees of the annual Kennedy Center Honors. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

In a classic work on the modern presidency originally published in 1960, political scientist Richard Neustadt wrote that the American public “expects the man in the White House to do something about everything.”

These expectations, Neustadt argued, far exceeded the president’s ability to actually control outcomes.

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