In the News

In the NewsInsights & Commentaries

Letter from America: Donald Trump Does Not Define Us

Op-Ed for The Huffington Post,

Not unlike the monasteries of Ireland centuries ago protected classic texts from the chaos of their time, people across our country are working to safeguard our democracy today. So please don’t give up on us. America is bigger than any one person, even the president. And we’re still here.

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White House Iftar Celebrations Could End Under Trump

Comment for The Washington Post,

Terence Szuplat, a speechwriter for Obama, told The Post he couldn’t pinpoint who had brought up the Jefferson [iftar] dinner first. “I remember thinking, that would be a very interesting and fascinating and powerful story, but we can’t have the president say it until we know that it’s 100 percent accurate,” Szuplat said.

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A Speechwriter’s Perspective on Trump’s First Foreign Trip

Comment for USA Today,

"Any foreign trip is a high-wire act. The fact that President Trump is going to try to do all this at once is mind-boggling," said Terence Szuplat, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama who worked on many of his speeches in foreign capitals. "The number of minefields here are just remarkable."

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Obama Alumni Terence Szuplat Launches Global Voices

POLITICO Playbook,

Terence Szuplat -- one of President Obama's two foreign policy speechwriters for eight years and deputy director of White House speechwriting in the second term -- is starting a new venture. Global Voices will offer strategic communications and speechwriting to leaders, companies and NGOs in the U.S. and around the world.

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Donald Trump’s Speech to Congress: What to Look For

Newsday,

Szuplat said Trump has an opportunity Tuesday night to reach out to those who dislike or disagree with him by offering an optimistic, reassuring and more inclusive vision of the future.

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Rating President Obama’s Biggest Speeches

CNN.com,

Several "great speeches of Obama's presidency were after national tragedies, which struck the right note," said author and professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania. Many of those addresses were a collaboration between Obama and senior speechwriters Cody Keenan and Terry Szuplat.

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“The Greatest Job in the World”

Interview with SiriusXM,

Interview with "The Dean Obeidallah Show" on SiriusXM Progress

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What’s it Like for Ordinary Citizens to be Highlighted in a Presidential Speech?

San Diego Union Tribune,

“Nothing captures the imagination and helps people understand the impacts and possibilities like hearing about people who live them every day,” said Terry Szuplat, who as one of Obama’s longest-serving speechwriters conceived and drafted hundreds of talks on a variety of subjects over the past eight years.

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An Inside Look at the Selling of the White House’s Foreign Policy

San Diego Union Tribune,

Terence Szuplat: Every single one of these town halls and the speeches that [President Obama] gives around the world are broadcasted and seen by millions of people. And there’s no other country, there’s no other leader who does that. In this globalized world, you can’t just make deals with global elites. You have to have buy-in from the people and go to every region in the world.

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Reconciler in Chief: Obama Appeals to the People on Foreign Visits

CNN,

In eight years of trips overseas, President Barack Obama has sought to use the soaring, bridge-building rhetoric that rocketed him to the top of the political world in the United States on audiences overseas. He reaches past the leaders he meets at summits and state dinners to their people, trying to forge an emotional bond across barriers of language, ideology and culture.

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