Insights & Commentaries

Insights & Commentaries

Video: Why Trump’s Embrace of Dictators is Dangerous for the U.S.

Interview on Fox News,

"Real estate diplomacy" -- lavishing compliments on an opponent -- may have worked for Trump when negotiating in business, but heaping praise on tyrants risks aiding and abetting their oppression and is a tragic betrayal of American interests and values.

Read more »
Insights & Commentaries

What President Trump Will Say if Terrorists Strike in the U.S.

Op-Ed for The Washington Post,

Demagogues only succeed when their audiences surrender their agency over their own minds and hearts; when we allow the heated emotions of the moment to overwhelm the facts and enduring values we know to be true. We’ve been put on guard. Whether we succumb to Trump’s fear-mongering or rise above it is entirely up to us.

Read more »
Insights & Commentaries

Video: A Conversation on Presidential Rhetoric & Foreign Policy

Interview at the Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas

Reflections on how to correct a speech after the President has started speaking (minute 25); when President Obama said a speech was "fine" (1 hour, 10 min); why there's no such thing as the "deep state" (1 hour, 18); and three basic facts about Trump and Russia (1 hour, 22).

Read more »
Insights & Commentaries

Video: Former Presidential Speechwriters on Trump’s Address to Congress

TV interview with CBC News,

Szuplat: We saw “a tale of two Trumps. He gives the appearance of moderation while his agenda is as extreme as ever. I have to think that presidents and prime ministers all over the world – our closest allies, from Asia to Europe – were scratching their heads.”

Read more »
Insights & Commentaries

What Should Trump Tell Congress?

Comment for Politico Magazine,

“If he hopes to succeed as president, Trump will at some point need to appeal to people’s better angels, rather than their darkest impulses.”

Read more »
Insights & Commentaries

Trump’s First Weeks and America’s Role in the Asia Pacific

Interview with Australia’s Chifley Research Centre,

“There’s strong bipartisan support in Washington for a more stabilizing approach—continued broad-based U.S. political, economic and security engagement in the Asia Pacific. We’re not under any illusions that we can stop everything Trump is planning. But we’re seeing an unprecedented explosion of progressive activism and it will only get stronger.”

Read more »
Insights & Commentaries

An American Girl Watches Trump—and Worries

Op-Ed for The Huffington Post,

At 13 years old, Alina still believes in America and her place in it. Whether the hopes of young Americans like her can be sustained will be one of the surest measures of the health of a pluralistic, tolerant America in the years ahead.

Read more »
Insights & Commentaries

Why Trump’s “America First” Policy Is Doomed to Fail

The New Yorker,

Words matter, and the words of a U.S. President matter immensely in shaping how the world perceives America. When the United States is held in high esteem an American President is in a stronger position to advance U.S. interests.

Read more »
Insights & Commentaries

“On Monday morning, the sun rose over Boston.” President Obama’s Speechwriters Reflect on Eight Years of Speeches

Medium,

“As speechwriters, we often write with a specific person or group of people in mind — the people we want the speech to connect with, emotionally. In this case, I kept thinking of one of my uncles, born and bred in Boston who, to me, embodied the Boston Strong spirit of pride and defiance we saw that week.”

Read more »
Insights & Commentaries

“How the Real Obama Met the Real Pánfilo” Terry Szuplat Explains How President Obama Ended up in a Cuban Comedy Skit

Medium,

“It made a big impression on me,” one Havana resident told an American reporter. It showed that President Obama seems to be “open-minded, reasonable and someone capable of putting himself in other’s shoes.”

Read more »