Examines how Trump's election as President signals a rollback of the
Obama years
- Establishes what can be regarded as Obama's legacy, in both domestic
and foreign policy
- Investigates how far the Trump administration (up to the 2018
mid-terms) undoes Obama's legacy legacy
- Focuses on meaningful shifts in presidential priorities, policy
changes, and the imprint of presidential leadership
- Case studies on specific policy areas where presidential 'undoing' has
had a significant impact or has been thwarted, such as health care
reform and immigration policy
In 2008, in what seemed a seminal moment for the country's politics, the
United States elected an African American as President. Yet, eight years
later, in the form of Donald Trump, the nation put in office a man who
was the very antithesis of his predecessor. This book determines what
can legitimately be regarded as the legacy of the Obama presidency and
investigates how far the Trump administration has reversed it. The
analysis is embedded in a historical context, based on examination and
scrutiny of how, and how successfully, presidents in the modern era have
overturned the work of their predecessor when they have attempted to do
so. The authors focus on meaningful priority shifts, policy changes and
the imprint of presidential leadership, providing a framework for
assessing Obama's legacy, which in turn affords context to a discussion
of the Trump administration's capacity to fulfil its promise to reverse
the direction taken by the Obama White House. Looking beyond the noise
and hyperbole, the book examines how robust the Obama legacy has proved
to be in the face of Trump's challenge.
