Disruption

What happens when a tradition-bound institution encounters an iconoclastic president intent on changing how the government operates? In Disruption?, Sean M. Theriault has gathered nineteen leading authors from a range of subfields to provide a compelling understanding for if, how, and to what extent Trump disrupted the Senate. As the authors argue, Trump became trapped in the norms and rules of the Senate on some dimensions, while he became the story to which all senators needed to respond on others. This book shows how multiple facets of the Senate changed during Trump’s presidency, including the legislative process, party leadership, roll-call voting, and communications. Comprehensive in its coverage of the period and embedding it in a deep historical context, this book highlights how these changes reflected back on to not only the Trump administration, but also the very legitimacy of the Senate itself.

Sean M. Theriault is University Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He has authored dozens of articles and six books on the US Congress, including Congress: The First Branch (Oxford, 2020), The Great Broadening (2019), and The Gingrich Senators (Oxford, 2013). He is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including the Friar Centennial Teaching Fellow and UT’s Professor of the Year.