DC-Area Universities Are Offering Trump Classes This Fall

How will local universities be tackling Trump this fall? A sampling of catalog offerings:

US Democracy in Crisis

Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University

Jennifer Nicoll Victor has taught the course before, but this year she’s changing it to reflect how, as she says, “the US has moved to a regime type that is not classified as democracy.” Readings will likely include a Vox article about life in authoritarian countries and a piece that Victor wrote for the online publication the Conversation about how the US is moving in that direction.

The Presidency

Center for Advanced Governmental Studies, Johns Hopkins University

America has entered a “presidentialist era” says this class’s professor, Benjamin Ginsberg. The course will look into how the executive branch has be­come more significant in US culture and politics during the second Trump administration.

The American Presidency

Department of Political Science, George Washington University

Lecturer Michael Goff says his course will explore, in nearly real time, the “current controversies and disruptions” and the “impact and dysfunctionality of the Trump administration and the likelihood for its success long term.”

This article appears in the May 2025 issue of Washingtonian.

Jane Godiner

Editorial Fellow