Author Archive

Trump’s second assassination attempt is shocking, but attempts on presidents’ lives are not rare in US history

There have been 45 men elected president since the country’s founding. And 40% of them have experienced known attempts on their lives.

• Shannon Bow O'Brien, The Conversation
• September 18, 2024

Mike Pence is Jockeying Against Donald Trump for the Republican Presidential Nomination – Joining the Ranks of Just One Vice President Who, in 1800, Also Ran Against a Former Boss

• Shannon Bow O'Brien, The Conversation
• June 7, 2023

How the FBI Knew What to Search for at Mar-A-Lago – and Why the Presidential Records Act Is An Essential Tool for the National Archives and Future Historians

A presidential scholar sets the history and context for the battle over President Trump’s official records – and says it isn’t the first records battle between the government and a former president.

• Shannon Bow O'Brien, The Conversation
• August 10, 2022

New Photos Suggest How Trump, Flush with Power, May Have Sent Official Documents down the Toilet

Photos showing what appear to be torn-up documents in two different toilets may provide more evidence of the former president’s habit of destroying his presidential documents.

• Shannon Bow O'Brien, The Conversation
• August 9, 2022

Trump Wants the National Archives to Keep His Papers Away from Investigators – Post-Watergate Laws and Executive Orders May not Let Him

Donald Trump’s lawsuit to stop the release to Congress of potentially embarrassing or incriminating documents puts the National Archives in the middle of an old legal conflict.

• Shannon Bow O'Brien, The Conversation
• October 23, 2021

Trump, Defying Custom, Hasn’t Given the National Archives Records of His Speeches at Political Rallies

All presidents must deposit transcriptions of their public statements with the National Archives. But in the case of Donald Trump, there's something missing.

• Shannon Bow O'Brien, The Conversation
• April 16, 2021