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So, Is It Fascism?
Jonathan Rauch joins the podcast to discuss why he now believes “fascism” accurately describes Trump’s governing style.
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Inside Trump’s White House
White House reporter Annie Linskey offers a closer look at how the Trump White House makes decisions and what recent actions reveal about its strategy.
Programs
Under President Trump, the White House looks different than ever before, from press relations to the construction of new ballroom. But how does the Trump White House actually operate—and has that approach begun to shift in 2026? Recent developments, including immigration enforcement in Minneapolis and clashes over the Kennedy Center, raise questions about whether the administration’s actions are driven more by policy priorities or by public pressure.
In this episode, co-hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer are joined by Wall Street Journal White House reporter Annie Linskey to examine how the administration makes decisions behind closed doors. Drawing on her reporting, Linskey discusses what’s stayed the same, what seems to be changing, and whether events like Minneapolis reflect meaningful course corrections or surface-level adjustments to a familiar playbook.
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About This Week’s Guest
Annie Linskey has been a White House reporter at The Wall Street Journal since joining the paper in 2022. Linskey previously covered the White House and national politics for the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Bloomberg News. Her reporting experience spans three presidential campaigns and four administrations and has taken her to four continents.
She has received the Gerald R. Ford Prize for distinguished reporting on the presidency, the National Press Club’s Lee Walczak Award for political analysis, and the New York Press Club’s National Award for political reporting. She started her journalism career at the Baltimore Sun in 2003, where she focused on crime and later city and state politics. During a sabbatical, she covered the Khmer Rouge trials from Cambodia.
About the Hosts
Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.
Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney. Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.
Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy. In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.” In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.” In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times. And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”
The views expressed on this show are those of the hosts alone and do not necessarily represent the positions of the Ash Center or its affiliates.
Transcript
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