Donald Devine
TFAS Senior Scholar
Donald Devine is senior scholar at The Fund for American Studies in Washington, D.C. He served as President Ronald Reagan’s civil service director during the president’s first term in office. During that time, The Washington Post labeled him “Reagan’s Terrible Swift Sword of the Civil Service” for cutting bureaucratic excesses and reducing billions in spending.
Before and after his government service, Devine was an academic, teaching 14 years as associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland and for a decade as a professor of Western civilization at Bellevue University. In the definitive work on Frank Meyer’s essays, Devine was listed as one of the dozen “leading lights” of the postwar fusionist reevaluation of conservative and libertarian thinking.
He is a columnist appearing regularly in The American Spectator, The Imaginative Conservative and Law & Liberty and is the author of 12 books, including his most recent, “Thinking About Freedom and Tradition: Understanding the Philosophers Who Make the Case for Western Civilization” and “Ronald Reagan’s Enduring Principles: How They Can Promote Political Success Today”.
Today, Devine writes and teaches young people, speaking about reviving the Constitution and what Reagan called the secret of its success: the way it harmonized freedom and tradition in its fragile balance called federalism.
To learn more about Devine’s lectures and seminars, please visit the links below:
To book Dr. Devine to speak to your campus or organization, please contact Steve Slattery at sslattery@TFAS.org. For media inquiries, please contact Kristin Underwood at info@TFAS.org. or 202.986.0384.
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The American Spectator – 4.23.26
Can Liberty Survive Without a Soul? – 4.23.26
It takes a serious intellectual to confront the fundamental questions. The number one problem today, Michael Lucchese has argued, is our “inability to connect the case for liberty to a larger, transcendent vision of life’s ultimate purpose.” The “liberal spirit of toleration” necessary for liberty, which “the West cultivated for 250 years or more,” is now so weakened that it seems Alexis de Tocqueville’s “darkest prophecies” for freedom’s future are coming true
The American Spectator – 3.10.26
Forthcoming Ideological Battle on the Right? – 3.10.26
The American Enterprise Institute’s Michael R. Strain has written a thought-provoking article placing in print what is on the mind of every right-of-center intellectual today. He titled it: The Battle for the Right’s Post-Trump Future Has Begun. And it deserves a respectful but critical analysis to understand the forthcoming ideological battle.
The American Spectator – 2.3.26
Has President Trump Ended or Extended the Conservative Era?
Everyone seems to be giving their two cents about Donald Trump’s performance as president. Not surprisingly, where they come from politically pretty much determines their conclusions, including disagreements between conservatism’s competing factions.
The American Spectator – 12.28.25
Stop Blaming Reagan
As a longtime professor of government, advisor to presidential candidates, a Republican nominee for political office, and a conservative generally, the number one question I get these days from ordinary citizens is: Why are right-of-center groups all fighting with one another, and how should they engage the other side?
The American Spectator – 12.1.25
Bad Presidents or Bad Government?
No matter where one looks these days, there is an explosion of anger over the decline in political ethics and the dominant role now played by moral relativism in American governance.
The American Spectator – 10.17.25
What Does the Great Gold Spike Signify for the World Economy?
The invaluable Unleash Prosperity Hotline recently exposed the little previously reported news that the price for an ounce of gold would hit $4,000, and it did. Over five years, the price of gold has doubled, and over the past year, it has been up 50 percent. This is the largest annual increase since the 1979 raging inflation and long gas waiting lines. Today’s 50 percent gold increase compared with only a 17 percent increase on the NASDAQ, 13 percent for the S&P 500, and 9 percent for the Dow.
The American Spectator - 9.27.25
Artificial Intelligence Requires Human Understanding
As a longtime book author, lecturer, and journalist, a great part of my time is spent on research. So, the arrival of Artificial Intelligence would seem to be a great boon for my writing.
I mostly use publicly available search and AI. But in thousands and thousands of searches, I have never received a positive right-of-center response first on a search. If looking for a specific product or named person or institution the regular search can usually find it.
The American Spectator - 8.25.25
Trump on Tariffs, Trade, and Pragmatic Populism
President Trump has: pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord; challenged the greenhouse gas “Endangerment Finding” on carbon dioxide; required that every new regulation must have benefits that exceed costs; enforced work requirements for welfare; expanded production of American oil, gas, and coal production; increased mining on federal lands; supported educational school choice; withdrawn from the World Health Organization; and taken legal control of the bureaucracy, among other positive reforms.
The American Spectator - 7.21.25
The Washington Post Is Wrong: History Proves the Federal Reserve Econometric Models Cannot Make a Fiat Money System Work
The solemn Washington Post editorial warned against the Federal Reserve being forced to make economic policy decisions that are the “product of political pressure, not economic data.” It argued “that the world’s most powerful central bank makes decisions based on economic conditions, not short-term political considerations.” It warned that the Fed “is a critical national asset” and worried that President Donald Trump’s political policy “is eroding it in ways that could be bad for the country and his own agenda.”
The American Spectator - 6.19.25
Pitfalls and Obstacles Plague Defense Modernization
As impressive as the recent military celebration of its 250-year founding was, it was necessarily focused upon its history, upon its past. The challenge is for the future.
The good news is that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth promised Congress that the new commander in chief is committed to “cleaning house” to effectively modernize his military. And unlike in much of the past, the new defense leader is actually following through to reorient the world’s largest bureaucracy and reverse decades of decline, especially at the top.
