Authors and Insights: Susan Page

Join the McCain Institute for its next Authors & Insights book talk featuring USA Today Washington DC Bureau Chief Susan Page on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. ET. 

McCain Institute Executive Director Dr. Evelyn Farkas will interview Page about her latest book, The Queen and Her Presidents, “a history that chronicles the largely unknown story of Queen Elizabeth II’s relationship with thirteen American presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Donald J. Trump.”

Queen Elizabeth II's steadfast commitment to democratic values and transatlantic alliances—particularly the enduring relationship between the US and the UK—resonates deeply with our audience and reflects many of the principles that defined Senator John McCain's leadership and legacy.

Susan Page is the Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY, where she writes about the White House and national politics. She is the New York Times best-selling author of a series of biographies of formidable women: The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters (Simon and Schuster, 2024). Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power (Twelve, 2021). The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty (Twelve, 2019). Her fourth book The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History, was published by Harper in April 2026 in the United States and Great Britain. 

Susan covered her twelfth presidential election in 2024. She has covered eight presidential administration and interviewed the past ten presidents, from Richard Nixon through Donald Trump — seven sitting presidents, and three after they had left the White House. She has reported from six continents and dozens of foreign countries. As a reporter -- first for Newsday and then for USA TODAY -- she drove to Three Mile Island hours after the nuclear mishap was reported, traveled across Southeast Asia to chronicle the exodus of Vietnamese ‘boat people,’ and interviewed physicist Stephen Hawking through his computerized ‘voice.’ 

She has won the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency (twice), the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage, the Merriman Smith Award for Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure, and the Sigma Delta Chi award for Washington Correspondence (shared). In 2026, the University of Kansas awarded her the William Allen White national citation, and the Washington Press Club and Foundation presented her with its Lifelong Achievement Award. 

She has served as president of the White House Correspondents Association and as president of the Gridiron Club, the oldest association of journalists in Washington. She was the moderator of the vice-presidential debate in 2020 between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. (Yes, that was the one with the fly.)

A native of Wichita, Kansas, she received a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, where she was editor-in-chief of The Daily Northwestern. She received a master’s degree from Columbia University, where she was a Pulitzer Fellow. She is married to Carl Leubsdorf, a veteran journalist whose column is distributed by the Chicago Tribune service. They have two sons, Ben and Will.

The McCain Institute’s Authors & Insights series features interviews with authors of important books on American politics, policy, and leadership that affirm the importance of character-driven leadership and America’s role in the international community. Previous authors have included the late former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark Esper, CBS News’ Major Garrett and elections expert David Becker, former World Food Programme Executive Director Amb. Cindy McCain, CNN’s Jake Tapper, POLITICO National Security Reporter Alex Ward, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, and more.