He has served as executive vice president for both the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and the Freedom Foundation, and was a legal policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation. Trent was a Publius Fellow of the Claremont Institute in 2008. He is the author of Why We Must Defend the Electoral College and a contributor The Heritage Guide to the Constitution and One Nation Under Arrest. Trent earned a J.D. from the George Mason University School of Law and a B.A. in government from Claremont McKenna College.