Mountain View
Washington Monthly
How Much Longer Will Trump Rule the GOP?
Both as a professional political analyst and as a human being, I have loathed the Donald Trump era of American politics. Beyond the substantive damage he has wrought, I just don’t like thinking about him. I don’t care about his life story. I don’t care to know how his mind works. I don’t care about his family. I would rather never write about him again and I look forward to the day when I no longer have to.
Why Trump’s Veep Pick Matters
Once a non-incumbent secures the presidential nomination, the political media obsesses over who might get picked for a running mate, with some justification. Beyond any short-term political impact (of which there is usually little), the vice-presidential pick is an early window into how the party’s nominee plans to govern.
The Business Records Case Against Trump Wasn’t Some Legal Confection
Now that former President Donald Trump has been convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records, his supporters are making wild claims: Trump couldn’t call witnesses (he could and did), or Trump couldn’t testify because of a gag order (he could have if he wanted to), or the underlying theory of the case was novel.
Trump’s “Weaponization” Narrative Just Got Shot Down
“It’s weaponization of the Justice Department, of the FBI, and that’s all coming out of Washington.” So said Donald Trump last week on Fox News, part of his strategy to delegitimize his felony conviction. The charge doesn’t make any sense. Trump was prosecuted by the Manhattan District...
“It’s Time for a Resurrection, Not an Insurrection”
On June 19, 1968, less than three months after the assassination of her husband, Coretta Scott King issued a challenge from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. She asked that the nation take Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights vision in a bold new direction. Before his death, Dr. King had set in motion the Poor People’s Campaign, an unprecedented crusade for economic justice. Speaking to a multi-racial crowd of 50,000, the grieving widow posed a simple question: “What good is the legal right to sit in a restaurant if one cannot afford the price of food?” Still reeling from her husband’s violent murder, she added, “…starving a child is violence…contempt for poverty is violence.”
Beacons of Hope for the Ukrainian Economy
The damage is evident everywhere in Mykolaiv, once a bustling port and shipbuilding hub near the Black Sea, 85 miles east of Odesa. Russian and Ukrainian forces fought hand to hand in and around the city in March 2022, followed by eight months of relentless shelling by the frustrated invading army. In November, Ukrainian troops pushed the Russians out of range, and the invaders never made it to Odesa.
Democrats Should Run Against the Supreme Court
Shortly after a Manhattan jury convicted Donald Trump of 34 felonies, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson made a curious plea on Fox News. He begged the Supreme Court to intervene on Trump’s behalf. Johnson didn’t claim that Trump was innocent. He didn’t claim that Trump did nothing wrong or did not commit crimes. Instead, the Louisiana Republican simply gestured at vague “abuses of the system” and said he expected the highest court in the land to step in because he “knew some of the justices personally.”
The One Thing Wrong with All of the 2024 Polls
In the Washington Monthly’s continuing quest to immunize America against “Mad Poll Disease,” Contributing Writer Robert J. Shapiro reminds us that the history of June polls is not all predictive of November outcomes. Aside from that history, that the 2024 polls to date—and in turn, the poll...
Biden’s Immigration Policy Is Not Trump’s
President Joe Biden’s executive order, blocking asylum-seekers from crossing the southern border between official points of entry, was characterized by the American Civil Liberties Union as the “same approach as the Trump administration’s asylum ban.” The New York Times headlined that the order “leans on Trump’s favorite immigration law,” and CNN said it “pulls from Trump’s immigration playbook.”
After the Trump Verdict: This Week’s Presidential Contest Polls Mean Little to Nothing
No one knows if Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions will move many Americans when they vote in five months. Nevertheless, the early surveys probably cheered Joe Biden’s White House: A Reuters/Ipsos post-verdict poll showed the president now leading Trump by 2 points (41 to 39), compared to the pre-verdict RealClearPolitics average with Trump ahead by 2 points (42 to 40). (Robert Kennedy Jr. had 10 percent.)
Donald Trump’s 50 Years of Criminal Behavior and Criminal Hypocrisy
Hours after Donald Trump’s guilty verdict was announced, I wrote, “The trial made clear that Trump is not of decent character and has no fealty to the law.”. Of course, this isn’t exactly breaking news to anyone who has paid close attention to Trump. But now that...
Trump’s Payoff to Stormy Was the Best $130,000 He Ever Spent
Could Teflon Don lose his grip on a third of the country because 12 twelve ordinary Americans did their duty, even the one who said he gets all his news from Truth Social? When Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of masterminding a scheme, it exposed him for all to see as a “loser” like the war hero who got captured, the “sucker” son of Gold Star parents who could have been making money instead of dying in combat. Neither his eldest daughter nor his latest wife stood by Trump. He’s no longer the Lothario of Access Hollywood, boasting he can do what he wants to women because he’s a star.
What Was the Alito Flag Really About?
Thirty-five years ago, I was a reporter for The Washington Post, working on a large and complex feature article. A recent graduate of a Washington, D.C., university had agreed to come by my office to share what they knew. But shortly after sitting down, they made a startling statement:. “I’m...
Days 22 and 23 of the Trump Trial: “Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty” and 30 More “Guiltys”
Today is the day Judge Merchan will instruct the jury, and deliberations will begin. Exciting!. I caught a break this morning on the seating and got into the front row (for the press) on the left side of the courtroom. That’s why the photo of Donald Trump in The Washington Post in the moments before court was in session shows a blurry me in glasses with my hand across my chin just over bearded Don Jr.’s left shoulder.” You may need a magnifying glass to see me, but I did want to introduce it into evidence as proof that I haven’t been bullshitting you all these weeks about being there.
Will Donald Trump End Up Behind Bars?
Everyone wants to know whether Trump will go to jail. You bet he could. The Florida resident could even run for president from jail as Socialist leader Eugene Victor Debs did in 1920. Debs was convicted under the Espionage Act for his anti-war activities and speeches opposing American involvement in World War I. He garnered almost a million votes. Americans are a forgiving people.
The Cost of Exaggerating the Gaza Protests
The mainstream media, anti-intellectuals on the right, and enemies of Israel on the left would have us believe that the youth of America is exploding in anti-war activism. Scenes of campus encampments full of students demanding that their universities “divest” from the Jewish state and breathless reports of young voters angered over the American-Israel alliance have dominated the news cycle for weeks and have only begun to taper off now that school’s out for summer. Many pundits have speculated that youthful disaffection with Biden over his aid of Israel’s war against Hamas will lead to an electoral disaster in November.
Trump Trial, Day 21: The Critical Closing Arguments
My apologies for not keeping up with these dispatches. As you might imagine, this week has been craaaazy. All of you know the outcome, but I want to continue to give you a sense of how things unfolded day by day. Tuesday, May 28, Day 21, was set aside for...
The Feminist and the Fraudster
The conviction of former President Donald Trump for falsifying records to support his 2016 campaign has only magnified his baseless charges of partisanship in the legal system. Even as a felon, he and his enablers continue to threaten our democracy. The infuriating delays of his two federal trials—for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election and for his alleged mishandling of classified documents when he lost that election—set off a new wave of frustration this week with Judge Aileen Cannon’s refusal to gag him for posted remarks that could threaten government agents. In what may be the most troubling roadblock, the Supreme Court is considering Trump’s claim of immunity relating to the January 6 Capitol riot, which means his culpability for trying to negate 81 million votes may not be known until after this November’s presidential election.
Donald Trump Should Drop Out
Convicted felon Donald Trump’s first words after the historic jury verdict were predictably defiant: “The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people.”. The Biden-Harris campaign’s communication director issued a statement (perhaps written in anticipation of a hung jury) that didn’t challenge that point: “Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”
Biden Absolutely Should Take Credit for the Economy
David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s top campaign strategist, recently critiqued President Joe Biden’s approach to the economy. “His desire to claim credit is a huge obstacle to connecting with voters on this issue,” Axelrod told The Wall Street Journal, “We learned this in 2011 and 2012. You can cite data until the cows come home, but what counts is how people are perceiving the economy.”
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