Donald Trump is frequently faulted, and rightly so, for attempting to take credit for things he had nothing to do with. With Trump, though, you get the feeling it’s the habit of the real-estate mogul and showbiz kingpin talking. He doesn’t actually think (does he?) that the stock market goes up…
How do we know this is fake? Let us count the ways.
It's a party
No.
Last week, Barack Obama finally did what Democratic activists had been desperately hoping he would do—he reproached his successor ahead of the midterm election. It was a long, discursive oration, as Obama’s orations usually are, and it contained lots of impromptu gibes and derisive harrumphs that…
Fool me once…
We'll let you guess.
For more than a year and a half now, hundreds of intellectuals and historians and commentators have written books and articles and delivered lectures on the origins and meaning of Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. A foreign observer could be forgiven for thinking every writer on politics and culture in…
The Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan continued his pattern of fighting fire with fire this week, striking back at his perceived enemies in a scorching, three-hour sermon entitled "Unmasking Satan" at the Mosque Maryam in Chicago. "[Y]ou and I are going to have to learn to distinguish between the…
In short, the Obama administration lied.
Officials also staged “roadshows” encouraging foreign financial engagement with the Islamic Republic.
A community organizes against his library plans.
The partial repeal of Dodd Frank could have gone farther, but it's a good start.
Pompeo is right: You can’t separate a rogue regime from its roguery.
So here’s a crossover we didn’t see coming. After a year of keeping a low profile, Barack and Michelle Obama are stepping back into the public square to try their hand at a new enterprise: film production. The pair on Monday announced a multi-year production deal with streaming giant Netflix, which…
President Obama’s legacy is rapidly vanishing. The decision by President Trump to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran is the biggest blow, but it’s only the latest. The elimination of the individual mandate and canceling the yearly bailout of insurance companies have left Obamacare in a…
“Birtherism”—the ugly term for the even uglier charge that Barack Obama was not born in the United States—always suffered from one fatal flaw: a birth announcement that appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser on August 13, 1961, declaring the arrival of young Barack.
A senseless headline shrouds some legitimate news.
Horrific images from the aftermath of a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria are once again circulating online. The scene of this gassing is the eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus. Both the location and the timing of this apparent war crime are symbolically important. And while the immediate…
Russia, Iran, and North Korea all play a role in the Syrian regime's chemical attacks on its own people.
On Thursday, March 29, Ben Carson found himself in the news again. This time the problem wasn't his purchase of an expensive dining hutch (for which the housing secretary received condign criticism, including from this magazine) or his aim of shortening his agency's garbled mission statement (for…
Imagine: A high-level political consultant admits he mined Facebook data to target likely voters in swing states. He says he helped “build this thing called targeted sharing” that “allowed us to use Facebook to persuade people.” Cambridge Analytica? No, that was Democratic strategist Jim Messina,…
For decades, Ohio has been a political bellwether—a quadrennial swing state that often voted for the winning presidential candidate. But in 2016, something odd happened—Ohio jerked sharply to the right, giving now President Trump an eigh-point win despite his two-point national popular vote loss.…
Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. And believe me, right now dealing with Congress—believe me—believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. . . . But that’s not how—that’s not how our system works. That’s not how our democracy…
“The powerful Jews are my enemy,” remarked Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan at his organization’s annual “Saviours’ Day” celebration in Chicago in late February. That was just one of several choice anti-semitic tropes. Another one, oddly stated in the third person: “The FBI has been the worst…
Top lawmakers are pushing to expand sanctions targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), amid a declaration from a senior IRGC official that Iran’s missile production has tripled.
“Pyongyang is a crucial node in the international network of proliferation that already includes China and Russia as primary providers, Pakistan and North Korea as active disseminators, and Iran and perhaps Saudi Arabia among the final consumers. No less unsettling is the prospect that North Korea…
“The U.S. district attorney has announced that he will be pursuing charges of treason against the former President Barack Obama,” a false headline from Averific ran over the weekend.
There was an interesting announcement on Wednesday for Ben Rhodes, formerly the Obama White House deputy national security adviser. Rhodes, you may recall, caught some flack at the end of Obama’s presidency for admitting to the New York Times that he was manipulating the media in his efforts to…
On Monday, Democrats outperformed Hillary Clinton in two state legislative special elections in Minnesota (senate district 54 and state house district 23B). These races didn’t generate the flashy headlines that some others have—neither seat changed hands and Democratic overperformance was below…
Two of the top Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are calling on former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice to explain an “unusual email” she sent on the day of President Trump’s inauguration.
The release of additional texts between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page has some outlets reporting that the messages implicate President Obama for interfering in the bureau’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email.
Donald Trump used his State of the Union address last week to celebrate U.S. and coalition gains against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The president reminded his audience that a year earlier he had “pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish ISIS from the face of the earth. One year later,…
Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long is the first Super Bowl athlete this year to say he won't visit the White House if his team becomes champions. Like the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry—the face of basketball’s signature franchise, who said after the NBA Finals last year, “I don’t…
I was surprised last week to learn that plans for the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago have run into local opposition.
He was twice on the cover of National Review. He was the subject of admiring profiles in the Washington Post, Time, and, yes, THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Throughout his first term as governor of New Jersey, he was described time and again as a “rising star” of the GOP and a certain presidential contender.…
The Obama administration will be remembered for a number of disgraces in foreign affairs, prominent among them its terrible deal with Iran and its dithering over the war in Syria. Deserving of a place on that list is America’s acquiescence in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, to which the Trump…
The Obama administration hobbled a covert initiative that tracked Hezbollah’s web of criminal activities, allowing millions of dollars to fall into the hands of the Iran-backed militia, according to a Politico report. Efforts to stymie the initiative, former officials told Politico, were fueled in…
In France, all right-thinking people know instinctively what the pensée unique is—the socially acceptable view on any subject that ensures a Parisian won’t get axed from the better dinner parties and weekends in Normandy. The Democratic party, which remains a more coherent concatenation than the…
How does an accused sex offender go about getting elected to public office? With Alabama’s special Senate election taking place Tuesday, Republican Roy Moore has chosen to pursue a bold strategy: putting on the full armor of Trump and vanishing almost entirely from the voters’ view.
A top foreign correspondent at the New York Times said Friday that the Obama administration deliberately downplayed al Qaeda’s strength in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
Poor David Copperfield, to add to the other humiliations of his boyhood, at school is forced, for reasons too elaborate to go into here, to wear a sign that reads, “Take Care of Him. He Bites.” I have been thinking of that sign in connection with a sign I should like to make for myself that reads:…
“Iran has never had a better friend than Obama,” Donald Trump tweeted in December 2013, as U.S. negotiators were finalizing a deal with Iran over the country’s nuclear program. So began Trump’s long campaign of ridiculing Barack Obama for the latter’s hopelessly gullible view of the Iranian regime.…
Four recent judicial nominees from President Donald Trump have received “not qualified” ratings from the American Bar Association, most notably Brett Talley, a 36-year-old lawyer who has never tried a case. In response a post on MSNBC’s website claimed that neither Barack Obama nor Bill Clinton…
We don't use the word “lie” with abandon in these pages. It’s used far too often in public life, to the point at which nearly every statement someone disagrees with is characterized as a “lie.” The L-word is tightly regulated in parliamentary bodies—in Congress, for example—and rightly so. Once you…
On her Sunday show, MSNBC host Joy Reid claimed that Hillary Clinton did not sit on the panel that approved the Uranium One deal.
The Sacramento statehouse, according to conventional wisdom, is a bellwether for social policies that soon sweep the nation. This week, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the legislature's attempt to give Obama-era Title IX guidance the force of law that it never had nationally.
CIA director Mike Pompeo described the connection between Iran and al-Qaeda as an “open secret” Thursday, a relationship that he and others criticized the Obama White House for downplaying.
“The best defense is a good offense,” as the old saw goes. The nature of that “good offense” matters, though. Too often, American officials mistake “any offense” for a “good offense.” As tensions between North Korea and the United States continue to escalate, it is apparent that American…
North Korea’s inexorable march toward nuclear weapons has been treated as something akin to a malign meteorological phenomenon. Sure, it’s bad. But there’s also nothing we can do to stop it, the standard line has gone. After all, by the time Barack Obama took office, the “heavily isolated” country…
You don't have to be a liberal or conservative, woman or man, to find Harvey Weinstein's conduct repulsive. Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax Films and the eponymous Weinstein Company, producer of dozens of well-known, well-regarded, and multiple-Oscar-winning movies over the past three decades,…
With the Oct. 15 deadline for certifying to Congress that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Donald Trump is set to deliver a speech next week regarding his intentions. According to a report this afternoon from Adam Kredo at the…
The evidence clearly suggests that Russia tried to influence in our election last year, and more broadly, Russia is actively trying to destabilize the U.S. both politically and culturally. Russians are running a 24/7 propaganda operation on D.C. airwaves, for crying out loud. They're not even being…
“This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast—man's laws, not God's—and if you cut them down . . . d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.”
On the eve of Hurricane Harvey making landfall in Corpus Christi, President Trump pardoned former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The New York Times is upset with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. It seems that under the cloak of “rampant secrecy” has set out to “weaken an agency once known for transparency.”
Stuart Stevens is something rare in politics: A campaign strategist who can write. Stevens has run just about every kind of campaign there is—he helped win elections for Bob Dole, Haley Barbour, and George W. Bush. He got the guy from The Love Boat into Congress and ran Mitt Romney’s failed 2012…
In his first six months on the job, President Trump has presided over an economy that is creating jobs at a pace that is 50 percent faster than under President Obama.
Barack and Michelle Obama are setting lifestyle standards most Americans could only dream of, but there's no shortage of publications urging us to dream.
Barack and Michelle Obama are setting lifestyle standards most Americans could only dream of, but there's no shortage of publications urging us to dream.
On Monday secretary of Defense James Mattis appeared to break with the Obama administration's position of the preceding eight years that there is "no military solution" to the conflict in Afghanistan. At an appearance with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Defense and Foreign ministers of…
Fact Check: Did Obama Director of Intelligence James Clapper Deny Collusion Between Trump and Russia?
When Laura Campbell heard about new water regulations emanating from President Barack Obama's Environmental Protection Agency a few years back, she started calling up maps on her computer.
The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the…
Barack Obama took a break from his packed schedule of playdates with billionaires last week to go to Boston, where the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation presented him with its ever-so-prestigious "Profile in Courage AwardTM." Yes, the JFK folks have trademarked "Profile in Courage."…
Barack Obama took a break from his packed schedule of playdates with billionaires last week to go to Boston, where the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation presented him with its ever-so-prestigious "Profile in Courage AwardTM." Yes, the JFK folks have trademarked "Profile in Courage."…
Barack Obama took a break from his packed schedule of playdates with billionaires last week to go to Boston, where the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation presented him with its ever-so-prestigious "Profile in Courage AwardTM." Yes, the JFK folks have trademarked "Profile in Courage."…
We suspect we are not the only ones amused by the New York Times editorial board's anguish upon hearing that former president Barack Obama will be pocketing $400,000 from investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald to speak at a health care conference in September.
We suspect we are not the only ones amused by the New York Times editorial board's anguish upon hearing that former president Barack Obama will be pocketing $400,000 from investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald to speak at a health care conference in September.
Details of the United States' 2016 prisoner swap with Iran continue to surface more than a year later, forming a picture much different from the one the Obama administration presented at the time. The latest revelations are the most shocking yet. Under the deal, the United States granted clemency…
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, reporter Jenna Lifhits weighs in on the reports that former President Obama's Iranian appeasement went even further than had been previously reported. The Obama administration released bad actors, pushed the DOJ out of the loop, and did Iran far more favors than…
The Obama administration's controversial January 2016 prisoner swap stymied its own counterproliferation efforts against Iran that took years to carefully construct and orchestrate, Politico reports. The move fits into a broader slowdown within the administration, before and during negotiations for…
As we approach the 100-day mark of the Donald Trump presidency, it is instructive to recall the almost 100 months during which Barack Obama discharged the responsibilities of that high office. While there are reasons to be concerned about President Trump (and reasons to be encouraged, such as the…
Like a bachelor before a date, the Obama administration rushed around during the transition hiding dirty laundry for the incoming administration. And now, almost 100 days in, the Trump team is still working to find and undo a handful of underreported bureaucratic messes left behind.
Social media seethed with outrage earlier this week after the American president made a phone call to congratulate the head of a NATO member on an important vote. On Monday Donald Trump reached out to speak with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the referendum that exchanges Turkey's…
It must have seemed like a problem from hell: When Samantha Power served as Barack Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, she tirelessly highlighted the depredations of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, publicizing his various barbarities—his indiscriminate killing of civilians, his use of…
Former President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are scheduled to appear together on a panel in Germany next month "to discuss civic engagement locally and globally," Obama's foundation and the German Protestant Kirchentag announced Tuesday.
During the Bush administration, the popular protest refrain was “Bush lied, people died." It's true that a major justification for the Iraq war was eliminating Saddam Hussein's stockpiles of so-called weapons of mass destruction, a catch-all phrase for biological and chemical weapons, as well as…
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster delivered remarks in Florida today to give some background on the strikes against Syria Thursday. He made one curious comment that raises a lot of troubling questions:
George Osborne, Britain's longtime Chancellor of the Exchequer until the fall of the Cameron government, seems to have raised some eyebrows recently with his announcement that, beginning in May, he will become editor of the [London] Evening Standard. And keep his seat in the House of Commons.
The Congressional Budget Office on Monday dropped its highly-anticipated analysis of the House Republicans' healthcare plan, arming all sides with results that can back up their favorite talking points on healthcare. The CBO report, on the one hand, says that millions more people will be uninsured…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes on President Trump's wiretapping claims.
Who could be against a rule that requires investment advisers to act in the best interests of their retiree-clients? Donald Trump, the Washington branch of the Goldman Sachs alumni association, the Wall Street Journal, and well-intentioned policy wonks who have never met a regulation they like,…
Sixty-five million dollars is a lot of money for a book that Barack Obama said he would have written anyway—a labor of love, and part of a narrative to "train the next generation." He has a lot to say, a "writerly sensibility" primed to be set loose on the page. And, helpfully, the (so far)…
Who could be against a rule that requires investment advisers to act in the best interests of their retiree-clients? Donald Trump, the Washington branch of the Goldman Sachs alumni association, the Wall Street Journal, and well-intentioned policy wonks who have never met a regulation they like,…
Up to now, The Scrapbook has looked skeptically at rankings of presidents by historians. They tend to be biased, trendy, superficial, and based on no little myth. The only thing worse than getting historians—liberals, for the most part—to do the ordering would be to ask sociologists. Yet we…
Up to now, The Scrapbook has looked skeptically at rankings of presidents by historians. They tend to be biased, trendy, superficial, and based on no little myth. The only thing worse than getting historians—liberals, for the most part—to do the ordering would be to ask sociologists. Yet we…
Former president Barack Obama just couldn't help himself. Barely a week out of office, he inserted himself into the fray. He gave his benediction to the protests against President Donald Trump's executive order on travel. "President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in…
It's easy to understand why Barack Obama's supporters are so sad to see him leave the White House. Although he wasn't quite the liberal Reagan he had hoped to become, he was nonetheless an inspiring (for them, anyway) and often successful champion of progressivism—who's been replaced by Donald…
President and First Lady Obama greeted President-elect and First Lady-to-be Trump on the steps of the White House Friday morning. The profound moment was captured for history as the four posed for photographers.
Eight years ago, reflecting on the inauguration of President Barack Obama, I wrote a piece that made two arguments, which may be worth briefly revisiting.
Even with a packed schedule of farewell speeches and his final presidential press conference, Barack Obama managed to find time for exit interviews in his last few White House weeks: There was the 60 Minutes sit-down, the Lester Holt love-fest, an NPR snoozer, David Axelrod’s "Axe Files" podcast,…
Kids at Barack Obama Elementary have known only one president. Many fear the next.
Whether Barack Obama returns to the craft of short stories or makes with the memoirs, chances are he will be doing much of his writing not in Chicago, but in Washington, where he and his family have chosen to reside.
President-elect Donald Trump is "troubled" by President Barack Obama's commutation of the sentence of former Army private Chelsea Manning, according to a spokesman.
There was a time, early in Barack Obama’s presidency, when it was considered outrageous to worry out loud that the new president might treat enemies better than allies, run down friends and elevate foes, show solidarity with anti-American leaders, maybe even release dangerous terrorists or…
The White House conceded Tuesday that it wouldn't close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by the time President Obama leaves office later this week, but it hasn't stopped releasing detainees in the run-up to Inauguration Day.
When the secret military documents stolen by former Army private Chelsea Manning were released by WikiLeaks, the official position of the Pentagon was that Manning's illegal actions had endangered the lives of American soldiers.
On CNN, Arkansas senator Tom Cotton expressed disappointment with President Obama's commutation of Private Chelsea Manning, saying his cooperation with WikiLeaks "caused serious national security harm."
President Obama has commuted most of the 35-year prison term of U.S. intelligence leaker Chelsea Manning, whose disclosures were coveted by then-al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
A federal judge in West Virginia has given the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) less than seven months to review whether its Obama-era policies directly led to job losses in the coal industry, according to an order issued Wednesday.
On Thursday, President Obama announced an end to the "wet foot, dry foot" policy that allowed most Cuban migrants who reach the United States to become legal permanent residents after one year.
A good way to look at the Obama era is as a giant experiment in misdirection—the Age of Missing the Point. When a huge majority of Americans told pollsters that they were happy with their health care, the administration decided to remake the entire system of delivering health care. When vast,…
As Barack Obama leaves the Oval Office, so too will the “post-Cold War era" exit the scene. Another Lost Ark, it may wind up in an endless, dusty warehouse, a torrent locked in a raw wood crate.
A year ago, as he prepared to give his final State of the Union speech, President Obama strode the halls of the Capitol while being interviewed by NBC's Matt Lauer. Lauer asked the president, in his friendly and earnest way, if he "takes responsibility" for the fact that Donald Trump was catching…
President Obama delivered a valedictory speech Tuesday night in his adopted hometown of Chicago before an adoring throng of 18,000 attendees. Enraptured by his own oft-celebrated eloquence, Obama took his good time soaking in the love by delivering a speech that, according to the Washington…
President Obama's farewell address to the nation was longer than the good-bye speeches of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined.
CNN reports that American intelligence officials have briefed Donald Trump on documents that allege the Russian government has "compromising personal and financial information" about the president-elect. Details about the existence of this compromising information have been circulating among…
"[The British monarchy's] mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic." —Walter Bagehot To a certain degree, Bagehot's law was adopted as well by American presidents, whose status was upheld by a tradition of decorum and whose prestige was accentuated by a certain—well, mystery.…
To promote Barack Obama's final public address as president Tuesday in Chicago, the White House invokes a tradition established by the Father of Our Country, President Washington. "Since George Washington, U.S. presidents have often delivered a final address to the American people," the White House…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Jonthan V. Last on Obama's legacy, his farewell speech, and the coming days of Trump.
The Nation is publishing its gala hagiographic Obama send-off issue—"The Obama Years: 2008-2016"—and does so perhaps more in sadness than in celebration. The articles are full of complaint and recriminations—but not, for the most part, aimed at the Dear Leader.
Less than a fortnight after his successor was elected, Barack Obama got to work on shaping his legacy. "I'm extremely proud of the fact that over eight years we have not had the kinds of scandals that have plagued other administrations," he said. On January 1, White House consigliere Valerie…
We shouldn't doubt that President Obama will read the new book by the liberal journalist Jonathan Chait. The title alone will be enough to grab him: Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail. He will read it slowly and carefully, Montblanc at the ready to…
They are keening in the Bay Area. "Oh, America, what have we done?" wrote a San Bruno reader to the San Francisco Chronicle the week after November's election. "Many of us feel for President Obama, especially as we watch him gracefully support Donald Trump's transition, knowing Trump's priorities…
Vox interviewed President Obama on Facebook Live Friday. He discussed health care, along with the doomed fate of his health care law. One of the more interesting things he had to say was this:
Nearly seven years ago, moments before President Obama signed the national healthcare legislation into law, he declared, "When I sign this bill, all of the overheated rhetoric over reform will finally confront the reality of reform."
In President Obama's first inaugural address in January 2009, he declared, rather grandly, "We'll restore science to its rightful place..." The president has often prided himself on his devotion to science, and earlier this year the White House posted "100 Examples of Putting Science in Its…
The Obama chapter in American foreign policy ends like the climax of an action movie—with a fireball growing in the distance and filling the screen as a man in silhouette approaches in slow motion and then veers off camera. Barack Obama has set the Middle East on fire, and now it's spreading.
They are keening in the Bay Area. “Oh, America, what have we done?" wrote a San Bruno reader to the San Francisco Chronicle the week after November's election. "Many of us feel for President Obama, especially as we watch him gracefully support Donald Trump's transition, knowing Trump's priorities…
"[The British monarchy's] mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic." —Walter Bagehot To a certain degree, Bagehot's law was adopted as well by American presidents, whose status was upheld by a tradition of decorum and whose prestige was accentuated by a certain—well, mystery.…
We shouldn’t doubt that President Obama will read the new book by the liberal journalist Jonathan Chait. The title alone will be enough to grab him: Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail. He will read it slowly and carefully, Montblanc at the ready to…
The Nation is publishing its gala hagiographic Obama send-off issue—"The Obama Years: 2008-2016"—and does so perhaps more in sadness than in celebration. The articles are full of complaint and recriminations—but not, for the most part, aimed at the Dear Leader.
A year ago, as he prepared to give his final State of the Union speech, President Obama strode the halls of the Capitol while being interviewed by NBC’s Matt Lauer. Lauer asked the president, in his friendly and earnest way, if he "takes responsibility" for the fact that Donald Trump was catching…
Less than a fortnight after his successor was elected, Barack Obama got to work on shaping his legacy. “I'm extremely proud of the fact that over eight years we have not had the kinds of scandals that have plagued other administrations," he said. On January 1, White House consigliere Valerie…
Arkansas senator Tom Cotton blasted Barack Obama for his accommodation of Russian aggression over the past eight years and argued that Russia has committed "crimes and transgressions against the United States and our interests" while the administration "looked the other way." Speaking to Tucker…
The new minority leader in the Senate, New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, said Tuesday he would "absolutely" attempt to keep open the Supreme Court seat once held by the late justice Antonin Scalia. "It's hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican…
Politico reports:
Russian president Vladimir Putin is already waging a war against the West and American hegemony—if only leaders in the United States would look at the evidence. That's what Molly K. McKew argues in a new feature at Politico magazine.
So long as everyone expected a Hillary Clinton victory in November's presidential election, high-minded rhetoric ruled the day at the White House. Michelle Obama's quote from the Clinton campaign trail—"When they go low, we go high"—became something of a mantra. Initially, Barack Obama even spoke…
After initially promising to respond to Barack Obama's recent actions against Russia for meddling in American politics, Vladimir Putin is now saying he won't respond in kind to the Obama administration's decision to expel Russian diplomats and shut down Russian facilities in America:
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior editor Chris Caldwell on why Trump may be changing rules for president-elects, but Obama's making history, too.
The Obama administration announced an amendment to an executive order Thursday that introduces targeted sanctions on Russian assets here in the United States. The sanctions come in response to reported cyber attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other groups by Russian-backed hackers.
Stopping short of apologizing for his country's attack on Pearl Harbor 75 years ago, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered his "sincere and everlasting condolences" Tuesday to those who lost their lives.
President Barack Obama is set to meet with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in Hawaii on Tuesday, where the two men will honor American war casualties at Pearl Harbor. The encounter is expected to be the president's last meeting with a foreign head of state before departing office next month.
Barack Obama told his former adviser and campaign manager, David Axelrod, that he could have beaten Donald Trump had the president been able to run again in 2016. The Washington Post reports on Obama's appearance on Axelrod's podcast. Here's an excerpt:
When 14 members of the United Nations Security Council voted in 2011 for a resolution condemning the expansion of Israeli settlements as illegal, the Obama administration exercised the United States's veto power to block its passage. Opposition to settlements beyond Israel's borders established in…
For all eight years of the Obama administration, Democrats have made believe that Barack Obama is a firm and enthusiastic supporter and defender of the Jewish state. Arguments to the contrary were not only dismissed but angrily denounced as the products of nothing more than vicious partisanship.…
The United Nations Security Council passed on Friday a resolution calling for an end to further Israeli settlement—with the United States government and its U.N. ambassador Samantha Power abstaining from the vote. The United States is one of five permanent members of the Security Council with veto…
On March 28, 2011, Barack Obama stood behind a presidential podium at the National Defense University and addressed the nation. His ostensible topic was Libya, and his ostensible purpose was to explain his decision to intervene there. And over the course of his 27-minute address, he did this.
In late September what Vanity Fair called the "Ultimate Exit Interview" was far from ultimate—rather it fell among the first of many. Timed to coincide with the first presidential debate, before Donald Trump's lewd tape leaked or Comey's blasted letter, President Barack Obama and his favorite…
President Barack Obama granted a single-day record of 231 clemencies Monday, as his White House counsel predicted there would be more in the weeks to come before he departs office in January.
The Obama administration finalized a long rulemaking process Monday to tighten regulation of coal mining near streams, drawing pushback from Capitol Hill who questioned the move's necessity and had hoped the government would leave the issue alone before the president departs office next month.
On January 12, 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson delivered a speech in Washington, the reverberations of which were felt on the other side of the world. Describing U.S. foreign policy objectives in Asia, a region where both China and the Soviet Union were seeking to spread Marxist-Leninist…
The Washington Post's perceptive book critic Carlos Lozada examines the most lauded aspect of Barack Obama's political profile—the president's oratorical skills—and finds a troubling consistency: the primacy of Obama's own personal story. "This was a presidency preoccupied with Obama's…
Arizona senator John McCain criticized President Obama's response to Russian attempts to influence the presidential election and doubled down on calls for a congressional select committee to investigate the Kremlin's involvement.
Editor at large William Kristol's weekly Kristol Clear podcast on Russian hacking, Obama's last press conference, the continuing Democratic post-election freakout, and why (or why not) pardoning Hillary would be a great idea.
The latest Fox News poll shows 68 percent of Americans say President Obama should not pardon Hillary Clinton on his way out of the White House, and I agree. Donald Trump should do it.
President Obama tried on Friday to stop short of saying Vladimir Putin was responsible for Russian hacking into Democratic party political data, but he dropped multiple hints—his own spokesman may have called them "not particularly subtle" ones—that the American adversary was behind the activity.
Is the CIA, or some part of it, angry with Donald Trump? Even before the president-elect perhaps unwisely insulted the agency by citing its failures to assess correctly the status of Saddam Hussein's WMD program, someone high up at the CIA seemed to have it in for the incoming commander-in-chief.
On January 12, 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson delivered a speech in Washington, the reverberations of which were felt on the other side of the world. Describing U.S. foreign policy objectives in Asia, a region where both China and the Soviet Union were seeking to spread Marxist-Leninist…
On March 28, 2011, Barack Obama stood behind a presidential podium at the National Defense University and addressed the nation. His ostensible topic was Libya, and his ostensible purpose was to explain his decision to intervene there. And over the course of his 27-minute address, he did this.
More than two-thirds of registered voters do not want President Obama to pardon Hillary Clinton before he leaves office next month, according to a Fox News poll released Thursday evening.
As Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria celebrates the retaking of Aleppo amidst a horrific humanitarian disaster, President Obama and his administration are increasingly taking heat for ineffective action in the face of the crisis. But just a month ago, the president seemed to suggest that if it…
In the New York Times's new extensive report on the massive Russian-backed operation to hack American political and government severs—including a successful hack of the Democratic National Committee's server—the paper reveals that President Barack Obama had been "briefed regularly" on Russia's…
In this episode of THE WEEKLY STANDARD Confab, Fred Barnes talks with host Eric Felten about what a President Donald Trump can learn from the missteps and miscues of Barack Obama's approach to the presidency. Andrew Ferguson stops in to diagnose what's ailing the corporate media in the age of…
President Obama has ordered a review of allegations that Russia conducted a series of cyberattacks to influence the presidential election results, according to a top White House official. A spokesman later added that the investigation would include "malicious cyber activity" tied to races for the…
At the Washington Free Beacon, Aaron MacLean writes about the false narratives about the state of the economy and the world under the Obama administration. MacLean suggests the alternative reality presented by Obama and propagated by a compliant media led the country to revolt against it and reject…
Shortly after his inauguration in 2009, President Obama invited Republican leaders in Congress to a White House meeting. The House members brought a proposal with ideas for stimulating the economy, then suffering through the Great Recession. In the meeting, Eric Cantor, then the House minority…
History matters, except to politicians.
On the night in November 2010 that a wave of protest enabled Republicans to capture an additional 63 seats in the House of Representatives and decisively retake the majority, incoming House speaker John Boehner warned Barack Obama that the public had sent a message to “change course." Boehner…
Fred Barnes, the WEEKLY STANDARD executive editor, joined the Wall Street Journal's Mary Kissel Tuesday for the paper's Opinion Journal webcast. Barnes discussed his recent Journal op-ed about how incoming Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has the unenviable task of defending Barack Obama's…
President Barack Obama has declared he might not follow the tradition of ex-presidents refusing to comment publicly on their successors. In a postelection press conference, he said:
Several world leaders on both sides of the Atlantic praised Fidel Castro after the Cuban president's death was announced after midnight Saturday. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama's comments summarized his White House's Cuba policy and predicted "history" would judge Castro's effect on Cuba and its…
President Barack Obama has declared he might not follow the tradition of ex-presidents refusing to comment publicly on their successors. In a postelection press conference, he said:
President Barack Obama spoke about the mindset of young people put off by last week's election results during a speech in Greece Wednesday, urging them not to deviate from the values that ensure "lively, open debate" amid a nationwide swell of protests and school walkouts.
Political coalitions are tricky things to manage in the United States. Ours is a country of more than 320 million people but only two major political parties—so each side's voting bloc tends to be unstable at the margins, where national elections are actually won and lost. It is hard to build a…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer John McCormack on President Obama's Monday press conference.
Political coalitions are tricky things to manage in the United States. Ours is a country of more than 320 million people but only two major political parties—so each side's voting bloc tends to be unstable at the margins, where national elections are actually won and lost. It is hard to build a…
President Barack Obama and his incoming successor Donald Trump met for about 90 minutes in what was described as an "excellent" first meeting between the two men Thursday.
Saying the presidency is "bigger than any of us", President Barack Obama complimented the big-picture message of President-elect Donald Trump's victory speech during remarks outside the White House on Wednesday morning, adding that his team would conduct a smooth transition to his successor's…
Forget Hillary and Trump. The biggest loser Tuesday night was Barack Obama.
This presidential election cycle has defied conventional wisdom in so many ways that the list is about as long as Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. Who would have thought a year ago we'd find ourselves here—with these specific candidates and many an "October surprise"—with less than 24 hours…
There's a reason presidents are wary of campaigning actively to elect their successor. Presidents are the past. Presidential candidates are the future. Presidents can raise money and draw crowds at campaign events. But speeches? That's asking for trouble.
Throughout the 2016 campaign, there's been quite a lot of anguish about how to cover Donald Trump. It was collectively decided that his dishonesty necessitated extraordinary measures to inform the public he was a yuge liar. CNN started calling him a liar regularly in the chryon underneath their…
Democrats have all but gone to war with FBI director James Comey. Their anger at him comes after Comey sent a letter to Congress last week that announced he would be reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private server as secretary of state. But President Barack Obama, who…
Charles Krauthammer writes in his syndicated column Friday about the United Nations's cultural agency's recent decision to condemn the state of Israel—and the Obama administration's apparent acquiesence to the global campaign by nations hostile to Israel against the United States's strongest ally…
Perhaps he just wants to take David Carr's old media criticism job at the New York Times when his term is up. (Sorry, Jim Rutenberg!) But whatever his motivations, it's become increasingly clear that Barack Obama enjoys nothing so much as playing media critic.
President Obama spoke behind a campaign sign reading "Clinton/Kaine" in Florida on Thursday. But Donald Trump wasn't the only Republican on his mind.
President Barack Obama tried to reassure the American public on Thursday that his health care legislation "worked," amid competition and cost issues in multiple states and skepticism from both sides of the aisle.
Americans are buying guns. A lot of guns. Gun sales set new records last month as, it seems, they have been doing almost every month since the election of Barack Obama as president. If you talk to people in the industry, they will tell you that Obama is the best salesman for guns in American…
Americans are buying guns. A lot of guns. Gun sales set new records last month as, it seems, they have been doing almost every month since the election of Barack Obama as president. If you talk to people in the industry, they will tell you that Obama is the best salesman for guns in American…
"Excessive" is the word that Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch president of the Eurozone countries, used for the Obama Justice Department's decision in mid-September to seek mammoth fines from Deutsche Bank. The German bank's various mortgage-underwriting violations were committed in the days before…
Donald Trump is a terrible champion for Republicans for many reasons—the recently released 2005 audio tape reveals the most egregious one. But his performance in Sunday's debate in St. Louis against an ineffective Hillary Clinton demonstrated just how ill-equipped Trump is to challenge the weakest…
"You put the 'B' in LGBT"—these lyrics from a song performed in the White House last week encapsulate the message of the third annual Bisexual Community Briefing hosted by the Obama administration.
Last week the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard arguments challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. The Clean Power Plan, as it is called, is central to President Barack Obama's overall…
In a lengthy interview recapping some of the pivotal moments of his administration, President Barack Obama told New York magazine that he hopes his successors will not have an "imperial presidency."
Barack Obama wants options on Syria. "The president has asked all of the agencies to put forward options—some familiar, some new—that we are very actively reviewing," said Anthony Blinken, deputy secretary of state. But force is not an option, since according to the White House there is no military…
In his latest assault on the separation of powers, President Obama seems poised to take unilateral executive action—in direct defiance of legislation he signed—to bail out insurance companies under Obamacare. In its above-the-fold story on Friday, the Washington Post mischaracterizes Obama's power…
As reported, the White House Friday struck "Israel" from a press release concerning the location (Jerusalem) of the memorial service for former prime minister Shimon Peres. But the White House has not always been so successful in "correcting" what it apparently believes is an error. A July 2015…
President Barack Obama traveled to the memorial service for former prime minister and Israeli founding father Shimon Peres Friday. The service was held at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, the site of the national cemetery of Israel. The White House press office released to the public Obama's remarks at…
Last week the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard arguments challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. The Clean Power Plan, as it is called, is central to President Barack Obama's overall…
One of the most discouraging things about the future of our republic is the creeping indifference, on all sides, to the constitutional separation of powers.
Barack Obama reportedly had Tim Kaine on his shortlist for consideration for vice president in 2008 but was concerned about Kaine's lack of foreign policy experience. Kaine has since helped shore up that hole in his resume by being on the Senate Armed Services Committee for the past three years.…
Matthew Continetti writes at the Washington Free Beacon on what President Obama's final address to the United Nations General Assembly tells us about the failure of Obama's worldview:
Within a few hours on September 17, a pressure cooker bomb exploded in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York injuring 31 people, a man stabbed 10 people in a Minnesota mall, and bombs were found near the site of a Marine Corps charity race in New Jersey. The following Monday morning, White House…
The president was irritated, and it showed. This was back in June, and he was answering questions from the press, something he normally does with near-insouciance. So why was he peeved on this occasion? Well, there was all this talk of “populism."
The Obama administration did not inform key lawmakers that it had wired millions of dollars to Iran through the formal financial system, even as President Obama and other administration officials publicly defended using cash for a controversial $1.7 billion payment to Iran by saying that wiring…
Over the last few days, the Clinton campaign's been on the defensive. The reason is James Asher, the former Washington bureau chief of McClatchy, has publicly claimed that Clinton aide and confidant was spreading the rumor that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore not eligible to be…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with online editor Michael Warren on President Obama's UN address.
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