trump

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The Pentagon disagrees.

Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is an exception to the rule that committee chairs, male or female, are allowed to run things as they choose. Democrats, left-wing groups, and those who obsess about Trump won’t let him.

Trump's anger about the Mueller investigation will make any meeting counterproductive.

The early numbers make sense based on what we know about partisanship and history.

China is targeting agriculture because of farm country's support for the president.

Greetings from the Midwestern Bureau of TWS. We’re dark this week, as regular readers know, but we’re not taking the week off! The website must go on. A number of Standard writers and editors are back in their non-swamp ancestral homes for the Fourth. I’m in Saint Louis, where I went to college…

Plus, go inside the converted Walmart that houses immigrant kids.

The commercials avoid the pitfalls of the 'Just Say No' era.

There is no proof of a quid pro quo with a government wary of "irritating the top American officials."

We would have more respect for Vladimir Putin if he simply dispensed with his country’s elections and declared himself president-for-life. This would spare us the idiotic burden of discussing the Russian state’s sexennial public-relations stunts. Everybody inside and outside the country knows the…

The conventional wisdom on the firing of Rex Tillerson congealed quickly: He was an ineffective secretary of state who played a crucial role in constraining the president’s reckless foreign policy instincts.

Glenn Sherrill’s company buys steel. Tons and tons of steel. So much steel that his grandfather put the word in the company’s name when he started it. In the last 60 years, family-owned SteelFab has grown from a small maker of ornamental handrails in Charlotte, N.C., to a large metal fabricator. It…

Last September, the big hats in the political hierarchy of New York and New Jersey spent an hour at the White House with President Trump. They were seeking a pile of money to pay for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River connecting northern New Jersey and Manhattan.

President Trump signed a controversial order implementing heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminum Thursday, calling the action “a matter of necessity for our security” and saying it would help to revitalize fading American industry.

What evangelicals gain and lose by doing business with the president.

For a few weeks now, Nashville mayor Megan Barry has been embroiled in quite the sex scandal. It seems Barry has been engaged in an affair with the police sergeant who was the head of her security detail. (Both are married.) For an added layer of unseemliness, Barry seems to have taken a lot of…

In his first public indictment of 2018, special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday announced charges against 13 Russian nationals and three organizations for conspiring in secret to destabilize America’s political institutions.

Say what you will about Donald Trump’s intellectual acumen, but he does have a certain flair for drawing attention in directions he desires—or better yet, prompting his detractors to say things he wants them to say. This may not be “genius” in the usual sense of a much-abused term, but it’s a…

President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address was a success. The theater was unbeatable. The president’s special guests were particularly moving at this year’s address: a double amputee who somehow escaped from North Korea by sheer strength of will; a police officer who adopted a drug…

On January 12 the Wall Street Journal reported that Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s attorney, paid a pornographic actress with the nom de scène of Stormy Daniels the sum of $130,000 in exchange for her signature on a nondisclosure agreement. The thing she was not to disclose was an “alleged sexual…

Special counsel Robert Mueller spent much of 2017 making quiet progress in his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but that has changed in the new year. Mueller’s team has interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, will soon meet with former White House strategist Steve…

Donald Trump is historically unpopular. At the end of 2017, the three major polling aggregators—the Huffington Post Pollster, Real Clear Politics, and FiveThirtyEight—put his approval rating at 40.4, 40, and 37.9 percent respectively. According to FiveThirtyEight’s historical averages, this is the…

We are living in an era of political panic. Some of President Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters in 2016 were motivated to overlook his shortcomings by desperate fear that our system of government was near death and only the most extreme measures could save it. A poll conducted by PRRI and…

U.S. diplomat John Feeley announced Thursday he would resign from his post as ambassador to Panama, the same day President Donald Trump provoked controversy by reportedly demeaning immigrants from central America and “shithole countries” in Africa.

Like any dutiful Washington swamp creature, I’ve spent the last few days holed up with Fire and Fury. Which is not, if you’ve been in news-cycle hibernation, the new fragrance from Ivanka. Rather, it is a book by Michael Wolff about life inside Mar-a-Lago North, aka the Trump White House.

One fact of the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency is that the policy results have been pretty conservative. For some conservatives, this is enough to sustain a great enthusiasm for Trump and his presidency. For others, like me, the concerns about Trump’s erratic behavior, his casual…

It should have been a simple vote to reauthorize an important law, but ideologues allied with exhibitionists to turn it into a circus. Throw in a badly informed Trump tweet, and we had a carnival of folly—which is to say, an ordinary day on Capitol Hill.

President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. court system as “broken and unfair” on Wednesday, one day after a federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary injunction to prevent the White House from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Let's not kid ourselves: It’s a weird time in our nation’s capital.

The deadly derailment of an Amtrak train near Tacoma, Wash., last week prompted a tweet from Donald Trump. The accident, the president wrote, “shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our…

Donald Trump’s Friday morning appearances were an amusing reminder of a central presidential incongruity: He loves and supports law enforcement, except the ones trying to enforce the law on him.

As special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI circle ever closer to the Oval Office, Washington is convulsed by speculation that the president may take drastic action to cut short the investigation. Donald Trump has escalated his Twitter attacks on the FBI and the Justice Department, and there is a…

President Donald Trump on Monday announced his administration would reduce two vast national monuments in Utah, arguing that the monuments amounted to a federal land grab by past Democratic presidents.

President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters he feels “very badly” for his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, days after Flynn pled guilty to obstruction of justice for lying to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team about his interactions with Russian officials before President…

President Trump was planning to meet with Democratic leaders Tuesday to discuss a deal to prevent a government shutdown next month. But Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer canceled the meeting Tuesday morning after Trump attacked them on Twitter and said he didn’t expect to strike a deal.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday gave a speech that was long on self-congratulation, but thin on concrete diplomatic victories from his 12-day Asia trip—and silent on everyone’s most pressing question, whether Trump still supports Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.

The November 7 elections, in which Democrats took governorships in Virginia and New Jersey and most of the other closely contested offices, have been analyzed and debated in the way off-year races always are. The winners interpret their wins as a sign of imminent triumph; the losers make excuses.

With each passing week, more and more congressional Republicans are announcing their retirements. Their reasons are varied. Jason Chaffetz of Utah quit Congress to take a job as a Fox News commentator. Several members not seeking reelection, like South Dakota’s Kristi Noem and Tennessee’s Marsha…

When Steve Bannon became CEO of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on August 17, 2016, Trump was far behind Hillary Clinton, according to Bannon. “We were 16 points down,” he said.

When Steve Bannon became CEO of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on August 17, 2016, Trump was far behind Hillary Clinton, according to Bannon. “We were 16 points down,” he said.

One of the more surprising revelations about Russia’s reported meddling in the 2016 election is that Moscow supported a raft of objectively anti-Trump, left-wing causes. First we learned that the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-linked organization, bought social media advertisements that…

In mid-October, President Trump was due to make a certification to Congress on four conditions about its nuclear deal. He has repeatedly said this deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave the Iranians too much for too little. On October 13, he surprised no one by…

Abingdon, Va.

In a speech on October 11 promoting his tax-reform plan, Donald Trump spoke rosily of America’s economic revival, crediting himself for having cleared the way for growth. “Since January of this year, we have slashed job-killing red tape all across our economy,” the president said. “We have stopped…

After two weeks of dormancy, President Donald Trump’s ugly spat with Tennessee senator Bob Corker flared up again Tuesday after Corker insulted the president on the morning news, saying Trump was “unable to rise to the occasion” of his office and that he should “step aside” on tax reform and…

In a speech on October 11 promoting his tax-reform plan, Donald Trump spoke rosily of America’s economic revival, crediting himself for having cleared the way for growth. “Since January of this year, we have slashed job-killing red tape all across our economy,” the president said. “We have stopped…

Abingdon, Va.

In mid-October, President Trump was due to make a certification to Congress on four conditions about its nuclear deal. He has repeatedly said this deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave the Iranians too much for too little. On October 13, he surprised no one by…

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at expanding Americans’ access to health insurance choices, the first official step of his pledge to tackle health-care reform solo after repeated congressional failures to pass legislation repealing Obamacare.

In a speech championing Republican tax reform efforts on Wednesday, President Donald Trump attempted to deflect criticism that the GOP tax plan disproportionately favors the wealthy with a novel argument: The rich don’t even want a tax cut.

The pro-Trump super PAC Great America Alliance on Wednesday released its first slate of Senate endorsements for the 2018 election season, endorsing three conservative challengers who are attempting to flip blue seats next year.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson went into full damage-control mode last week after NBC News reported he had called President Donald Trump a “f—-ing moron,” denying the allegation and insisting the president was “smart.” But Trump never forgets a slight—and sooner or later, he always hits back. In…

President Donald Trump and outgoing senator Bob Corker of Tennessee got into an unexpected and personal Twitter fight Sunday morning, the nastiest public conflict yet between the White House and Senate Republicans.

The victory of Roy Moore, a populist and religious fundamentalist, in the Alabama Senate primary last week can be seen in two different ways: continuity with the recent past of GOP politics and a radical break from it.

Last week, President Donald Trump picked a fight with the NFL, arguing that players like Colin Kaepernick who take a knee during the national anthem should be fired. As he has done so many times before, the president kicked up a hornet’s nest of controversy. Maybe the commotion will work to his…

Last week, President Donald Trump picked a fight with the NFL, arguing that players like Colin Kaepernick who take a knee during the national anthem should be fired. As he has done so many times before, the president kicked up a hornet’s nest of controversy. Maybe the commotion will work to his…

The victory of Roy Moore, a populist and religious fundamentalist, in the Alabama Senate primary last week can be seen in two different ways: continuity with the recent past of GOP politics and a radical break from it.

The last time Republicans advanced a serious plan to overhaul the tax code, Madonna had a No. 1 hit and Back to the Future had just been released on VHS. The new Republican tax plan harkens back to Ronald Reagan’s 1986 reform package, promising a future of stronger growth with less economic…

President Donald Trump’s new willingness to deal with Democratic leaders of Congress has conservatives worried. Is the president really with us anymore? Is he going to help his fellow partisans in Congress hold the line of spending, or is he going to become a Rockefeller-style Republican, cutting…

When he won election, Donald Trump—along with his national security adviser Michael Flynn, his all-purpose counselor Stephen Bannon, and, perhaps, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner—was fond of the idea that Russia and Iran, comrades-in-arms in Syria, weren’t natural partners. Flynn was particularly…

In tax reform, the negotiators from the Trump administration and Congress who are thought to be in charge are called the Big 6 by Washington insiders. But there’s also a Big 4, a group of supply-side economists who are playing an influential role.

Kurt Andersen may be right in supposing that what looks like Americans’ increasing inability to distinguish fantasy from reality is the big topic of our times, and there are at least 2 or 3 of his 46 chapters in Fantasyland in which he does justice to his subject. His rapid tour d’ horizon on New…

In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, George W. Bush worried less about rallying the nation to action against the terrorist threat than about warning an enraged public that the campaign would not end anytime soon. The president referred to the emerging “global war on terror” as a…

When he won election, Donald Trump—along with his national security adviser Michael Flynn, his all-purpose counselor Stephen Bannon, and, perhaps, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner—was fond of the idea that Russia and Iran, comrades-in-arms in Syria, weren’t natural partners. Flynn was particularly…

In tax reform, the negotiators from the Trump administration and Congress who are thought to be in charge are called the Big 6 by Washington insiders. But there’s also a Big 4, a group of supply-side economists who are playing an influential role.

Seven months after taking office, President Donald Trump finally announced how his administration plans to fight the longest-running war in American history. “My original instinct was to pull out—and, historically, I like following my instincts,” Trump told the nation in a prime-time address…

It would be nice, in a way, to be a progressive. You’d be confident you know the direction History is moving. And you’d have faith that the direction in which History is moving is the direction in which History should be moving.

President Trump’s new strategy for Afghanistan shows considerable reflection among the president and his top advisers on many military questions but deep confusion on the issues of “nation-building” and democracy.

Seven months after taking office, President Donald Trump finally announced how his administration plans to fight the longest-running war in American history. “My original instinct was to pull out—and, historically, I like following my instincts,” Trump told the nation in a prime-time address…

It would be nice, in a way, to be a progressive. You’d be confident you know the direction History is moving. And you’d have faith that the direction in which History is moving is the direction in which History should be moving.

During the 2016 presidential primary campaign, Jeb Bush took to calling Donald Trump the “chaos candidate.” It didn’t seem to have much effect at the time, but Bush was prescient: The chaos candidacy is now the chaos presidency. And yet, as Henry Adams once wrote, while order is the dream of man,…

President Trump’s new strategy for Afghanistan shows considerable reflection among the president and his top advisers on many military questions but deep confusion on the issues of “nation-building” and democracy.

What a week! Newly minted White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci goes nuts; White House chief of staff Reince Priebus gets fired and is replaced by retired Marine general John Kelly; General Kelly fires Scaramucci; Kelly then reassures Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had…

Two days after the 2016 election, we had this to say about Donald Trump’s stunning victory:

What a week! Newly minted White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci goes nuts; White House chief of staff Reince Priebus gets fired and is replaced by retired Marine general John Kelly; General Kelly fires Scaramucci; Kelly then reassures Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had…

What a week! Newly minted White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci goes nuts; White House chief of staff Reince Priebus gets fired and is replaced by retired Marine general John Kelly; General Kelly fires Scaramucci; Kelly then reassures Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had…

Two days after the 2016 election, we had this to say about Donald Trump’s stunning victory:

The Trump administration is not ruling out providing Ukraine with defensive weapons in its fight against Russian-backed separatists, a State Department official told THE WEEKLY STANDARD, though the administration is focused on a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

When President Obama’s chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities finally stepped down from his post in late May—four months after President Trump took office—he explained his reasoning to the New York Times. “I think it’s getting to be a time that’s appropriate for me to step aside,”…

When President Obama’s chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities finally stepped down from his post in late May—four months after President Trump took office—he explained his reasoning to the New York Times. “I think it’s getting to be a time that’s appropriate for me to step aside,”…

It might come as news to the millions of pink-hatted anti-Trump marchers, the marauding rioters at Berkeley and Middlebury, and the anti-pipeline hippies in North Dakota, but apparently Americans’ right to protest is under threat. We know that because two "special rapporteurs on freedom of…

The Trump administration hit a Syrian airbase with over 50 cruise missiles Thursday, according to multiple reports. The strike came days after the Bashar al-Assad regime waged a horrific chemical attack against its own people Tuesday that left at least 80 dead.

Some heretofore-skeptical commentators are declaring that February 28 is the date Donald Trump truly became president of the United States. That might signal some good news, but it was closely followed by bad: March 1 could go down as the date of death of the Tea Party movement in America.

The new administration's uncertain higher education policy took two strides into the light this week. First came the announcement of Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr.'s appointment to lead Trump's White House task force on higher education reform. And then, responding to fiery, riotous…

Hot on the heels of 1984, Sinclair Lewis's speculative satire It Can't Happen Here is surging to the forefront of a suddenly very popular genre, prophetic dystopian lit. It Can't Happen Here will probably be the next novel to sell out on Amazon; right now, it's the number-two recommended read by…

Over at National Review, Andrew McCarthy writes that President Trump's executive order instituting a temporary ban on entry into the United States for foreign nationals from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen is statutorily and constitutionally sound:

Republican senators are threatening to codify sanctions against the Kremlin amid speculation that President Donald Trump will ease the sanctions and refusal from the Trump team to commit to maintaining or increasing them.

The border wall begins! Well, sort of. On Wednesday, President Trump signed two executive orders to deliver on one of his most famous and consistent campaign promises. Trump's first order directs the Department of Homeland Security to "immediately plan, design, and construct" the physical wall, and…

President Trump is making good on his campaign promises to curtail illegal immigration, signing two executive orders at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters Wednesday afternoon. Of the two directives, one pertains to the construction of a 2,000-mile wall along the Mexican border; the…

Florida senator Marco Rubio announced his support for President Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state ahead of a committee vote for the nominee Monday, setting aside reservations over the former oil executive's ties to the Kremlin and evasive answers on human rights violations.

If you hadn’t noticed, the election of Donald Trump has led to some, well, tension in social settings. Weeks after the vote, families gathered for Thanksgiving and the college kids were just too, too appalled by their parents' deplorable Trumpism to even talk about it. Come Christmas the snowflakes…

Former New York mayor and Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani overlooked the existence of international humanitarian law Sunday, saying that "anything's legal" between actors during wartime.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD editor Bill Kristol lamented the fall of Breitbart News Wednesday in the wake of Breitbart chairman Stephen Bannon's appointment as chief executive for the Trump campaign.

As Ukraine fears a new Russian offensive "at any time," Republican lawmakers are remaining silent on the Trump campaign's reported role in scaling back calls for assisstance to the eastern European country in the Republican party platform.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD's online editor Mike Warren said Wednesday that Donald Trump is refusing to endorse House speaker Paul Ryan and Arizona senator John McCain in order to provoke his fellow Republicans and manipulate the Republican party's power dynamic.

In a set back for the pro-life movement, the Supreme Court released a 5-3 ruling Monday that safety regulations passed into law by the state of Texas represented "a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an 'undue burden' on their constitutional right to do so."

Our Constitution distributes power broadly across three branches of government, and the federal, state, and local levels. Yet during presidential campaigns, candidates for offices across the country unite behind their party’s presidential nominee. This person becomes the representative of the…

Several months ago it became clear that Trumpism is a corrosive force that corrupts everyone in Donald Trump’s orbit. What makes Trumpism corrupting is that it is not possible to pick and choose from the Trump buffet. You cannot endorse the border fence, hope for a good Supreme Court appointment,…

Many intellectuals misunderstand Donald Trump. Intellectuals often forget that Americans vote for a man, not a white paper, and that Trump passed the very first test for Republican candidates in 2016 while the rest of the field flunked. He was angry and seemed capable of acting on his anger. Trump…

On April 19, 1775, first at sunrise in Lexington and then at midmorning a few miles away at the North Bridge in Concord, the war for American independence began:

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor William Kristol on the upcoming Wisconsin primary election.

Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March. Caesar: He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass. Donald Trump is no Julius Caesar. At best he's kind of a comic-book version of a Caesarist-wannabe. Had he been born two millennia ago as Donaldus Trumpum, he would have dodged the Gallic Wars, hired a…

The boss was on MSNBC's Morning Joe to discuss his strategy for stopping Donald Trump.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor William Kristol on what we can expect from tomorrow's Iowa caucuses: surprises.

Writing at the Washington Free Beacon, contributing editor Matthew Continetti squares recent columns by Charles Krauthammer and David Brooks.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer John McCormack on Donald Trump's event last night in Iowa, and Trump's record with the veteran community.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with Associate Editor Ethan Epstein and Deputy Online Editor Jim Swift on whether Donald will show up at tomorrow's Fox News Debate in Iowa.

In the days leading up to the Iowa Caucus, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has taken his message to the Internet for a last-minute blitz with a series of web videos. (Including even a how-to for first time caucus goers.)

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on whether a Trump nomination is inevitable.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer John McCormack, live from Iowa, on whether Sarah Palin will push Donald Trump to a caucus win in Iowa.

The boss shares some advice for 2016 pessimists in this week's Kristol Clear newsletter. (Don't get it? Sign up for free today!)

'Twas the night before Christmas, when out on the stump

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with assistant editor Jim Swift on his recent story "One Man Carnival" on Donald Trump's campaign rally last night in Manassas, Virginia.