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America’s least American president

Opinion Philip Bump America’s least American president Donald Trump isn’t making America great again. He’s making it into something else entirely. Today at 7:00 a.m. EDT 7 min 912 Donald Trump stands behind an American flag at a campaign event last year. (Tom Brenner for The Washington Post) The facts of the case of Kilmar Abrego García are uncomplicated. An immigrant to the United States, he successfully convinced a court that he should not be returned to his home country of El Salvador because of threats he and his family faced from gangs in that country. He was sent to a prison there anyway, in what the Trump administration described as a mistake. The Supreme Court determined nearly a month ago that the administration had to do everything possible to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return; every indicator, however, is that neither the president nor his administration has done much of anything at all. Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter Instead, Pres...
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The 2020 election was neither stolen nor rigged: A primer

The 2020 election was neither stolen nor rigged: A primer September 15, 2022 12 min 60 A person in a “Stop the Steal” cowboy hat at the “Protect Our Elections Rally” at the Arizona Federal Theater in Phoenix. (Cassidy Araiza/The Washington Post) Analysis by Philip Bump A professor at a university in Utah issued an appeal this week: Is there a resource that he can present to students to dispel them of the idea that the 2020 election was stolen? Why people believe that the presidential contest was tainted by fraud is often complex and fundamentally detached from the available evidence. It must necessarily be; there is no good evidence that anything more than a scattered handful of fraudulent votes were cast. But the point is well-taken. As someone who has tracked scores of claims over the past 22 months, I am not aware of any compendium explaining that lack of evidence. Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter. So allow this article to serve as one. ...

Hey, Oklahoma students. Here’s your real ‘election fraud’ primer.

Opinion Philip Bump Hey, Oklahoma students. Here’s your real ‘election fraud’ primer. The state’s curriculum now teaches kids to be skeptical about the results of the 2020 election. May 2, 2025 at 4:37 p.m. EDTToday at 4:37 p.m. EDT 6 min 149 A woman wears 'Trump Won' stickers at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix in September 2021. (Caitlin O'Hara/For The Washington Post) Greetings, Oklahoma high school class of 2026 and beyond! You have arrived here because your state moved to enact a curriculum this year that includes instruction centered on elevating doubts about the results of the 2020 election. Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter Because there is no actual doubt about those results (save for those raised by allies of President Donald Trump), I wanted to provide a one-stop shop for understanding what actually happened — and why no such skepticism is warranted. Skip to end of carousel Sign up for the How to Read This Chart newsle...

Why America’s Oligarchs May Regret Their Obedience

Why America’s Oligarchs May Regret Their Obedience 100+The Atlantic by Anastasia Edel / Apr 7, 2025 at 6:03 AM When tech billionaires and crypto moguls hailed Donald Trump’s reelection and flocked to his inauguration ceremony and ball, million-dollar donations in hand, some were abandoning previous liberal affiliations and all were now lining up behind an openly authoritarian president. The surface rationale is that megabusiness leaders such as Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, and Marc Andreessen are safeguarding their companies and their shareholders’ interests. The underlying explanation is that America is being reborn as an oligarchy. This new class—with Trump megadonor Elon Musk as its self-appointed tribune—has thrown its support behind a libertarian economic agenda that maximizes private power and minimizes public accountability. Whether the billionaires’ alignment with Trump and Musk is merely pragmatic or sincerely ideological, they stand to gain from the new administra...

There’s Nothing Conservative About Trump 2.0

early and often There’s Nothing Conservative About Trump 2.0 Portrait of Ed Kilgore By Ed Kilgore, political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015 One of the interpretations often heard about the 2024 elections is that the outcome represented a conservative “correction” for the progressive excesses of the Biden presidency. And indeed, it’s possible to view much of American political history as a left-right oscillation in which one major party’s dominance is countered by a reaction benefiting the other major party. Thus, for example, the Hoover administration’s conservative ineffectiveness against the ravages of the Great Depression led to a New Deal revolution that was mitigated significantly by a bipartisan “conservative coalition” in Congress and eventually the Republican landslide of 1952. But as should be abundantly clear by now, any hopes that Trump 2.0 would represent a mild and conservative “correction” of anything in living memory are hallucinatory. Indeed, it’s as good a ti...

The Economist on Trump’s Mindless Tariffs

The Economist on Trump’s Mindless Tariffs Trump's tariffs impact economy perception •5KDaring Fireball by John Gruber / Apr 3, 2025 at 1:01 PM The Economist: On economics Mr Trump’s assertions are flat-out nonsense. The president says tariffs are needed to close America’s trade deficit, which he sees as a transfer of wealth to foreigners. Yet as any of the president’s economists could have told him, this overall deficit arises because Americans choose to save less than their country invests — and, crucially, this long-running reality has not stopped its economy from outpacing the rest of the g7 for over three decades. There is no reason why his extra tariffs should eliminate the deficit. Insisting on balanced trade with every trading partner individually is bonkers — like suggesting that Texas would be richer if it insisted on balanced trade with each of the other 49 states, or asking a company to ensure that each of its suppliers is also a customer. And Mr Trump’s grasp of the t...

Why Trump Says He’s ‘Not Joking’ About a Third Term

Why Trump Says He’s ‘Not Joking’ About a Third Term The Atlantic by Jonathan Chait / Mar 31, 2025 at 7:24 AM Is this article about Political Science? Donald Trump’s interest in seeking an unconstitutional third term as president, like many of his most dangerous or illegal ideas, began as a joke. Trump would muse on the stump that he deserved an extra term because he was robbed of his first (by Robert Mueller’s investigation) or his second (by imagined vote fraud in 2020) without quite clarifying his intent. But in an interview with NBC News this weekend, and then in remarks on Air Force One, Trump said he was completely serious about at least exploring the notion. “A lot of people want me to do it,” he told NBC, adding, “I’m not joking.” When he was asked if the method he envisioned was to have J. D. Vance run at the top of the ticket, and then pass the baton to Trump, he said, “That’s one.” Later, on Air Force One, reporters asked him if he intended to stay on beyond the end of hi...