THE ATLANTIC – Politics | Politics & Government

Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket CastsIn the first blush of their relationship, The Washington Post and Jeff Bezos seemed like an excellent match. Here was a paper with a strong pedigree that had fallen on somewhat hard times, and a suitor with funds who seemed eager to return it to steady glory. In 2013 Bezos purchased the paper for $250 million from the Graham family and promised a “golden era” to come. I had left the Post by then but was happy for my former colleagues. When Donald Trump took office a few years later, it was a relief to know that a journalistic institution with a record of holding White House misdeeds to account was still close by.Yesterday, in a dismal morning Zoom call, the Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, announced that they were laying off one-third of its already diminished staff.… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

At the close of 2025, just a few months after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, thousands of his followers came together in Phoenix for AmericaFest, the annual convention of Turning Point USA. A casual observer might have expected this gathering to serve as an opportunity for conservatives to regroup, celebrate Kirk’s legacy, and recommit to his fight against the left. Instead, one by one, MAGA’s leading lights took the stage and began shivving one another in public.“Today, the conservative movement is in serious danger,” warned Ben Shapiro, a co-founder of The Daily Wire. He lambasted right-wing “charlatans” who “traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty.” And he named names. Shapiro slammed Tucker Carlson, perhaps the most popular conservative commentator in America, for mainstreaming pro-Nazi sentiment, and dubbed the former Trump strategist Steve Bannon “a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein,” the convicted sex criminal (fact-check: mostly true). “These people are frauds, and they are… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

We’re witnessing a murder.Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of The Washington Post, and Will Lewis, the publisher he appointed at the end of 2023, are embarking on the latest step of their plan to kill everything that makes the paper special. The Post has survived for nearly 150 years, evolving from a hometown family newspaper into an indispensable national institution, and a pillar of the democratic system. But if Bezos and Lewis continue down their present path, it may not survive much longer.Over recent years, they’ve repeatedly cut the newsroom—killing its Sunday magazine, reducing the staff by several hundred, nearly halving the Metro desk—without acknowledging the poor business decisions that led to this moment or providing a clear vision for the future. This morning, executive editor Matt Murray and HR chief Wayne Connell told the newsroom staff in an early-morning virtual meeting that it was closing the Sports department and… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

During the previous government shutdown, President Trump reveled in the chance to fire federal workers, expand his executive authority, and steer taxpayer dollars toward his allies and away from his perceived political enemies. After a record-setting 43 days of gridlock—during which Trump pursued those goals with varying degrees of success—several Democrats abandoned their quest to force Republicans to negotiate a health-care deal, and voted to end the shutdown. As he signed the bill, flanked by congressional Republicans, who had largely unified around the idea that they would not entertain a policy negotiation while the government was closed, Trump congratulated his party on a “very big victory” over the Democrats.The second government shutdown of Trump’s second term ended today with much less fanfare and bravado from the commander in chief. This time, Trump negotiated both before and after the government was closed, going so far as to call Senate Minority Leader… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

Republicans have had a tough stretch. They were defeated in elections in the fall and find themselves at risk of losing control of one or maybe both chambers of Congress later this year. Their standard-bearer, President Trump, has tumbled in the polls and finds himself underwater on his two signature issues, the economy and immigration. There has been unrest in a major American city, and blood shed by Trump’s federal agents. Republicans’ whispers have grown louder in recent weeks: Trump is distracted; he’s focused on the wrong things; the chaos is hurting us. And then a thunderclap from deep-red Texas: a state-Senate race in a district that Trump won by 17 points just over a year ago flipped by more than 30 points over the weekend and elected a Democrat for the first time since 1978.Now, that is a bad sign for a party in a midterm year. Texas Lieutenant… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.