THE ATLANTIC – Politics | Politics & Government

It is a rare thing to see Josh Shapiro sweat. For all the grief the Pennsylvania governor gets for imitating Barack Obama—the staggered cadence, the side-of-the-mouth delivery for effect—their essential shared trait is self-possession. If Pennsylvania’s governor has a superpower, it is an unflappability that allows him to stay cool and composed and to communicate precisely what he wants to communicate.Most of the time.I sat down to talk with Shapiro earlier this fall, shortly after he held a tough-on-crime press conference near Philadelphia. By that point, I had interviewed him several times. His comments were always polished and predictable: More than once, I would return to variations of a question I’d already asked, hoping to penetrate his practiced commentary, only to get the same responses, word for word. This was especially the case when I raised the subject of Kamala Harris.I knew, from speaking with people close to Shapiro, that… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

The Department of Homeland Security launched a $200 million advertising campaign this past spring that urged migrants to “self-deport,” dangling an offer that sounded like a darker version of a credit-card promotion. By formalizing their departure through a government app, CBP Home, participants could receive a free plane ticket and a $1,000 cash bonus.Nearly nine months later, about 35,000 people have used CBP Home to leave the country, according to figures I obtained from two DHS officials who track the program. Given the cost of the advertising blitz, as well as the airfare and cash payments, it works out to about $7,500 per self-deportation.The DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote to me that the program, called Project Homecoming, has created “a smooth, efficient process for illegal aliens to return home” and that “tens of thousands” of participants have used CBP Home to depart. McLaughlin declined to say what DHS spends per… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

David Rubenstein, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, sat at a handsome marble table in a handsome conference room in one of the many handsome offices of the Carlyle Group, the global investment firm he co-founded, discussing a bit of personal unpleasantness. Several weeks earlier, Donald Trump had fired him as the chair of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Rubenstein chairs many elite institutions, but the Kennedy Center might be seen as the capstone of his résumé. Explaining his decision, Trump had posted on Truth Social that Rubenstein did not “share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” The president announced that the “amazing” new chair of the center would instead be one “DONALD J. TRUMP.”Rubenstein, who is not accustomed to being fired, at first deflected my questions with gin-dry self-deprecation: “I’m the first person to be fired by a president and succeeded by one.”… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

For a decade, Donald Trump’s rallies were intertwined with his political identity. His big crowds were how he first got the media and the Republican Party to take him seriously, and they provided real-time feedback. Those who followed him closely could watch his positions take shape from one rally to the next—an offhand comment that got a strong reaction would become a talking point at the next rally, and then a core part of his pitch. And he took notice when the crowd got bored, pivoting to the lines that would fire them back up.Although Trump hated being on the road, the travel took him out of the Manhattan skyscraper emblazoned with his name in gold and into many struggling, disgruntled communities. Before and after rallies, he would meet with local officials, law-enforcement officers, and activists, as well as supporters who’d paid to get a photo with the candidate. Sometimes… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

On Monday I spoke with a Republican member of Indiana’s legislature who opposes President Donald Trump’s push for the state to redraw its congressional map to gain two GOP seats and help the party hold its House majority in next year’s midterm elections. Trump, with support from Indiana’s Republican governor, Mike Braun, has vowed to back primary challengers against members of the GOP who are, for now, blocking the redistricting plan. The lawmaker I spoke with asked that I not publish his name. He isn’t worried about Trump’s political wrath; he doesn’t plan to run for reelection. His fear of speaking out is much more personal: “I’d rather my house not get firebombed,” he told me by phone.Such a worry is not as far-fetched as it might sound—not in an America that has seen an eruption of political violence over the past few years, and not in Indiana over the… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.