THE ATLANTIC – Politics | Politics & Government

The jurors in the case of The United States of America v. The Sandwich Guy (as Sean Charles Dunn is better known) sized one another up before the final group had even been selected, asking, “Did you attend the ‘No Kings’ march?”“It’s like, You’re damn right I went,” one juror told me, referring to the anti-Trump protests throughout the country last month, including in Washington, D.C. (The juror, who spoke with me several days after she and 11 of her peers found Dunn not guilty of assault, did so anonymously because, as she explained, Donald Trump’s administration is “very vengeful,” and she fears retribution.)The facts of the incident are ostensibly simple: In the early days of Trump’s militarization of the nation’s capital, Dunn—a 37-year-old Air Force veteran and, at the time, Justice Department employee—screamed at federal officers stationed in a popular nightlife corridor, repeatedly calling them fascists, and then hurled… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

For a president who wants to project vigor and command at all times, Donald Trump made the worst possible spectacle of himself in the Oval Office last Thursday.It came in the form of two images captured during a press event to announce cheaper weight-loss drugs. The first materialized when a participant fainted and several officials on hand rushed over. Not Trump, however, who, after turning to look at the fallen man, stood a few feet away at the Resolute Desk with his back to the action, wearing an indifferent expression. This was pointedly reflected in news photos that instantly went viral.The second image, less noticed but possibly more damning, was memorialized just beforehand: As Mehmet Oz, the administration’s head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, delivered remarks, Trump appeared to be nodding off at his desk. The Washington Post, in keeping with its dogged Watergate-era traditions, undertook a… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

The longest-ever government shutdown has ended with a negotiated whimper rather than a glorious Resistance victory, and many Democrats are furious at their leaders. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut argued on Bluesky that the Senate’s vote to end the suspension leaves President Donald Trump stronger, not weaker. Representative Ro Khanna of California wrote on X that leaders must pay. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, he argued, “is no longer effective and should be replaced. If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?”There was, in fact, a strong moral case for ending this shutdown. The Democrats’ decision to back down, however painful, will save tens of millions of poor and working-class Americans who had lost food stamps from going hungry. Millions more travelers will be spared chaos at airports. Federal employees will no longer have to pay mortgages and bills… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick went on CNBC this fall to promote a deal so great that he deemed it “off the rails.” The government of Japan, he explained, had brought down its tariff rate by giving President Donald Trump $550 billion to spend on whatever he wants. “They are going to give America money when we ask for it to build the projects,” he said with a grin.The president himself had been describing the agreement similarly—and was dismayed to later learn that the billionaire businessman turned bureaucrat, his longtime friend, had misunderstood the terms.Japanese leaders—who typically favor quiet diplomacy—made clear that they had not given Trump the blank check that Lutnick described. They would have a say in how the money was invested, and maintained the right to reject proposals. Making matters worse, the Trump administration had initially increased tariffs on Japan in August, during the rollout of the broader… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

This is how the government shutdown was always going to end.For the past 30 years, the party that has forced federal agencies to close their doors in a funding fight has never actually achieved the policy outcome it was demanding. Republicans did not successfully pressure then-President Barack Obama to defund his signature health-care law when they shut down the government in 2013. President Donald Trump, during his first term, failed to persuade Senate Democrats to authorize his border wall in 2019.And over the past two weeks, a pivotal faction of Democrats abandoned their hope that Republicans would agree to extend insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act anytime soon. So late last night, they provided the key votes to begin the process of reopening the government after what has become the longest shutdown in United States history. (Final votes to end the impasse are expected in the coming days.)“I came… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.