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- The Bizarre Normalcy of Trump 2.0
A very strange disjuncture has opened up in Washington between the serene mood and the alarming developments that are under way. The surface is calm because the Republican presidential candidate won the election, and Democrats, the only one of the two major parties committed on principle to upholding the legitimacy of election results, conceded defeat and are cooperating in the peaceful transition of power. Whatever energy the chastened Democrats can muster at the moment is aimed inward, at factional struggles over their future direction.Meanwhile, what is actually happening in the capital is, by any rational standard, disturbing. Donald Trump is filling his administration with “loyalists,” a prerogative that his opponents have grudgingly accepted as his due. Yet he is defining loyalist in maximal terms, including the belief that Trump legitimately won the 2020 election and was justified in his attempt to seize power. The winners are rewriting the history of… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago - A New Bracero Program Is Not the SolutionA few days before Thanksgiving, President-Elect Donald Trump pledged to impose a 25 percent tariff on goods from Mexico unless the country halted the flow of migrants and drugs across the southern border. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum offered a stiff response, which was followed by what she called a “very kind” phone conversation between the two. Trump claimed that Sheinbaum had agreed to “close” the border, which she said was a misinterpretation. But she did say that there was “no potential tariff war.” Meanwhile, Reuters reported that American growers have asked Trump to spare U.S. agriculture from mass deportations, lest labor shortages lead to a spike in grocery prices. Trump has not publicly responded.Is there a deal in the making? History might offer insight into some of the options that Trump faces and what they portend.In recent months, reporters have repeatedly asked me about Operation Wetback, the Eisenhower-era mass deportation of… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago
- Biden’s Pardon Proves Trump RightLast week, President Biden served up a Thanksgiving leftover that no one wanted: a “full and unconditional pardon” of his son Hunter.Among Democrats, full and unconditional heartburn has ensued. This, to go along with the Democrats’ preexisting agita set off by last month’s election defeat, their circular blame-gaming, Donald Trump’s ruffian roster of Cabinet picks, and Kamala Harris’s continuing onslaught of post-debacle fundraising emails (unsubscribe, please!). Now already despondent Democrats have been left trying to explain away the rank hypocrisy of the outgoing octogenarian in the White House.As soon as the pardon news dropped, I thought of that metaphor that people still toss around to explain Trump’s appeal: He’s a “big middle finger” to the priggish pieties of the political establishment. It is not that Trump’s supporters admire everything about him. They just appreciate that his impolitic language and crude style are a rebuke to the self-serving hypocrites in charge.Turns… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago
- Why Voters Rejected Election ReformThis was supposed to be the year that political reform took off. A nearly $100 million campaign gave voters in seven states the opportunity to scrap party primaries, enact ranked-choice balloting, or both. Advocates of overhauling elections had billed the proposals as a fix for two of the most hated problems in politics: gridlock and polarization. And they promised nothing short of a transformation across state capitols and Congress—more compromise, less partisanship, and better governance.Voters said “No, thanks.” Election-reform measures failed nearly everywhere they were on the ballot in November—in blue states such as Colorado and Oregon, in the battlegrounds of Nevada and Arizona, and in the Republican strongholds of Montana, Idaho, and South Dakota. Alaska was the only state where reformers prevailed: By a margin of just 737 votes, the state rejected an effort to repeal a recently adopted system that combined nonpartisan primaries with ranked-choice voting.[Read: How 2024… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago
- Hunter Biden Was Unfairly ProsecutedCritics have argued that President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter was political nepotism—bad for the country, selfish, the height of privilege. But the actual story is the very opposite of nepotism: Hunter Biden was treated worse than an ordinary citizen because of his family connections. It’s good for the country when the president acts against injustice; President Biden rightly condemned the injustice of his son’s prosecution. His pardon was necessary to prevent Donald Trump’s Justice Department from targeting Hunter for years to come. I worked as a federal criminal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for 12 years, during which time I supervised and prosecuted many gun and tax cases. President Biden argues that the gun and tax charges Hunter was convicted of should never have been brought. I agree. When I served as deputy chief for the Southern District of New… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago
- No, Trump Can’t Just ‘Dismiss’ the SenateDonald Trump has not even returned to office, and already a constitutional crisis may be in the making. Trump has started announcing the people he intends to nominate for positions in his new administration. That is his prerogative. Several senators have criticized some of Trump’s choices. That is their prerogative (and two Trump nominees have already withdrawn under pressure). But rumors have been circulating of a plan to have Trump dismiss the Senate altogether, in a desperate effort to jam his nominees into office. There is simply no way to do this consistent with the text, history, and structure of the Constitution.The Constitution and laws require the Senate’s approval to fill many of the government’s most important offices—such as attorney general or secretary of state—all of which wield extraordinary powers on behalf of the public. The Senate’s involvement helps to ensure that the people in these jobs have the necessary… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago
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