The Trump Two-Step
David A. Graham
Is Donald Trump that clever, or are the media still just that unprepared? Whatever the reason, he continues to be just as adept as ever at running circles around the press and public.One of his most effective tools is what we might call the Trump Two-Step, in which the former president says something outrageous, backs away from it in the face of criticism, and then fully embraces it. The goal here is to create a veneer of deniability. It doesn't even need to be plausible; it just needs to muddy t...
Do Voters Care About Policy Even a Little?
Roge Karma
Suppose the president asked you to design the ideal piece of legislation--the perfect mix of good politics and good policy. You'd probably want to pick something that saves people a lot of money. You'd want it to fix a problem that people have been mad about for a long time, in an area that voters say they care about a lot--such as, say, health care. You'd want it to appeal to voters across the political spectrum. And you'd want it to be a policy that polls well.You would, in other words, want some...
A Study in Senate Cowardice
Jeffrey Goldberg
In late June of 2022, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump-administration aide, provided testimony to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. This testimony was unnerving, even compared with previous revelations concerning Donald Trump's malignant behavior that day. Hutchinson testified that the president, when told that some of his supporters were carrying weapons, said, "I don't fucking care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the fucki...
Ro Khanna Wants to Be the Future of the Democratic Party
Russell Berman
Photographs by John TrotterUpdated at 5:17 p.m. ET on April 3, 2024In January, as the 2024 primary season got under way, Representative Ro Khanna stood in the middle of a spacious New Hampshire living room and marveled at the dozens of Democrats who had crammed in. "What enthusiasm for President Biden!" Khanna said as the crowd cheered. The California progressive wasn't in the land of would-be presidents to promote himself--at least not directly. He came here to boost his party's flagging 81-year-...
Joe Lieberman's Parting Gift
Mark Leibovich
Say what you will about Joe Lieberman, the self-described "Independent Democrat" senator from Connecticut and onetime Democratic vice-presidential candidate. He was many things--honorable, devout, sanctimonious, maddening, and unfailingly warm and decent--all of which have been unpacked since his death yesterday, at 82. He elicited strong reactions, often from Democrats, over his various apostasies to liberal orthodoxy.But what I'll miss and remember most about Lieberman was that the man loved to k...
Trump Media Is the New Bed Bath & Beyond
James Surowiecki
Sign up for The Decision, a newsletter featuring our 2024 election coverage.After the stock-market frenzy that ensued when Trump Media & Technology Group started trading on Tuesday (under the ticker symbol DJT), one thing is almost certainly true: Donald Trump is now the chairman of the most overvalued company on Nasdaq. Trump Media had a grand total of $3.4 million in revenue in the first nine months of 2023, against more than $10 million in operating losses. Its only product is Truth Social, T...