Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Trump returns to backwater Britain

President Trump returns to Britain this week for his second state visit, to a country which is much changed yet depressingly still the same. On his first, six years ago, Britain had yet to complete its departure from the EU, Elizabeth II was still on the throne and the Conservatives still in power – with three Prime Ministers to go before their eventual ejection from office. He will no doubt receive a warm and dignified welcome from King Charles, whatever is going through the monarch’s head – the impeccable neutrality of the British throne has survived the change of reign. Yet the President will find a country that is anything but transformed by Brexit or by its change of government.

Donald Trump

Where is America’s 9/11 spirit?

Stark was the contrast between the selfless heroism and unity of purpose on and in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and the nation’s reaction to the events of September 10, 2025. In abundantly obvious respects, the two days differed. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, his wife, their two children, and the rest of his loved ones were the only immediate victims of his assassination on September 10. In contrast, Osama bin Laden’s hell-bound errand boys murdered nearly 3,000 Americans, saddled thousands more with diseases that later claimed their lives, and altered New York City’s skyline forever on September 11. America went to war afterwards.

Charlie Kirk

How Gen Z gender wars are reshaping America

The colossal divide, long suspected, between men and women of Gen Z – those aged 18 to 29 – has been confirmed by a recent NBC News Decision Desk poll. Beyond just a political split, young men and women have completely different ideas of what makes a successful life. From marriage and having children to prioritizing a lucrative career, they are further apart than ever. And this has enormous implications for the country.A dizzying number of articles and think-pieces have been devoted to the enormous voting gap between young men and women in the 2024 election. Gen Z men overwhelmingly pulled for Donald Trump, women for Kamala Harris.

Ella Emhoff

Oliver North was ahead of his time

In a fascinating blast from the past, two of the main figures in the biggest political scandal of the 1980s, Iran-Contra, have now married. Former National Security Council member Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and his ex-secretary Fawn Hall tied the knot privately last month in Virginia, after it was reported they reconnected at the funeral of North’s late wife in 2024. The pair were key figures in the Reagan-era scandal, with North running the arms-for-hostages operation and Hall providing assistance in smuggling documents, avoiding public scrutiny, and shredding evidence. Hall was granted immunity for her testimony, while North was convicted of three criminal offenses before they were overturned on appeal.

Oliver North
Cox

Utah’s Spencer Cox has displayed America’s best values

Governor Spencer Cox of Utah rose above the crowd when he spoke of Charlie Kirk's assassination and the apprehension of his suspected killer. It was the second time in as many days that Cox voiced thoughts we all needed to hear. Instead of rage, the governor’s plainspoken, heartfelt language, together with his quotes from Charlie, underscored our country’s highest and best values. They were sober, profound thoughts, and we needed to hear them. Governor Cox’s comments on Thursday and Friday demonstrated rhetorical clarity and solid constitutional foundations, grounded in our shared humanity.

Stephen King, The Long Walk and Charlie Kirk

Under normal circumstances, the author Stephen King should have been feeling pretty good about things and himself at the moment. The latest film of one of his works, Francis Lawrence’s horror-thriller The Long Walk, opened in American cinemas this weekend and has been met with almost unanimously rave reviews, many of which have called it a more socially aware, darker Hunger Games. He recently published a Maurice Sendak-illustrated retelling of Hansel and Gretel, which brings his trademark dark and macabre sensibilities to the age-old fairytale. And his last novel, Never Flinch, was, naturally, a bestseller – as all his books have been since he first published Carrie, over half a century ago in 1974.

Bolsonaro

Bolsonaro’s conviction reveals a divided Brazil

Brazil’s former right-wing president Jair Bolsanaro has been sentenced to 27 years in jail after being found guilty by the Supreme Court in Brasilia of plotting a coup and attempting the assassination of his leftist successor, the current President Luiz "Lula" da Silva. The five-person court panel trying the case delivered a verdict, with four judges voting guilty and one voting to acquit. The casting guilty vote was returned by a female judge, Carmen Lucia. Donald Trump, who regards Bolsanaro as a personal friend as well as an ideological ally, has described the trial as a "witch hunt" and a "political assassination." He has imposed 50 percent tariff charges on Brazil in response, and has threatened to increase the sanctions if Bolsanaro goes to jail.

Charlie Kirk

After Charlie Kirk, Trump should crack down on campus ‘safetyism’

An assassin who wants to silence a debate in America’s colleges can’t do it just by killing Charlie Kirk. Although Kirk was an exceptionally effective campus speaker – maybe the most effective since William F. Buckley Jr. in his heyday – he was far from alone in voicing conservative ideas in academic settings where they are generally unwelcome and at times violently opposed. There are others who will pick up Kirk’s microphone. But Kirk’s murderer has allies who can do systematically what the gunman could only do once. His allies in silencing voices like Charlie Kirk’s are university administrators who respond to violence by imposing stifling security costs on the targets of violence and intimidation.

The bloodthirstiness of the left is not new

The savage assassination of Charlie Kirk at a Turning Point rally at Utah Valley University yesterday prompts me to wonder, as I have often wondered, what is the leading characteristic of the left? There are several candidates. Intolerance is one. A rancid and anchorless do-goodism – think of Dickens’s Mrs. Jelleby and her “telescopic philanthropy” – is another.   But on balance I think that the late Australian philosopher David Stove was right: the leading characteristic of the left it is bloodthirstiness. Behind all the emollient rhetoric about brotherhood and equality, bloodthirstiness is the left’s most reliable calling card.   That is one reason that the nearly instant emission by prominent Democrats of their opposition to violence rings so hollow.

Charlie Kirk

Trump leads tributes to Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk’s senseless murder on a Utah college campus yesterday led to an instant and disgusting avalanche of celebration from a small minority on the extremely online left. But Kirk’s friends and allies also rallied to pay tribute to the slain conservative activist. They know what we lost. President Trump gave a four-minute message from the Resolute Desk and Truth Social, “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

charlie kirk

America’s mask of civility slips again

The FBI has just released an image of a "person of interest" in the case of Charlie Kirk’s killing. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that investigators have found ammunition at the crime scene with pro-trans and "antifa" engravings.  But we still don’t know much, if anything, about the killer. Speculation as to motives, or snap judgments as to the historical significance of yesterday’s crime, are therefore futile. On the moronic inferno of X, however, the would-be Nostradamuses of the 21st-century right are weighing in with grave predictions about civil war or revolution or an imminent tide of vengeful justice against "the left." Others are suggesting that Kirk, a Christian Zionist, may have been slain for having raised doubts about Israel’s war on Hamas recently.

Kirk

Left-wing violence is still being normalized

Six months before being shot in the neck and murdered, the popular conservative commentator Charlie Kirk retweeted our study on political violence in America. Warning the nation that assassination culture was spreading amongst the left, Kirk highlighted our study showing that 48 percent of politically left-wing respondents in a recent poll said it would be at least somewhat justifiable to murder Elon Musk. He noted, too, that 55 percent of them also believed the same about killing President Trump. And, most acutely, he highlighted that this is the natural outgrowth of a left-wing political culture that has tolerated violence for years. Sadly, tragically and unbelievably, we learn that he has become its latest victim. Left-wing violence is still being normalized.

luigi mangione political violence
9/11 saudi

When will we learn the truth about Saudi involvement in 9/11?

Will Saudi Arabia ever be held to account for the 9/11 terror attacks? For decades, the Kingdom has successfully parried lawsuits in the United States accusing it of providing logistical and financial support to a network of Islamic extremists who launched a global terror campaign, culminating in the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Those attacks occurred 24 years ago and since then survivors and victims of the 9/11 hijackings have had to counter not only vigorous Saudi denials mounted by their well-funded American legal team but also repeated attempts by the US government to thwart the lawsuits. But there are signs the pendulum has begun to swing the other way. On August 28, US District Judge George B.

kirk

I saw the bullet hit Charlie Kirk

I saw the bullet hit Charlie Kirk, and I saw him close his eyes and slump.  I am a reporter for the Deseret News, based out of Salt Lake City. I was sent down to Utah Valley University yesterday morning to cover Charlie Kirk’s Prove Me Wrong tour.  At around 11a.m., my friend and fellow reporter Emma Pitts and I walked from the campus library to the outdoor amphitheater with tickets in hand, but there was no need. There was no one scanning tickets; there were no bag-checkers – we just walked in with the other 3,000 people who attended. We were later informed that only six officers total had been assigned to the event.  The atmosphere was rowdy.

Flight 93

Flight 93 heroes deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Twenty-four years ago, Muslim terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 innocent civilians – the vast majority of them Americans – by hijacking three passenger aircraft and ramming them the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in suburban Washington, DC. But a fourth, United Airlines Flight 93, failed to reach its target thanks to the bravery of the passengers and flight attendants, who sacrificed themselves to save who-knows-how many. Twenty-four years later, those heroes have yet to receive their country's highest civilian award. The Presidential Medal of Freedom, instituted by President John F.

The ‘recklessness’ of Joe Biden, according to Kamala Harris

The Atlantic published the first excerpt of Kamala Harris’s expensive memoir "107 Days" this morning, leading with a lickspittle editor’s note from Jeffrey Goldberg. According to Goldberg, the Harris we read in this book is: “blunt, knowing, fervent, occasionally profane, slyly funny. As you will see in the following excerpt – and throughout this newsworthy book – she no longer seems particularly interested in holding back.” In this short excerpt we learn that Vice-President Harris repaired our supposedly broken relationship with France, mais oui, and also did a good job as “border czar.” She says so herself, and we have only her to thank.

Kamala
epstein cookies

I made the Epstein cookies

Is it wrong to bake cookies from a recipe addressed to a pedophile and sex trafficker? When I found the recipe for chocolate chip cookies on page 169 of Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book, I read and re-read it expecting there to be some sinister inside joke, perhaps a hidden dash of adrenochrome or instructions to “massage” the dough. The surrounding page contains a woman’s redacted photograph and references Epstein’s “mentorship,” while the other 237 feel like a cross between various expressions of human depravity: part ransom letter, part porn magazine and part teenage girl’s diary. Where does an innocent cookie recipe fit in among this?

Don’t watch the murder video of Iryna Zarutska…

There are precious few people who should watch the video released yesterday of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska slowly dying as she cowered in bewilderment and abject fear on a train carriage in Charlotte, NC, after being slashed three times in the neck by a violent repeat offender. Certainly not rubberneckers on the internet whose depraved interest will only intrude on her family’s private grief. And absolutely not her family, for them it is the worst nightmare they could imagine come alive. A jury will have to. Two other groups who should: Democrats and the media.  They created this nightmare so they should be forced to see the uncomfortable truth and direct result of what they have done.

iryna zarutska