Did Ukraine bribe its way into the White House?
Michael Cohen’s Kiev connection could spell more trouble for his former boss.
Latest from Coffee House
All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Wednesday
Monday
Trump is getting ‘schlonged’ by America’s enemies
So much for the Nobel Peace Prize that Donald Trump said “everyone thinks” he should receive. The New York Times reports that Trump is starting to get second thoughts about visiting Singapore on June 12 to hold a summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Trump boasted earlier that if they cut a deal, Kim would … Read more
Why America First beats the party of Bernie Sanders
As the mid-terms approach, the Democrats are divided and dwindling. The GOP’s hand is getting stronger.
Saturday
This is monarchy for the Netflix generation
Well, a star is born. I refer to the Rt Rev Michael Curry, bishop of that vanishingly rare breed, the American Episcopal Church, who was stole the show at yesterday’s royal wedding in Britain. Anyone who can make Elton John look like that – sort of nonplussed toad – and generate barely suppressed mirth in
Friday
Trump’s ZTE talks have Congress wondering if he’s putting America first
Finally House Republicans are standing up to the president — and all it took was a Chinese phone company.
How the British royal family became a very American obsession
The nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle show the depth of American royalism.
Thursday
Why do powerful men love to be spanked?
Spanking is back in the news. Le vice anglais was meant to be a dying art — a vestige of a time when men were more repressed, but it’s recently become clear that British men enjoy a thrashing just as much as they ever did. In the past few weeks a London barrister, Robert Jones,
Wednesday
Could John Bolton cost Trump his Nobel Peace Prize?
My, my, my. North Korea is in a snit over National Security Adviser John Bolton who urged it to follow the Libya model of total denuclearization. Everyone knows how that ended. The North declared yesterday that it finds Bolton “repugnant,” a sentiment that is actually widely shared around the world, and that it wants an … Read more
Tuesday
Why Christopher Steele should spill the beans
Lawyers representing the ex-spook-turned-private-investigator Christopher Steele were in action yesterday at London’s High Court. In a rather convoluted turn of events, BuzzFeed, who published Steele’s leaked dossier on links relating to Trump and Moscow, is now seeking to question the author “on the dossier as a whole” because of the document’s importance in the “public’s … Read more
John Bolton really is in charge
The opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem was nothing short of a dark Mass. A ceremony that should have marked the monumental achievement of the Jewish people was instead consecrated in blood. Seated courtside was the man who perhaps more than any other made the embassy happen: Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate. Back in Washington, his man … Read more
Will Trump end the Mueller inquiry or will the Mueller inquiry end Trump?
May 17, 2017 started out as any other day in Donald Trump’s Washington. Men and women in suits with briefcases walked into work, ready to meet clients or do business. The day, however, proved to be the very beginning of Trump’s troubles, with the appointment of a special counsel to look into allegations of collusion … Read more
Monday
Does Mike Pompeo really think he can cut a good deal with North Korea?
The new secretary of state has already blundered during his short tenure.
Is Trump preparing to sell out South Korea?
Maybe President Trump has finally given up on his cherished dream of Vladimir Putin as his new best friend. It seems that Kim Jong-un is supplanting him in his affections. Even as Trump tries to up the ante with Iran, his top officials are playing kissy-face with North Korea. Fears are swirling in Washington that … Read more
Saturday
Trump is on a roll. But is it all artifice?
On June 12 Donald Trump will meet Kim Jong-un in Singapore. Trump is ebullient. “World Peace” is what he will seek, according his Twitter account. Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is sounding a more cautious note: “We hope this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula.” Trump’s euphoric tone is more reminiscent … Read more
Friday
John McCain is right about Gina Haspel
John McCain is a victim of hypocrisy. His allies in Washington and admirers in the national media praise him as the conscience of the nation, even as they betray him in his last desperate battle against the normalisation of torture. After a White House communications staffer, Kelly Sadler, joked that McCain’s views don’t matter because … Read more
Thursday
America is in the middle of a Russian influence campaign – not at the end
We need only look to London for lessons in how oligarchs apply pressure.
Europe’s leaders need Trump more than they wish to admit
America, meet your European allies in the effort to contain Iran: Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain, and Angela Merkel of Germany. Think of them as the Three M’s. Or perhaps the Three Wise Monkeys. Or even, as the Wise Monkeys are sometimes known, and would probably prefer to be called, the Three … Read more
Blankenship’s loss is an important victory for the Republican establishment
The midterm elections this November are bound to be a rough slog for a Republican Party desperately trying to keep its congressional majority. As former President Barack Obama would say, the Democratic base is “fired up, ready to go.” Democrats are giddy about their prospects; Republicans are for the most part gloomy. The GOP will … Read more
Thanks to Donald Trump, night is falling in Iran again
In the White House on Tuesday, with the world just where he wanted it — eyes on the TV, transfixed by his boldness — President Trump uprooted the Iran nuclear deal. Under this agreement, which was signed in July 2015 by Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany,
Putin shows off his ‘dagger’ on Victory Day
Then there’s the bravado that goes with it too. International Women’s Day is widely and actively observed in Russia, and though there is an official male equivalent in November, Victory Day is far closer to any actual celebration of masculinity. In the same year that I was wandering the streets of Petersburg trying to steer clear of drunken sailors, a friend of mine
Wednesday
Iran’s malevolent mullahs have been well and truly Trumped
The only time I met Donald Trump was at a small event for politically mature journalists at the White House last April. After milling about with my fellow scribes in the press room—it’s a lot smaller and shabbier than it looks on TV, like Jim Acosta—we were ushered into the Roosevelt Room near the Oval … Read more
Tuesday
Why the Democrats will lose their battle to stop Gina Haspel
Donald Trump is not known as a champion of women, but he thinks he should be. The President wants the deputy director of CIA, Gina Haspel, to succeed Mike Pompeo in the top job, and the Democrats are raging against her appointment. Predictably enough, Trump is enjoying the irony, tweeting on Monday morning: “My highly … Read more
Monday
What happened to honour in American public life?
‘Honour,’ the French poet Nicholas Boileau wrote in 1666, ‘is like a rocky island without a landing place; once we leave it, we can’t get back.’ Especially, Donald Trump might add, when the outlook is Stormy. But Trump’s concept of honour is perhaps closer to that of Stormy Daniels’ fellow artist and near-namesake, the Elizabethan … Read more
Sunday
How John McCain lost the Republican Party
The Arizona Senator could have been a Donald Trump-type figure. But he never was.
The truth about London knife crime – and the prejudice with which the world listens to Trump
I would love to undertake a behavioural experiment in which a cohort of the public were asked to watch Donald Trump reading out the Gettysburg Address and asked to make comments. I can guess what would happen. There would be an overwhelming negative response. Those who listened would use words like ‘outrageous’, ‘disgraceful’. They would … Read more
A storm’s a coming for Trump over the ‘dirty ops’ allegations
So aides to Donald Trump, the Observer reports, retained an Israeli intelligence organization to launch a ‘dirty ops’ campaign against two former national security officials in the Obama administration, Colin Kahl and Ben Rhodes. Both happen to have been involved in the negotiations about the Iran deal and the idea seems to have been to … Read more
Thursday
Is Rudy Giuliani all there?
The evidence suggests not
Nancy Pelosi says she isn’t going anywhere. But why not?
The House Democratic leader’s interview in the Boston Globe came across more cocky than confident
Wednesday
Robert Mueller is out of control. He should be shut down. Now.
Pop quiz: how many branches of government are there in the United States? If you said “Four,” go to the head of the class. As of May 17, 2017, the traditional three branches of Congress, the Executive, the Judiciary, are joined by the Office of Robert S. Mueller III, Special Counsel in charge of destroying the … Read more
Tuesday
Peace in Korea doesn’t make war with Iran more likely
Readers of Spectator’s USA’s mothership, the venerable yet sprightly London Spectator, will know that one of the secrets of the Spectator’s endurance and popularity is the promiscuity—ideological, of course—of its columnists. Turn the page from Matthew Parris to Rod Liddle, and you undergo a whiplash of the most bracing kind. Parris is an ex-Conservative MP … Read more
Trump’s presidency is in for a long, difficult summer
So it’s true. Donald Trump is going bonkers. This morning he used the British term in a tweet slamming “phony Witch Hunts” and lauding the “great Energy and unending Stamina” of the White House. There is plenty to arouse Trump’s ire. Yesterday the press that Trump loves to decry revealed that White House chief of … Read more
Anarchy in the White House — it’s a good thing
Would Trump without John Kelly be any different from Trump with John Kelly?
Monday
Trump’s Korea pact could make a new war in the Middle East more likely
The Trump administration may be heading into an infinity war. Europe is gearing up to retaliate against American on the trade front. China is indicating that it will refuse to negotiate on several key Trump trade demands. The Iran deal may be ripped up on May 12. And national security adviser John Bolton seems intent … Read more
Sunday
It’s time to end the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
You have to give it to Donald Trump. Not for pushing North Korea towards negotiations, or for holding China to account over dumping low-grade steel onto the American market, or even for healing the diplomatic breach between France and the United States—but for missing the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night. People accuse … Read more
