Michelle Wolf’s disgusting White House Correspondents’ dinner routine is another PR win for Team Trump
The dinner isn’t just a private get-together when the elite get together for a laugh. It’s a gala for media self-importance
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All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Sunday
Trump is like those martial arts experts who use their opponents’ own strength against them
His critics keep going nuts over the rhetoric – meanwhile, Trump proceeds with his agenda
Saturday
As a Catholic, I can’t really blame Paul Ryan for giving Fr Patrick Conroy the boot
Like all stereotypes, the “sneaky Jesuit” is truer than not. And as a practicing Catholic, I’m grateful to the Society of Jesus for its work refining the art of equivocation. It’s gotten me out of several difficult conversations with housemates without outright lying, such as: “Who drank the last of the Maker’s Mark?” Not me! (It … Read more
Friday
Are Macron and Merkel playing good cop, bad cop with Trump?
For France and Germany, the contrast could scarcely be starker. For three days Emmanuel Macron was wooed and fêted by Donald Trump, treated to marching bands and banquets. Today, Angela Merkel made a brief two-and-a-half hour stop-off at the White House, then flew away again. So does this mean President Macron is Trump’s New Best
Kanye West won’t be the last celebrity to cross the left/right Rubicon in 2018
In a culture war you can’t be too picky about who your friends are, even less your celebrities. The stars never come out for President Donald Trump, not during his campaign and certainly not at his inauguration. Where President Obama danced an elegant waltz while Beyoncé sang At Last and Stevie Wonder, Puff Daddy and Sting looked on, Trump’s big moment was accompanied by the
The 10 graphs that explain Vladimir Putin’s Russia
This is an edited version of a presentation given by Owen Matthews at The Spectator’s What does Russia want? event. What I’d like to do is give a run-through of how we got to where we are with Russia. From the end of the Cold War onwards, focusing on the economy – and how the
Thursday
The media believes that Macron’s visit was a Gallic triumph and a blow for Trump. That’s wrong.
Absorbing the handholding—we were not party to anything so standoffish as handshakes here—the kisses, and the hugs, I thought of Paradise Lost: “They hand in hand with wand’ring steps and slow,/ Through DC took their solitary way.” I quote from memory. Macron and Trump, Donald and Emmanuel: the state visit was nothing if not a bromance, at least … Read more
Donald Trump’s visit is good news for Britain – even if you don’t like him
President Donald Trump and Brexit Britain have a spooky synergy. After all, the last time Donald Trump came to Britain was the day after the Brexit vote. Was it a coincidence? A shrewd bit of PR? Or destiny? Trump himself seem to believe it was written in the populism stars. ‘I think I see a … Read more
The partisan Russian meddling cases are helping no one
There are two ways of looking at the multi-million dollar suit that the Democratic National Committee filed last week in a New York court. One is that any attempt to establish facts in a public court about Russian meddling in the 2016 election is more than welcome. The other is that the case may fail … Read more
Is Andrew Cuomo about to finally get his comeuppance?
Almost a quarter of a century ago, New York voters, weary of Governor Mario Cuomo’s sanctimonious bullyragging, rejected the three-term incumbent. Mario’s son Andrew, now seeking his own third term in office, has worn out his welcome with greater celerity. But then the son has all of dad’s bad qualities (i.e., he’s an arrogant prick) … Read more
Wednesday
Debbie Lesko’s narrow win shows Trump’s unpopularity is starting to bite
Debbie Lesko, a former Arizona state lawmaker, was jubilant over her victory for a seat in Congress last night against Hiral Tipirneni, a physician who was never given much of a chance to win. But Lesko’s narrow tally—52.9 per cent to 47.1 per cent—in a staunchly conservative district is why Republican strategists are not. Donald … Read more
The new identity politics is conservative
Celebrity opinion, that awful juggernaut, is beginning to shift. It could take another 30 years before we see any great turn. Yet slowly, slowly, famous people are realising that intense political correctness isn’t working. Old fashioned identity politics now bores the fans. One by one, celebrities are starting to reposition themselves. The stars are working … Read more
America’s media is letting Iran off the hook
Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has spent the last few days in New York, using American media to make a full-court press in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the United States not to tear up the nuclear deal with his country. As President Trump and Macron discussed what to do about Iran, Zarif complained about the … Read more
The disturbing case of Alfie Evans shames Britain
There was never going to be a happy ending to the story of Alfie Evans, the 23-month-old boy treated at Alder Hey hospital, Liverpool, for an undiagnosed neurological condition that destroyed his brain. But somehow the British establishment has contrived to make a tragic situation worse – to the point where large swathes of European
Tuesday
Can Macron make his man crush with Trump pay off?
Call it the audacity of hope. Emmanuel Macron wants to become the savior of the West. Like Sartre, he wants to tell Trump that there is no exit, at least when it comes to the Iran deal. He gave Donald Trump an air kiss on the cheek yesterday before he headed off to Mount Vernon … Read more
Why did Rand Paul endorse Mike Pompeo?
Rand Paul’s whole aim in foreign policy is to keep the U.S. out of unnecessary, unwinnable conflicts in which there is everything to lose and nothing gain. So why are some of his supporters angry at him for staying out of just such a conflict with President Trump over Mike Pompeo’s nomination for secretary of … Read more
Monday
The shaming of Shania Twain
Celebrity apologies are all the rage. Such is the power of Twitter, that stars without round-the-clock PR surveillance and teams of media advisors will often find themselves in hot water. This week, it’s pop-country singer Shania Twain who has fallen foul of the perpetually offended. Why? Twain had the audacity to talk about supporting Trump in
Sunday
What is social media’s problem with black conservatives?
Last week Dave Rubin (of The Rubin Report) sat down for a rare interview with Thomas Sowell. For three quarters of an hour they roamed over an amazing array of issues – social, political and economic. YouTube (where The Rubin Report is posted) demonetised the video immediately. This is a favourite trick of the platform – to … Read more
Saturday
James Comey really seems to believe that he embodies the law
In his book, the former FBI director shows a higher loyalty to himself
Has Kim Jong-un finally grown up?
Given the mutual bluster, threats and sabre-rattling we got used to from Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, it may be hard to credit the air of sweet reasonableness that has spread over the Korean peninsula in recent weeks leading to the weekend announcement of an end to weapons testing by the North. The potential for
Friday
Can Rudy Giuliani handle the job every other high-powered lawyer turned down?
The former mayor of New York has at last secured himself a position in Trump’s White House—but the role is an unenviable one
Is Anthony Scaramucci the new Roger Stone?
The ousted former Trump ally is following a starkly similar playbook to the master of the black arts
Thursday
The war party is ready for its next campaign: Haley 2020
Nikki Haley is at war with Donald Trump. She may be his ambassador to the United Nations, but she wants to set a foreign policy all her own, closer to the global interventionism of George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton than to the muscular but restrained foreign policy that Trump campaigned on in 2016. Her … Read more
Wednesday
Donald Trump is desperate for a North Korea deal
Uh-oh. President Trump is wading into diplomatic waters in North Korea that he may have trouble navigating. Yesterday, he proudly revealed that talks with North Korea have been taking place at the “highest levels.” He also gave his blessing to the prospect of a peace treaty between the two Koreas, which currently only enjoy an … Read more
Barbara Bush was a feminist’s nightmare
Barbara Bush, who has died at the age of 92, was a feminist’s nightmare. She dropped out of Smith College, from which the women’s lib movement would later explode, to marry and raise a family. Firmly independent but a dutiful wife, she was a liberal on abortion and gay rights but learned to keep mum
Tuesday
This is no time for Senate dallying over Mike Pompeo’s nomination
Angus King said today that he hasn’t made up his mind about President Donald Trump’s new pick for secretary of state, current CIA director Mike Pompeo. “I am legitimately undecided,” the Maine senator, who sits as an independent but caucuses with the Democrats, told CNN this morning. Kentucky Republican senator Rand Paul has declared he … Read more
Monday
Why hasn’t Italy joined the strikes on Syria?
Italy’s caretaker government has refused to allow crucial bases to be used for intervention let alone Italy’s armed forces. The stance of Italy’s right is identical to Jeremy Corbyn’s in Britain. The two populist parties – Five Star and Lega – currently negotiating to try to form a government – are anyway pro-Putin (like their soul … Read more
Are we really in the ‘last phase of the Trump Presidency’?
It’s shrinking. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll indicates that the Democrats’ edge over the Republicans in the forthcoming midterm election has dwindled among registered voters, from a 12-percent lead to 4-points. Donald Trump’s own approval ratings have edged up slightly to 40 percent, but his disapproval rating remains at a daunting 56 percent. So is
Sunday
Mission accomplished? Easier said than done, Mr President
Donald Trump finally had something positive to say on Twitter. After nearly a week of dithering, the president made a decision and announced it, to a fair amount of surprise, on national television on Friday night: The United States, in concert with the United Kingdom and France, would launch targeted strikes on Syrian chemical weapons … Read more
Saturday
James Comey comes back to haunt Trump
President Donald Trump must have a lot on his mind as an eventful week—even by the new standard he’s created in Washington—comes to an end. He has now met the deadline he set himself on Monday, when he promised to make “major decisions” within 24 to 48 hours on Syria, after “Animal Assad,” as he … Read more
Friday
Does President Trump have the authority to strike Assad without Congress?
When it comes to military action against the Assad regime, the United States again confronts one of the most fundamental questions of the American constitutional republic: does the president have the authority to order U.S. military force without the expressed authorisation of Congress? If you ask most executive branch officials, you would probably hear an … Read more
Bombing Syria would be a grave mistake
‘The whole of the Balkans,’ Otto von Bismarck said, ‘is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.’ He was right, until he was wrong. Times changed, and so did the map. In 1914, with Bismarck gone and no one to restrain the Kaiser, terrorism in the Balkans sparked a world war. How much
Is Trump the Neville Chamberlain of our time?
So Britain is responsible for staging the Syrian gas attack? According to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov: “We have evidence that proves Britain was directly involved in organizing this provocation.” Evidence, shmevidence. Next thing you know Moscow will be offering to assist Yulia Skripal. Oh, wait. It already did. Vladimir Putin cannot conceal
Thursday
The FBI raid on Michael Cohen was strange, but then Michael Cohen is strange
Almost from the moment Donald Trump was inaugurated the 45th president of the United States, his supporters have complained about the existence of a “deep state” within the bureaucracy that’s out to get him. There might be something to this, but not in the way its theorisers imagine. Civil servants have a lot more to … Read more
