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Whatever loopiness there is in Donald Trump’s personality is a loopiness born of isolation. For ten years the history of the world has revolved around him, not he around it. The events of last November have left Trump as, for all intents and purposes, the only remaining historical actor – especially after Xi Jinping’s retreat into obscurantism since the pandemic.
Progressive journalist Mehdi Hasan recently went viral for his “debate” with 20 so-called conservatives on the popular YouTube channel Jubilee. The program is formatted such that Hasan makes a claim, and then his opponents, seated in a circle around him, race each other to the chair opposite Hasan when they wish to refute a claim. When the claim, “Donald Trump is defying the US Constitution” came up, contestants lunged for the chair – not to deny the claim, but to dismiss the Constitution outright. Hasan, it seems, was ready to argue that Trump is defying the Constitution, but he was utterly unprepared to defend the document on its merits. We shouldn’t read too much into this gathering of the chronically online.
Ellen DeGeneres, the former queen of American daytime television, says she escaped the social turmoil of the United States by finding a $29 million farmhouse in the English countryside. And she would very much like the rest of us to take note. She and her wife, Portia de Rossi, reportedly arrived in Britain the day before the 2024 US election. When the results came in, accompanied, she says, by a flood of sad-face-emoji-laden texts from anxious friends, the couple made their decision: they wouldn’t be going back. Now they’re happily settled in the Cotswolds, that beautiful part of southern England where celebrities, rockstars and former politicians play out their fantasies of rural living.
Like many Westerns, Eddington, Ari Aster’s latest feature, unfolds with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. It’s late May 2020 – the height of Covid. The ominous opening shot shows the construction site of an artificial-intelligence data center, which threatens the scarce water resources of the titular New Mexico town. A bird drops dead from the sky; a sick homeless man, coughing and rambling incoherently like a mad prophet, slouches toward the town, the dead bird clutched like an omen in his fist. From the outset, we already know the town is doomed. It’s not a question of if, but how. The Western genre and Greek-tragedy framing shape the exploration of this era’s still-disputed history, transforming the recent past into something mythic.
Remember Angela Davis? Few people under fifty do. Was Cambridge University counting on that historical ignorance when it decided to honor Angela Davis with an honorary degree? In case you, Dear Reader, are a little fuzzy about Davis, I note for the record that the former Black Panther and two-time vice-presidential candidate on the Communist Party ticket with Gus Hall is the recipient of many honors, including the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace Prize. Cambridge University, of course, has long demonstrated a certain fondness for Commies, as the names “Kim Philby,” “Guy Burgess” and “Anthony Blunt” remind us.
There is never a dull moment in the second, more cheerful reign of Donald Trump. I am writing from London, but was in France last week, picking my way through various battlefields and cemeteries in and around Verdun, Bastogne (think “Easy Company” and “Battle of the Bulge”), and Reims. Well-informed readers will know, as I did not, that “Reims” is not pronounced as its letters might suggest but rather as a nasalized “Reince.” I have always associated the place with champagne, and I am pleased to say that the city capitalizes on the association. But one point of interest had nothing to do with that magical elixir. Reims was also the location of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters at the end of World War II.
When I was promoting the various books I wrote about the British royal family, I was asked a number of questions by the audience. A lot were about Meghan and Harry and were uniformly hostile. Some were, indeed, more an observation than a question. I’d allow the speaker a couple of moments to rhapsodize about the late Queen and the Princess Royal; I usually didn’t mind, as long as the gabber bought a book afterward. But one of the running strands throughout my various appearances was that there would usually be someone present, slightly more excitable looking than the others, who would ask me, “Do you believe the official stories about Princess Diana’s death?” The questioner would then be pleased, and many of the others surprised, when I replied, candidly, “No, I don’t.
Trump has got almost everything he wanted in the trade deal between the United States and the European Union. Goods imported into the US from the EU will now be subject to tariffs of 15 percent - half the rate that Trump had threatened but far higher than existed prior to "Liberation Day" on April 2. What has Ursula von der Leyen got in return? Nothing at all, other than the punitive tariffs being dropped. She has agreed to lowering tariffs on imports from the EU, in some cases to zero. She has also agreed to the EU buying more products from the US, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), making a mockery of the EU's net zero policy.
In the pantheon of American bureaucracies, none have guarded their prerogatives more jealously – or become more allergic to reform – than the State Department. And so, predictably, when the Trump administration moved in recent weeks to cut the agency’s workforce by 15 percent, Washington’s political and media class protested in unison. But strip away the histrionics, and something else emerges: a much-needed effort to realign the State Department with the America it’s supposed to represent. No one celebrates the pain of sudden job loss. Many of the terminated employees were sincere public servants (some of whom I count as personal acquaintances).
To many people mourning him this week, Hulk Hogan was a larger-than-life super being, an outsized professional wrestling character with a singularly American persona. “I watched him lift 350-pound men over his head and throw them out of the ring,” President Trump said on Friday. I appreciate a good show as much as anyone, and have seen Rocky III many times. But I was never really a pro-wrestling guy. For me, Hulk Hogan is an important figure because he helped bring about the defeat of one of my life’s great villains: Gawker Media. Since only a couple of dozen people remember my personal drama with Gawker, I’ll provide a brief summary.
This month, Congress put school-choice funding on offer to the states as part of the Big Beautiful Bill. Progressives have bashed the provision for the harm they claim school choice will do to under-resourced school districts. But the program saps not a dollar from public schools, which shows the protest for what it is: elitist bluster. The same progressives who fumbled their schools’ Covid responses, instituted woke curriculum and pushed adolescent gender transitioning should not decree to parents which school is best for their children. Public schools have not earned Americans’ trust over these past few years; many private schools have. Under the new measure, families can receive a tax credit for donations to an approved scholarship-granting nonprofit organization.
In a recent interview, Tucker Carlson sat across from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, asking polite, unchallenging questions of a man who represents a regime that has issued a fatwa against a sitting US president and enshrined “Death to America” as a founding slogan. It was a stark contrast to Carlson’s often combative posture with American lawmakers – from mocking Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to his recent grilling of Senator Ted Cruz – as if democratically elected US officials were more of an adversary than the head of a theocracy with a long record of hostage-taking, terror sponsorship, nuclear brinkmanship and brutal repression at home. But Carlson’s posture is not an anomaly.
Tulsi Gabbard's declassification of documents that support the view that the intelligence community engaged in a deliberate conspiracy to target the incoming president with false or dubious claims is truly explosive – unless you deliberately choose to ignore it. Surprise, surprise – the same people who helped manufacture and propagate these claims in the first place are sticking to their guns, with the normal veterans of the CNN octobox.
During a frantic Tuesday news cycle – where President Trump accused President Obama of high treason and Congress planned to recess early to avoid making any Epstein-related decisions – a smaller item caught Cockburn’s gimlet eye (while he was drinking a midday gimlet on the patio). House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee approved an amendment that would rename the opera house at the Trump-run Kennedy Center “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.” Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho said that was an “excellent way to recognize” the First Lady’s “support and commitment to promoting the arts.
Hulk Hogan, who died today at 71, will be sorely missed. But in July 1996, arguably the most famous and beloved pro wrestler of all time was standing in a ring as fans booed and threw trash at him. He had just turned into a bad guy for the first time ever. This was the second time Hogan would take professional wrestling to unprecedented heights. Nearly 30 years ago, Hogan formed the villainous “New World Order” (NWO) for Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Because of Hogan’s group, WCW would beat the former top wrestling company, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for 83 straight weeks in the TV ratings. No other company had ever beaten WWE in the ratings.
The President is usually set on "winning," but he has settled this week for a draw. Columbia University and the administration reached a settlement yesterday that, in theory, brings a months-long battle between the academics and politicos to an end.On the face of it, Columbia has still pulled the short straw. The university will pay a $200 million fine over three years to address the allegations that it was in breach of anti-discrimination laws, specifically in regards to the safety of Jewish students on campus.Moreover, Columbia has agreed to a "jointly selected independent monitor" that will watch over the university’s actions as it implements new student assessments and hiring policies.
Artificial intelligence is the future, we’re often told. But it can also prove to be a constant source of confusion in the present. Like when your phone updates and suddenly “Apple Intelligence” is summarizing your texts before you’ve read them – or when you no longer need to click through to a website when you Google something. But don’t worry: the Explainer-in-Chief is on hand to help make sense of the chaos. President Donald “Everything is Computer” Trump addressed an AI summit at DC’s Mellon Auditorium yesterday evening for around an hour, high on the fumes of his recently agreed trade frameworks with Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.
It’s the stuff of nightmares. You wake up on a cold metal table, fully conscious but unable to move or communicate as masked figures prep you for some unknown procedure – it turns out to be your last. This isn’t the plot of a Criminal Minds episode, but quite possibly a far too common reality in an American medical system that seeks to harvest organs from donors who are very much alive. It’s the latest example of modern progressive institutions committing harm in the name of help. A recent New York Times investigation revealed the disturbing lengths procurement agencies go to retrieve organs. Historically, organ donation occurred only from patients declared brain-dead, an “irreversible state.
Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani has declared that in his New York City, buses will be free, childcare will be free, rent will be frozen and government-run grocery stores will light up the crime-riddled horizon. Cockburn thinks current Mayor Eric Adams, now running as an Independent, must have read Zohran's free-stuff-for-New-Yorkers list and spotted a hole: WiFi. In a press conference yesterday, Adams was joined by the city's office of Housing Preservation and Development to announce their new $3.25 million plan to provide free WiFi to low-income New Yorkers in 35 government-subsidized buildings. "Liberty Link will deliver free and low cost internet to 2,200 households across the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. . . . Today, we're bringing Section 8 online," the Mayor said.
What's the best novel you've read all summer? For Cockburn it's the more than 200-page complaint that Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte filed in federal court today against Candace Owens, regarding several episodes that Owens has broadcast claiming that the First Lady of France was, in fact, born a man. Cockburn understands that Owens offered the Macrons the right of reply before airing the speculation, but the French President and his wife declined. This has led to a source close to Owens to claim to Cockburn that the suit is nothing more than “a foreign government trying to silence an independent American journalist.” And they’re not the only ones, pace Candace.
I don’t think anyone has ever come up with a word to describe an authorized author. It’s not quite a tautology. The writer, who has been invited to write a novel continuing the body of work of another, might, possibly, be an example of literary parthenogenesis. Or, more pejoratively, karaoke. Who knows? But either way, it’s a growth industry. You will have seen the new authorized James Bond novels, the recently crafted Miss Marple and George Smiley outings that have appeared on the bookstore shelves over the past few years to some fanfare – despite the fact that those characters’ creators are very much pushing up the daisies.
The reaction of markets to the US trade deal with Japan shows yet again that if you presage bad news with even worse news you can make people pathetically grateful at the outcome. Shares in Toyota surged by 14 percent at the news. Yet why, when the deal will see imports of Japanese cars to the US slapped with tariffs of 15 percent? Because back on "Liberation Day" in April, Donald Trump announced that Japanese imports would be subject to 24 percent tariffs. Reactions to Trump’s reset in trade relations with the rest of the world have undergone wild swings in recent months. First, markets plunged.
David Letterman, who by now has retreated into full comedy-hermit mode, posted a bunch of old Late Show clips on his YouTube page on Monday, where he continually and brutally spit-roasted CBS. In honor of CBS losing NFL coverage to FOX in 1994 (and selling off several affiliates in the bargain), he ran a “Top Ten List” of “New CBS Slogans,” including “you can’t spell ‘Bumbling Executives without C-B-S!’ and ‘If you bring your talk show here, we’ll sell all your stations!’” As a reward for that long-ago roasting, CBS said nothing in response and kept Letterman’s highly profitable show on the air for more than two decades.
Yesterday, I wrote about the revelations with which Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, electrified the world. We had all grown up chewing on the Russia Collusion Delusion, and most of us were happy to have that political enormity pass through the usual emunctory processes and be deposited in some far off midden or compost heap. But Tulsi showed that, however expert we thought ourselves about the subject, that great precautionary motto – "things are always worse than they seem”– was pertinent even here.
It’s not fair that all the Great American mayoral discussion revolves around the coasts. Sure, Los Angeles has the one who oversaw the burning down of the nation’s second most populous city from halfway across the world. And New York City has been bleeding money as if it were the star of a sequel to “Brewster’s Millions,” but without the promise of a massive payday at the end. Right in the middle of the nation, tucked into the banks and headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River, is Minneapolis: the little city that could, chugging its way full speed ahead – right off the cliff of Midwest sensibility, prudence and normalcy. Woke came to town, and it’s got a bone to pick with common sense.
“The one thing that binds each and every one of us is not necessarily love... it’s pain,” Hunter Biden said in his interview yesterday with independent journalist Andrew Callaghan. Well, that’s good, because we’re not all sons of a former president, so at least we have something in common. Someone has really been working the 12 steps! Cockburn will admit that he didn’t really see it until now, but after yesterday, he’s ready to admit that Robert Hunter Biden may be the only person who can lead the Democratic party out of the wilderness. It’s a development worthy of the best "scion’s fiction.
The Trump White House took a victory lap on Monday, declaring in its newsletter that the American economy is back – back bigger and better than ever. Core inflation is down. Industrial production is up. Claims for unemployment dropped. Tariff revenue rose. The newsletter even cites the Wall Street Journal—otherwise in bad odor in the Trump White House – for decreeing that the American economy is “regaining its swagger.” Is it time to splurge on a fancy vacation? As it happens, I’m currently visiting Vermont where the number of tourists is distinctly lower than in previous years.
I have a bone to pick with Tulsi Gabbard. I had thought, six months into Donald Trump’s second term, that I could safely say “sayonara” to the Russia Collusion Delusion and all its works. I started to count how many columns I had written about that embarrassing effort to destroy Donald Trump, but gave up. The answer is: many. I had hoped I had finished with the subject forever. But now the president’s Director of National Intelligence, that same T. Gabbard, has weighed in with what she rightly describes as “historic” evidence of a plot, directed by Barack Obama with various high-ranking lieutenants, to undermine the first Trump administration. Is there anything new in her evidence? Some say no, not really.
Too long, didn’t read, but late last week Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard proclaimed that she had in her possession a full ream of intel conclusively proving that the Obama Administration, in its 11th hour, prepared a fusillade of fake evidence designed to defame President Trump as an agent and dupe of the Russian Government. Trump, somewhat on his heels with the Epstein Files scandal, began screeching online about the Russia Hoax. Today he posted a meme showing various Obama Administration figures, including Obama himself, wearing orange prison jumpsuits, holding up cards with their names on them, with the logo “THE SHADY BUNCH” embossed on top. Very hip, Mr. President, retweet a Beverly Hillbillies joke next. “HOW DID SAMANTHA POWER MAKE ALL THAT MONEY???
In the annals of stupid and poorly run schemes, the California High-Speed Rail project ranks among the worst. Its future, even a dramatically scaled down one, has become ever more precarious since the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation rescinded $4 billion in funds already granted the project. Governor Newsom has already filed a suit to reverse the action, but he can’t legislate away the reality that this project is an abject embarrassment. When voters approved $9 billion for the plan in 2008, the California High-Speed Rail Authority estimated that it would cost $33 billion and start running by 2020 – and that was just for the San Joaquin Valley portion. The cost has since ballooned to $130 billion, and no stretch is operational.
You just graduated college – time to find a job, buck-o. Print out those resumes, and hit the streets hungry. Pass them out to everyone and anyone. Be willing to do what others won’t. Landed your first gig? Show up each morning bright eyed and bushy tailed, no matter how humiliating, and consistently go above and beyond. But most importantly, stay true to yourself. This is the bumper sticker “job advice” boomers have been giving to successive generations for the last 50 years. It’s arguable how useful it ever was, even in their own time. But it’s not until LinkedIn that this contrived work ethic became formalized and permanentized in the digital square – so much so that we’re forced to ask, will we ever have a normal job culture again?
The institutions just won’t quit. Even after the Supreme Court made it abundantly clear that race-based admissions violate the Constitution, many of America’s top medical schools are digging in their heels – and, apparently, digging graves for meritocracy. A new report by Do No Harm, a group of physicians and health policy experts, reveals that public medical schools continue to admit students with dramatically different qualifications based largely on race. In other words, the diversity-industrial complex is alive and well – just operating in the shadows. The numbers don’t lie. According to the report, black students admitted to these schools had average MCAT scores significantly lower than their white and Asian counterparts.
I preface this review by saying that – unless you are the greatest admirer of Lena Dunham or anyone in the (admittedly impressive) cast of her new Netflix series, Too Much – it is very easy to give this particular show a miss. It is a tedious, unfunny collection of clichés, strange American-centric perspectives on life in London, a charmless, Dunhamesque lead, a chemistry-free central pairing and guest appearances from her famous friends that seem somewhere between embarrassed and incongruous. Yet there are many worse shows on streaming services, most of which have not attracted anything like The Discourse that Too Much has thus far – and which, I am painfully aware, this article is contributing to. Why this? Why now?
It was the summer of 1954, and Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson was locked in a primary fight with fellow Democrat Dudley Dougherty. Flush with cash, Texas oil tycoons threw their support behind Dougherty through tax-exempt organizations like Facts Forum and the Committee for Constitutional Government. But Johnson, political shark that he was, quietly slipped in a new amendment to the IRS code banning tax-exempt organizations from engaging in partisan political activity. Lyndon Johnson sailed through the primary, and the name Dudley Dougherty became lost to history. The Johnson Amendment lived on, though in the present age, it has been contorted by political activists to crack down on Christians.Johnson’s intention was not to censor religious institutions.