Kayleigh McEnany

The DeSantis family Iowa hoedown

Welcome to Thunderdome, where I have good news, everyone — we have a podcast now! The Spectator’s long-standing DC-focused podcast, The District, is going all Thunderdome for the 2024 primary season. Every week, I’ll be breaking down the latest in the 2024 contests with a pair of Washington insider friends who will give us their experienced political takes on the state of play. In our first episode, we talked about Ron DeSantis’s Iowa launch, Donald Trump’s Covid revisionism, Chris Christie and Mike Pence, and whether RFK Jr. is the start of something bigger on the Democratic side. Listen here today!

In praise of Kayleigh McEnany

Is Kayleigh McEnany the best Press Secretary in history? I think she may be. True, it’s early days. She was elevated to the position only in April and presided over her first briefing just a few weeks ago on May 1. But so far her tenure has been glorious. Despite having attended both Georgetown and Harvard, where she took a law degree, she remains quick-witted, forthright and occupies a cant-free zone that suffuses the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room with a spirit of patriotic candor that is as welcome as it is rare in the self-involved purlieus of the so-called mainstream media. She is also, I think it important to observe, distinctly dishy, another advantage.

kayleigh mcenany

Kayleigh McEnany’s media jujitsu

Kayleigh McEnany, President Trump's new White House press secretary, has breathed new life into the briefing room and already proven herself to be a formidable opponent for the media. Unlike her predecessor, Stephanie Grisham, McEnany has been preparing for her moment at the podium for years. She rose to prominence in 2016 as a CNN contributor by duking it out on panels where she was routinely outnumbered as the lone pro-Trump voice. McEnany later joined the 2020 Trump re-election campaign  as its national press secretary. Her time in front of the camera debating Trump haters clearly paid off — she has been prepared twice already for 'gotchas' from members of the White House press corps, throwing their questions right back in their faces.

Kayleigh McEnany

Trump’s safari into the wilderness of the deep state

Grin and bear it. Teddy bears are popping up across America in living room windows as families seek to entertain children out for a stroll who are supposed to go on a bear hunt. There’s even a central database, citybearhunt.com, where you can enter your address to assist in the search for the ursine creatures. If Donald Trump wants to project a cuddlier image, he might consider placing one in the Oval Office window.Judging by Trump’s latest moves, though, he is hardly in an emollient mood. Rather, he’s embarked upon his own safari into the wilderness of the deep state. Trump is claiming fresh pelts by the day.

deep state