James Mattis’ new book hints at his distaste for his former boss Donald Trump. An interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg hints at a master plan for making it public. Goldberg has to tease it out of the former Secretary of Defense, who remained reluctant to relay disparaging information about Trump and largely avoided doing

Understandable in theory, but counterproductive in practice? Earlier this week, the Democratic Party announced that all of its presidential candidates had finally agreed not to create their own outside political organizations and to publicly disavow such organizations. In doing so, they are attempting to apply one set of lessons from 2008 and 2012, while perhaps

A four-year probe into union corruption kicked into high gear yesterday as the FBI raided the homes of two United Auto Workers presidents. Both Gary Jones and his predecessor Dennis Williams are targets in a Department of Justice investigation into payoffs that might upend the auto industry. It might also disrupt Big Labor’s political standing

Here’s a question in return: Guess who’s looking to recover from the collapse of the Russia-collusion theory? A “source”* tells me that this is more an exposé of MSNBC’s desperation than of actual reality. I’m betting that my source is more solid than Lawrence O’Donnell’s, but YMMV. Even Business Insider treats this with asbestos gloves, calling

Just how important is the border wall to Donald Trump’s prospects for a second term? So important, according to the Washington Post’s sources, that he’s prepared to bulldoze practically everything to get it built by next fall. That includes private property rights, environmental regulation, and even the law — and he’s promised to use his

Where have you gone, OANN, a president turns his lonely eyes to you … Donald Trump kept his TV tuned in to Fox News Channel past Fox & Friends this morning, and clearly didn’t like what he saw. Slamming anchor Sandra Smith for what Trump saw as a softball interview with the DNC’s comms director, Trump declared

According to one Monmouth poll published Monday, Elizabeth Warren is now tied with Bernie Sanders as the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination. So what would a Warren vs. Trump general election matchup look like? Today Politico Magazine’s Bill Scher suggested it might look like a nightmare for Warren. Specifically, Scher believes that despite some

This smells of a stunt that backfired on Hassan Rouhani. The Iranian president semi-crashed the G-7 summit in Biarritz this weekend (at the invitation of French president Emmanuel Macron), and then suggested that he’d be willing to sit down with Donald Trump to deal directly with the crisis over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. His arrival and

Did China finally blink in Donald Trump’s trade war? Trump himself seems to think so. At the G-7 summit, Trump told reporters that a statement earlier in the day from a top official in Beijing showed that China had finally expressed a real interest in redefining the trade relationship between the world’s top two economies.

Fake news, or the best episode of Mythbusters ever? The normally close relationship between the White House and Axios has come under strain since the latter published a “scoop” last night. According to their administration sources, Jonathan Swan and Margaret Talev reported that Donald Trump had pressed on multiple occasions the idea of setting off nuclear

Next year, the US plays host to the G-7 summit that concluded today in Biarritz, France. Donald Trump wants to take that role seriously as well as literally, it seems. In remarks at the summit, Trump extolled the Doral Resort Hotel as the best place to hold the conference. That would be the Trump National Doral

We Americans may not agree on much, but according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, we largely agree on one thing. That one thing might end up trumping all other concerns in the next election, too — pun very much intended: The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that — despite Americans’ overall

We discussed this last week when he was still “seriously considering” jumping in, but now he’s made it official. Former Congressman and conservative talk radio host Joe Walsh has formally launched his primary bid, hoping to nab the nomination from President Trump next year. First a bit of disclosure. Walsh is a radio host broadcasting

By this time, most of you have doubtless heard about President Trump’s tweeted “order” for American businesses to find “an alternative to China” for their operations. This has left many observers somewhat slackjawed, wondering not only where this idea came from, but also where the President would find the authority to issue such a demand.

What the hell? Fresh off his minor gaffe about the timing of the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinations, Joe Biden mused about what would have happened if Barack Obama had been assassinated before the 2008 Democratic convention as well. His point wasn’t so much to honor Obama as it was to attack you-know-who: [embedded

Fourteen months after a court order ended the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration, Homeland Security will take steps to undo the basis of that action. Later today, DHS will roll out a new rule that will greatly modify the Flores settlement that bars detention of families for more than three weeks, a limit

Somebody needs a quick update on the definition of “secret.” Yesterday we talked about an Associated Press report claiming that the United States has been in secret discussions with some of the most senior members of the Venezuelan socialist party. The suggestion was that we were offering some of these thugs assurances that they wouldn’t

“The heat is rising” ahead of the upcoming G7 summit between China and the US. Answering Donald Trump’s last round of tariffs. Beijing’s Finance Ministry announced that they would impose new tariffs on $75 billion of US imports. Some of those will hit almost immediately, and then some will escalate on December 15th, the same

Engage on what, exactly? After a week of contradictory statements, no one’s quite sure where Donald Trump stands on various components of new gun legislation. The only thing that seems certain is that Trump wants to take action, but perhaps doesn’t necessarily want to get out in front of it. In tweets last night, Trump announced

Has Ben Ray Luján’s call on Monday for an impeachment “inquiry” changed the game for House Democrats? Nancy Pelosi’s assistant Speaker and #4 on the caucus leadership team became the highest-ranking member to endorse formal action to impeach Donald Trump. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) plans to force Luján to either put up or shut up

It’s tough to count Donald Trump out anywhere in the Midwest, but can he really flip Minnesota in his re-election bid? Not only will the GOP take aim at the state that has gone the longest in the blue column in the presidential race, but they plan a big move for Al Franken’s old Senate

It’s always nice when you see one of your own colleagues doing well, isn’t it? That’s why we took particular note of a New York Times story this morning suggesting that Salem radio host (and former congressman) Joe Walsh was getting ready to challenge President Trump in the GOP primary. If nothing else, he’s at

A “blistering timetable” indeed, as Boris Johnson observed, considering his Tories haven’t come up with a plan to leave the Irish border open for the past three years. The UK’s prime minister acknowledged as much in their joint remarks after meeting to discuss Brexit. Johnson had declared his intention to demand that the EU drop the backstop

At least four Republicans are considering getting into the 2020 race to mount a primary challenge to President Trump. The Washington Post reports that Joe Walsh, Mark Sanford, Jeff Flake, and John Kasich are all either testing the waters themselves or being encouraged by others to consider taking the plunge. The anti-Trump movement inside the

Hey, he never promised you a Rose Garden … ceremony. After publicly endorsing the expansion of background checks for firearms sales, Donald Trump has reversed himself after hearing from Republican allies and NRA chief Wayne LaPierre. However, that doesn’t mean that Trump won’t pursue other changes in the wake of two mass shootings: President Trump talked Tuesday

Perhaps you too have noticed a distinct coarsening of public language in our society. Not just during this Democratic primary campaign or presidency. But going back some years. Lyndon Johnson was particularly profane. An open mic caught George W. Bush describing one reporter as a back-facing part of the lower human anatomy. Vice President Joe

Why wouldn’t he be? Donald Trump doesn’t have a good answer to that question, and the people posing it don’t really have a reason to ask anyway. Trump confirmed yesterday that Mike Pence will remain on the ticket for a second term, ending speculation that ran into the dozens of people: U.S. President Donald Trump

All Democrats have to do in 2020 is not be crazy. How’s that going? Er … not well, friends, not well at all: A political fundraiser for @SenatorSandoval simulates an assassination attempt against a mock @realDonaldTrump decked out in Mexican garb. Looks like a man pointed a fake assault weapon at the fake President to pose

Is there more to the Greenland rumor than meets the eye? Donald Trump confirmed rumors yesterday that his administration had looked into the potential for purchasing Greenland, noting the strategic potential for such a transaction. However, Trump also told reporters that “it’s not number one on the front burner” on his vacation agenda: President Trump

This is akin to finding out that Dan Hedaya was Keyser Soze. The years-long effort to defund Planned Parenthood may have finally succeeded, the Daily Beast reported over the weekend, because the nation’s leading abortion mill may refuse to take the money. A new rule prohibiting abortion counseling and referrals from Title X providers will