ArcaMax

For most of his political career, Trump’s been the Harry Houdini of American politics. Like Houdini, Trump locked himself in boxes it was impossible to get out of – yet he always escaped.

To the delight of his MAGA base, Trump escaped a Department of Justice investigation into efforts by Russia to help his 2016 campaign. He escaped 34 ...Read more

When a reporter asked Attorney General Pam Bondi about the Jeffrey Epstein investigation on Tuesday, President Trump could not contain himself a moment longer.

”Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” he said, pushing back against the question. “This guy’s been talked about for years. ... Are people still talking about this guy? ...Read more

There was a time, not so long ago, when we celebrated the press for doing its job of holding elected officials accountable and telling the truth, no matter how much government pressure they encountered.

In 1971, for example, we hailed the New York Times and the Washington Post for defying the Nixon administration by publishing the Pentagon ...Read more

There are anniversaries worth celebrating. Like last weekend’s 50 th anniversary of the movie “Jaws.” And there are anniversaries we’ll regret forever. Like June 16, 2025: the 10th anniversary of Donald Trump’s coming down the golden (of course!) escalator in Trump Tower and announcing he was running for president.

Reporters noted ...Read more

It’s the old Catholic in me, I guess. But I can’t resist. “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I had breakfast with Steve Bannon.”

Well, kind of, sort of. I was one of some 30 journalists who showed up this week for a breakfast with Bannon sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. And, to my total surprise, I actually ended up ...Read more

It’s a story we’ve heard many times, but it’s always worth repeating. In 1787, when Benjamin Franklin was walking out of the Constitutional Convention, a lady famously asked “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” “A republic,” Franklin replied tartly, “if you can keep it.”

Even Franklin might be surprised ...Read more

History will not be kind to Elon Musk, nor should it be. True, he is one of the most brilliant and successful business leaders ever. But he’s also one of the most demented, destructive, ineffective and heartless men who ever walked the planet. Nero only played the fiddle while Rome burned. Musk set the fires.

First, to his credit, when ...Read more

It goes with the territory. As a political commentator, I read a pile of political books every year, some of them worthwhile, most not. But one of the best political books I read this year is “Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy” by CNN’s Jeff Toobin.

Citing the broad pardon power given the president in Article II, Section 2, ...Read more

It’s official. In what is probably the most significant achievement of his first four months in office, Donald Trump has acquired a fancy new plane. For him, it’s a personal triumph. For the rest of us, it’s a national embarrassment.

His new plane is a luxury 747 worth $400 million called the “Flying Palace,” which the government of ...Read more

“ Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam.”

“I announce to you a great joy: We have a Pope.” On Thursday, May 8, 2025 with that famous Latin formula, the whole world learned that the College of Cardinals had elected a new pope to succeed Pope Francis.

Ending my six-week sabbatical in Europe, I was in St. Peter’s Square that ...Read more

Kafkaesque.

One hears that word a lot in discussions of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Or, for lowbrows like me, "The Twilight Zone" might be the pertinent reference.

Abrego Garcia is the Maryland man who was wrongly deported and imprisoned without trial in a grim prison in El Salvador. In March, agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ...Read more

From Gulf of America to mass expulsion of “illegals” (people of color) to continuing genocidal complicity in Gaza to whatever the daily news brings us … welcome to Trump America! Welcome to the small-minded, white nation so many long for, free once again from those large, inconvenient values – e.g., the Declaration of Independence – ...Read more