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Today, after almost a year of Trump’s second regime, I want to talk about the challenge Trump and his regime pose to America’s moral purpose. The best way into the subject is, I think, to ask a few questions about what’s been happening, and then offer an answer to all of them.Questions:— Why does Trump’s latest National Security Strategy, released this month, make no distinction between despotism and democracy?— Why is Trump abandoning Europe and siding with Putin over Ukraine? — Why is Trump also solicitous of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince MBS, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, and Benjamin Netanyahu? — Why is the Trump regime so intent on detaining or deporting undocumented people in the United States who have not committed any crimes and have been produc

President Donald Trump’s Antitrust chief Gail Slater ended the Biden DOJ’s antitrust case against alleged software rent-fixing conspirator RealPage.National average rent fell 0.3 percent from August,” according to the Wall Street Journal, and some of that relief happened because Biden’s DOJ had sued data sharing software and consulting fir

Washington Post law and political columnist Jason Willick says he would “probably hate” most of the legislation Democrats would pass if they controlled the House, Senate and White House without a filibuster to keep them in check. However, President Donald Trump’s increasing theft of Congressional power demands the Senate be functional again.“My views are … changing,” Willick said. “I’ve always thought of the Senate’s 60-vote requirement for passing most legislation as a healthy check on narrow partisan majorities in the legislature. But how well is th

A panel of New York Times columnists say the damage of Trump’s recent Pennsylvania speech suggest his aids are merely trying to keep him busy, regardless of the consequences.“... [H]e’s making these claims about inflation that aren’t true, making these claims about wages that aren’t true, making these claims about costs that aren’t true — just a torrent of falsehoods,” said columnist Jamelle Bouie. “All

The New York Times reports that Americans in their 20s and 30s, even if they know they are not poor, feel the “basics of a middle-class life are unattainable” or they require terrible trade-offs. Things like homeownership, supporting children or occasionally dining out are not available to them like they were to their parents.Full-time Pennsylvania department store manager Keyana Fedrick told the Times that she and her friends feel stuck in jobs that do not pay enough to rent an apartment, never mind buy a house.“I’m 36, and I don’t have children yet,�

Idalia Bisbal moved to Allentown, Pa., to escape high prices in his retirement, but he said President Donlad Trump’s economy is hounding him with inflation and big price tags on his fixed income.“It's worse than ever,” Bisbal told reporters. “The prices are high. Everything is going up. You can't afford food because you can't afford rent. Utilities are too high. Gas is too expensive. Everything is too expensive.” Vice President JD Vance had recently finished a rally nearby for the administration’s second visit to Pennsylvania in a week. But, Like Trump at an earlier visit, rather than outline plans to lower inflation, Vance blamed high costs on the Biden administration, which has not been in

Podcaster Cari Champion took Federalist reporter Brianna Lyman to task for ‘normalizing’ President Donald Trump’s recent changes to the Kennedy Center.Lyman argued that Trump has improved the Kennedy Center since returning to office, despite revenues at the venue plummeting under Trump’s influence.“President Trump comes in, they are renovating. They cut salaries that were needlessly high. They are bringing people to come and see the arts, for once. It was not that lively of an institution under the Biden administration. So don't pretend like you care about the Kennedy Center now, when you're quiet when it w

New Republic staff writer Matt Ford says he looks forward to the upcoming days of “detrumpification.”“I spent most of this year — indeed, most of this last decade — thinking about one man. Now, for just a moment, I want to think about what comes after him,” Ford said. “One day, likely by January 20, 2029, Donald Trump will no longer be the president of the United States. The Constitution will bar him from seeking a third term…. It is highly probable that Trump will be replaced by a new Democratic president. America’s economic, social, and moral decline in just the last 1

The Guardian reports President Donald Trump’s politicized Justice Department is trying to obfuscate the president’s ties to notorious sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.On Friday morning, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News that the department wouldn’t be releasing all of the files on Friday as required by a Congressionally passed law.“There’s a lot of eyes looking at these and we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials we are producing, that we are protecting every single victim,” Blanche said.By the time the department

One of the contractors for the Arizona Republican Senate’s “audit” of the 2020 presidential election claims to have photos of 2.1 million ballots from Maricopa County and is raising money to preserve them, despite state law saying ballots and images have to be destroyed 24 months after an election.Jovan Pulitzer, a favorite of election fraud conspiracy theorists, who claims to have invented technology that can detect fraudulent ballots by examining the folds in the paper and the markings, was hired by the Senate to use that unproven technology in 2021. When he said that Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia was marred by fraud that only he could detect,