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Well, the much-ballyhooed autopsy on the 2024 election has arrived from Democratic National Committee’s headquarters, and it is a shame it didn’t stay buried in a trashcan in one of their offices deep inside the Beltway, and as far away from real people as possible. Before moving on just as quickly as I can, from this unmitigated mess of typos, redactions, double-talking and sniping — and better yet, the leadership who allowed it — I want to underline some finer points, and hard-earned lessons we can take from it, and the disastrous 2024 campaign season.First, given all the unprofessionalism, money-wasting, bickering, and out and out dysfunction in t

President Donald Trump is trying to become an American Caesar, argued one of President George W. Bush’s advisers in a recent Substack post — but returning to America’s core ideals can stop him.In his Sunday argument, Steve Schmidt ventured back 90 years to 1936, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for his second term and the Nazis under Adolf Hitler were ascendant in the burgeoning German empire. After describing how the Nazis’ persecution of Jews in Europe was matched by America’s persecution of African Americans across the Atlantic, Schmidt quoted a Roosevelt speech that summed up the fundamentally American qualities that he believes can ultimately take down Trump.“Faith �

President Donald Trump seems indifferent to public opinion, according to one political analyst — and that poses a grave threat to the future of democracy.“His approval rating has plunged into the 30s, and he doesn’t seem to care,” MS NOW’s Paul Waldman wrote on Sunday. “Americans think the economy is terrible, and Trump seems indifferent. Instead, he’s putting his time and attention into a series of projects that could not be better designed to make him look corrupt and out of touch.”Waldman proceeded to list Trump’s various actions that Republicans believe are counterproductive t

President Donald Trump’s tariffs are wrecking America’s economy, a conservative wrote on Sunday — and it is doing so in the way he said they would help.“Trump’s trade wars have jeopardized the jobs of the hundreds of Americans whom Weyco actually does employ, in those twenty-first-century jobs that the United States excels at creating,” The Bulwark’s Catherine Rampell wrote, referring to the footwear company that distributes Trump’s favorite Florsheim shoes. Last week Rampell interviewed the CEO of Florsheim, who

President Donald Trump’s supporters defy objective reality on key issues, according to a political analyst — and the consequences of their ignorance on those matters is desire for America.“Recent polls, however, show that substantial numbers of Republican voters simply don’t believe these statements,” wrote MS NOW’s Ryan Teague Beckwith on Sunday. Beckwith was referring to the facts that solar power is one of the cheapest forms of electricity in the world, that American importers bear the brunt of tariff payments and that noncitizen voting is extremely rare — all of which a majority of Republicans do not believe because Trump tells them they are not true.“That’s bad for the countr

Lawyers are notorious for disagreeing with each other on a wide range of issues, but a surprisingly large majority share one view — President Donald Trump’s behavior during his second term poses a grave threat to American law and order.“At the lower-court level, judges have repeatedly ruled in ways intended to check Trump, most notably when it comes to violating civil and constitutional rights in pursuit of his indiscriminate immigration dragnet,” the Los Angeles Times’ political columnist Mark Z. Barabak wrote on Sunday. “The tendency to slow-walk his administration’s response to those rulings — and ignore others that Trump thinks he ca

President Donald Trump is facing heated criticism for engaging in over 3,600 stock trades during the first quarter of 2026 — but a powerful senator is arguing that Trump’s actions are merely an egregious symptom of a much more systemic problem.“Over 80 percent of Americans believe that their elected officials are engaged in some type of corruption, and over 80 percent want to see bans on stock trading — not just in Congress, but across the country,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) told The Bulwark’s John Avlon in an interview that dropped on Sunday. The interview was featured in an arti

Pondering our nation’s upcoming Memorial Day, it’s hard not to get emotional. I still get a lump in my throat when we stand for the national anthem at Bears home games. I fidget, look down, or look away so people don’t see my tears and think I’m loopy. But when I hear ‘perilous fight,’ and ‘proof through the night’ I really do see the old yellowed flag: 15 stars and stripes, tattered and fra

President Trump's decision to postpone a voluntary artificial intelligence testing executive order has exposed a deepening divide within his administration over governance philosophy and decision-making authority. The postponement, announced shortly before a scheduled White House signing ceremony, revealed fundamental disagreements between officials and highlighted how Silicon Valley figures continue to wield outsized influence over administration policy.The delay underscores a pattern of internal friction that has increasingly characterized Trump's second term. The president told reporters

President Donald Trump keeps clashing with the Supreme Court, even though he repeatedly gives them exactly what they want.“With the court preparing to issue major rulings in the coming weeks that will determine the fate of key aspects of the president’s agenda, Mr. Trump has vacillated between combative and conciliatory in his treatment of the justices,” The New York Times reported on Sunday. “He has seemed ever aware and at times resentful of the critical role the justices play in determining the lawfulness of his policies, with the court representing perhaps the one force in American government truly able to thwart his agenda. At the heart of the tension: a presid