The likely temporary Israel-Iran ceasefire notwithstanding, if you need proof of how despicable Donald Trump is, consider this: When asked last week if he would ask Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop bombing Iran, which had already said it would stop retaliating...
Politics
Trump Was Never a Sincere Advocate of Realism and Restraint
by Ted Galen Carpenter | Jun 23, 2025 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics
Expectations for a restrained foreign policy by a new Trump administration were naïve. We now have strong evidence. Even before President Donald Trump ordered B-2 bombers to attack Iran’s nuclear sites and plunge the United States into another Middle East war, it...
TGIF: This Is America First
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 20, 2025 | Foreign Policy, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The Trump battle cry is America First. Revealingly, it is not Americans First. The former signifies, implicitly if not explicitly, national collectivism; the latter, individualism. To the extent Trump has a political worldview, it is not individualist. We cannot doubt...
Centralize Power to Decentralize It? The DOGE Conundrum
by Tyler Turman | Jun 19, 2025 | Featured Articles, Politics
Government waste is a problem, but, unfortunately, DOGE is not man’s best friend in this case. Six months after its dramatic rollout, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) lost its most famous face. Elon Musk, the billionaire tech mogul once touted as the...
TGIF: Magna Carta Day
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 13, 2025 | Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I wrote this in 2015 to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, or Great Charter. In light of current events—featuring a president who aspires to unchecked power, despairs of the rule of law, and has discussed suspending the right of habeas corpus—the posting of...
The Weaponization of Media Access Did Not Start with Trump
by Connor O'Keeffe | Jun 12, 2025 | Featured Articles, Politics
One of the reasons the American political establishment really hates it when Trump is president is that his administration has a tendency to bring out and exaggerate dynamics at play in Washington DC that the establishment would prefer to keep hidden. One such example...
Tim Dillon, We Wish Him Well
by James Rushmore | Jun 11, 2025 | Featured Articles, Politics
During a recent interview with CNN correspondent Elle Reeve, comedian and podcaster Tim Dillon provided a self-effacing but thoughtful critique of the mainstream media. Unlike Jon Stewart, who famously went on Crossfire in 2004 to call the kettle black, Dillon’s...
A Neocon Will Always Lie to Get What He Wants
by Jack Hunter | Jun 4, 2025 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics
When Barack Obama bombed Libya in 2011, a number of conservative voices spoke out against the president starting an unconstitutional war. Those Republicans insisted that presidents must go through Congress to declare war, as Article I, Section 8 of the U.S....