After the Election, New Leadership and Old Cronyism

Joe Biden steps up as the Trump administration manufactures lies in an attempt to hold on — and perhaps profit

I had hoped that the days when the news came like a firehose were over, but so far, no luck. On Monday, the stock market jumped 1200 points in its first day of trading after the announcement of Joe Biden’s victory. Over the course of the day it was up as ...
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After the Election, New Leadership and Old Cronyism

Don’t Personalize Donald Trump’s Response to Covid-19

It’s classic neoliberalism — with a Schmittian face

“When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it’s gotta be. It’s total.” President Donald Trump, April 13, 2020 Carl Schmitt, Germany’s most influential authoritarian jurist, has long played a major role in political and legal debates around the world. Because of ...
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Don’t Personalize Donald Trump’s Response to Covid-19

Donald Trump Has Been in Politics for Decades

As a new book by Andrea Bernstein details, creating a 20th-century real estate empire demanded it

As early as 1987, rumor had it that Donald Trump was considering a presidential bid. In October 1987, as both parties began to assemble the 1988 field, Trump took a trip to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where a crowd bearing “Trump for President” signs greeted him. He decided not to run ...
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Donald Trump Has Been in Politics for Decades

Surviving Trump

Trump year 1

In my household, Donald Trump’s reign of error has ushered in a stream of daily conniptions. He did what? He said that? These days, Cynthia and I exchange gasps of horror as we read the morning paper over coffee. We’ve instituted Trump-free zones, such as the bedroom, where we have a mutual ...
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Jared Kushner, Quiet American

On Politics and Optics

On June 19th, Jared Kushner made his first public statement since taking the position of Donald Trump’s senior advisor. The remarks themselves, while strangely ignorant, were unexceptional. Rather, it was the revelation of Kushner’s voice, adenoidal, unexpectedly puerile, that gave rise to such media headlines as Jezebel’s “BREAKING: This Is ...
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Jared Kushner, Quiet American