Matt Bai
National Political Columnist- Yahoo News
Ronald Reagan was a patriot. What would you call Trump?
It may not have been textbook treason for Trump to ally himself with a foreign despot against his own government. But that the question couldn’t be immediately dismissed made clear that he had set a new low for the presidency.
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When it comes to NATO, Trump has it half right
If you make the case that America is wasting too much money to defend foreign borders, then you also ought to have an argument for how reversing that policy can help us here at home.
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Trump's policy is inhumane. It is not the same as 1942.
Some people have compared the disgraceful caging of children on the southern border to the internment of Japanese-Americans in 1942. But the internment was qualitatively different from what we’re seeing today.
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We've heard from the first ladies. Where are their husbands?
If this isn’t a time for the five living ex-presidents to put basic American values above the tradition of not criticizing their successors, then what would such a moment look like?
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Sessions takes on microaggressions. He’s right.
The Justice Department exists to enforce constitutional protections — none more than the right to free expression. And too many college presidents seem to have forgotten that they exist to teach students the value (and sometimes the cost) of those protections.
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Not much intelligent life in Washington. Outer space is another story.
What’s the truth behind that strange aircraft spotted off the coast of San Diego in 2004? Go ahead and laugh. But in the age of entertainment, we can no longer differentiate what’s entirely superfluous from what seems superfluous but might really matter.
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'Roseanne' shows what the media got wrong about Trump voters
Judging from its jokes about black Americans and immigrants, “Roseanne” was aimed at culturally affronted white Americans who feel robbed of their heritage. So it was a good bet that its star would stumble her way into the hatred and bigotry that lurk all over social media.
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Why Mike Pence won't be president
Mike Pence is busy building his own political operation. But close as he is to the presidency, his chances of ever getting the job fall somewhere between remote and imaginary.
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Take your own advice, Mrs. Trump. Be best.
Despite what’s said about her, Melania Trump isn’t trapped. She’s the most liberated person in her husband’s entire dysfunctional orbit. Imagine what it could mean if she exercised that freedom.
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The cluelessness of the correspondents' dinner
The main problem with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner isn’t the ugly humor or the God-awful food. It’s the display of vanity, pretension and tribalism that reinforces the worst idea of what political journalism is all about.
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Can you rein in the president without weakening the presidency?
Trump’s critics would argue that this moment must be met with extraordinary measures. The danger is that with each extraordinary measure they risk defining down the presidency.
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We need stronger candidates, not stronger parties
It’ll be a long time before we see another presidential field populated solely by career politicians. But that’s not something we should necessarily fear.
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Fire the special counsel. Please.
Trying to shut down the special counsel and seize control of the Justice Department will be the thing that brings this entire Legoland of an administration crashing down on itself.
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Tired of winning yet? You're not alone.
Donald Trump warned us that we’d win so much, we’d eventually grow tired of winning. But winning, in Trump’s mind, wasn’t about us. It was about him.
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Think twice about tariffs, President Trump. Cheap imports keep your voters afloat.
To the extent that Trump’s tariffs jack up prices on imports at the big retailers, we’re not just talking about an impact on household budgets. We’re also pulling at one of the few remaining threads that may be keeping our society from spinning apart.
Yahoo NewsThe Artifice of the Deal
Trump isn’t really a man of action. He’s a man of artifice. He talks and he talks and he talks, the world’s foremost expert on dominating a news cycle, knowing all along that by the time we realize none of it’s real, he’ll have ushered us along to whatever’s next.
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Nationalist autocrats are on the march. Trump yawns.
President Trump leaves the impression that his administration isn't interested in checking the brazen power of dictators, mainly because it's true.
Yahoo NewsIn exile with Bill Kristol, the Republican resister-in-chief
Bill Kristol is steadily launching an unrelenting assault on his own party's president. You could say he is the clearest and most credible voice of Republican resistance in Washington.
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Redemption time for Romney?
Too often, Mitt Romney has treated principled rhetoric like a stretchy suit he can change into in a phone booth, then throw into a trash can when no one's looking. But if he wins a Utah Senate seat, he could become something he's never managed to be: the most influential figure in the GOP outside
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Trump's revolving door of shame
The Trump administration has an unprecedented turnover rate of 34 percent, and scores of key posts remain unfilled. What we know now is that Trump isn't a guy who asks for help. He's not inspired by talent and intellect; he's threatened by it.
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Why Trump's parade will lead Republicans over a cliff
From his foreign policy approach to his parade plans, Donald Trump isn't motivated by some secret agenda to install himself as a small-handed dictator. His goal is to govern at the dawn of the Cold War, in the 1950s America he knew as a boy.
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The two-dimensional president
What profoundly moves or humbles Donald Trump? When does he admit self-doubt, and to whom? I have no idea, and neither do you.
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Democrats cave. Activists erupt. Here's why they're wrong.
Democrats aren’t supposed to just throw up their hands and let cruelty reign — they’re supposed to win elections. Chuck Schumer’s compromise will let his party focus on making November a referendum on Trump.
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A free-for-all destroyed the Republican Party. Could Democrats be next?
Lesson from the GOP in 2016: When a field of candidates is divided 20 different ways, the one who makes a loud, emotional or even outrageous appeal can incite enough of a disenchanted plurality to win.
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He's reckless and uninformed. But that doesn't make Trump crazy.
There are said to be whispers that Trump is suffering from early stages of dementia. But no one’s shown me any evidence that he is anything other than a 71-year-old guy who never focused all that well to begin with.
