Person

Donald Trump

Related Excerpts

Ronald Reagan Was Once Donald Trump

The Trump candidacy looks a lot more like Reagan's than anyone might care to notice.

Donald Trump’s Not-so-Silent Majority

Unlike Nixon's famous "silent majority," Trump's backers are loud - and growing in volume

Trump and the Mob

The budding mogul had a soft spot (but a short memory) for wiseguys.

Donald Trump Isn’t a Fascist; He’s a Media-Savvy Know-Nothing

Donald Trump combines the instincts of a reality-TV star with the politics of a hundred-and-seventy-year-old nativist movement.
Dred Scott and Harriet Scott drawing.

The War on Reconstruction

The Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling on birthright citizenship is just one battle in the right's larger war on the Second Founding.
An assortment of figures including, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and Abraham Lincoln tug at the Delcaration of Independence.

Who Owns the Declaration of Independence?

The Declaration has always been fought over. We can let Trump claim it, or we can take up its battle cry to “alter or to abolish” what’s destroying our country.
President Donald Trump stands in The Octagon at the conclusion of the "UFC Freedom 250" mixed martial arts event.

The Remarkable Summer That Produced Three Future Presidents — and Modern America

A 66-day stretch in 1946 produced Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton — and the baby boom itself.
President Trump leaves the stage after speaking at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines on July 3, 2025.

Inside America’s Ugly Birthday Battle

The Trump administration broke an agreement to fund the bipartisan semiquincentennial celebrations, saying it will not “light taxpayer money on fire.”
1976, bicentennial celebration banner in a grocery store.

The Birthday Party No One Wants: Why Americans Aren't Celebrating the Semiquincentennial

The semiquincentennial and why nostalgia can’t meet the moment.

Will Donald Trump Be Allowed to Destroy His Records?

A post-Watergate law makes Presidential records government property. The Trump Administration has declared it unconstitutional.
Alex Trebek in front of screens on the set of Jeopardy!

A Journey Through Trump’s Bizarre Statue Garden of American Heroes

The president wants to permanently honor 250 Americans with statues near the National Mall. There are some weird inclusions.
Political cartoon of a fight over the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Too Great for Any One Man

Since the founding generation, there has been a rational consistent fear that the office of president is powerful to be constrained by democratic institutions.
Painting "T. R. in Panama," showing dirty, tired workers and headstones in darkness, and Roosevelt wearing white and bathed in light.
partner

A Roosevelt Corollary for the World

Donald Trump didn’t bring back the Monroe Doctrine. That was the work of the 26th president — and many of the presidents who succeeded him.
Robert Mueller

Remembering Robert Mueller

The reporting subject I knew best.
Trita Parsi

The Hidden Influences Behind the Pointless War in Iran

Why the conflict strengthens Israel, weakens the United States, and devastates ordinary Iranians.
Shahran oil depot in Tehran, Iran on March 8, 2026

Middle East Wars Are Still About Oil and Empire

How oil, US power, and regional rivalries have shaped decades of conflict in the Middle East — and why the confrontation with Iran fits a long imperial pattern.
Under the Shadow
Podcast
Under the Shadow

Trump’s War on Cuba: Crisis Made in the USA

This episode examines the history of the U.S. embargo on Cuba and argues that recent Trump administration policies have intensified the island’s economic and humanitarian crisis. Through interviews with journalists, historians, and policy experts, it explores how sanctions affect daily life in Cuba, debates over regime change, and the broader role of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.
Rubble from a police station damaged in airstrikes on March 3, 2026 in Tehran, Iran.

Congress Once Fought to Limit a President’s War Powers

At the end of the Vietnam War, Congress engaged in a breathtaking act of legislative assertion, affirming lawmakers’ power to declare war – not the president.
White silhouette holding a child walking on a gun barrel with a large soldier in background holding the gun.

The War on Terror Paved the Way for Trump’s Rise—Now He’s Making It His Own

Only the total abolition of the DHS can restore freedom.
Trump turns his back to look out the window in a meeting with oil and gas industry executives.

Accelerating American (and Planetary) Decline

A Talmudic tale of an attempt to cheat death is a metaphor for the Trump's attempts to portray U.S. empire as alive and well.