Politics Politics Politics

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a ceasefire after talks in Washington, with President Donald Trump saying it would take effect at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday. He said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, and plans to bring both to the White House for what he called a major step in relations between the two countries. The agreement is sup...

The fall of Eric Swalwell feels less about the details of any single allegation and more about how quickly everything around him collapsed once those allegations hit. The shift is immediate. He goes from being a serious political figure, running for governor and active in Congress, to someone who is suddenly on the defensive, apologizing for “mistakes in judgment” while also denying the most serio...

Just how absurd does the word ceasefire sounds when nobody actually stops firing? We’re calling it a ceasefire, we are acting like it is a ceasefire, but the reality on the ground does not match the label. Missiles are still being launched, ships are still being threatened, and the Strait of Hormuz is effectively shut down despite whatever was signed on paper. That disconnect makes me question wha...

Trump’s borderline-genocidal threats towards Iran from Tuesday morning are no doubt unsettling — and depending on whether this war keeps escalating after this episode is published, “unsettling” could be an understatement. The idea that civilization might be over feels hyperbolic, but it captures the uncertainty of the moment. We are sitting here waiting on a deadline tied to Iran, and even before...

Pam Bondi is out as attorney general, and even though the official line is that she is moving on to something else, it really feels like a firing that had been building for a while. This is the first moment in this version of the administration where it feels less controlled and more like the old pattern, where someone becomes a liability and is shown the door. Looking back at her tenure, it’s har...

On the surface, the question of whether Donald Trump can actually force Congress back to Washington to deal with the DHS shutdown sounds simple and dramatic. The Senate is gone, the House is gone, and yet, the problem is sitting there unresolved. Trump, Mike Johnson, and some Republicans are saying they should come back and fix it. The reality is a lot less cinematic. Right now, the Senate is tech...

As I recorded this episode, the Department of Homeland Security has been unfunded for more than 40 days, and the consequences are no longer abstract. TSA lines are stretching into hours at major airports, and with spring break and Easter travel ramping up, the strain is only getting worse. What stands out to me is the timing. The Senate appears ready to leave town for a two-week recess without res...

The push to resolve the Department of Homeland Security shutdown through reconciliation is running into a hard reality in the Senate. What looks like a procedural workaround is, in practice, a much narrower path than many Republicans are publicly suggesting. At first glance, the strategy sounds clean. Fund most of DHS through a bipartisan deal, then use reconciliation to push through the rest, spe...

The Iran war is entering a more dangerous phase, not because of troop movements, but because energy infrastructure is now a target and the price tag is starting to match the escalation. At the same time, artificial intelligence is emerging as the next political battlefield, shaping both policy debates and the broader information environment. What stood out to me immediately is how the war is evolv...

One of the most striking developments during the Iran war has been the reappearance of something that used to define American media a century ago: yellow journalism. Historically, the term referred to sensationalized reporting that prioritized outrage and emotion over accuracy, often using thin sourcing and dramatic narratives to mobilize public opinion. The Spanish–American War, famously fueled b...

Washington state Democrats have passed a new 9.9 percent income tax on millionaires, the first income tax in the state’s history. The measure now heads to the governor’s desk and represents a major shift in a state long known for its lack of personal income taxes. But the policy debate is already colliding with economic reality. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has announced he is relocating to...

I’ve reached a point where the marketplace of ideas feels broken. The conversation around the Iran war, especially the discussion about oil prices and the Strait of Hormuz, has been less about understanding events and more about reacting to every twitch in the market. This realization hit me last weekend when I watched otherwise smart commentators react breathlessly to oil futures spiking. Writers...

I didn’t expect the day’s biggest story to land before the show even got rolling, but the first major cabinet domino of the Trump administration has finally fallen. Kristi Noem is out as Secretary of Homeland Security. The immediate cause appears to be a congressional hearing exchange that went sideways. During testimony before Sen. John Kennedy, Noem said that a $200 million ad campaign — one tha...

The fight between Anthropic and the Pentagon goes deeper than a simple contract dispute. In some ways, it’s the culmination of a tech rivalry that’s been simmering since the early days of OpenAI. Anthropic wasn’t some scrappy outsider that stumbled into national security. It’d already had top secret clearance, working with the CIA for years, and had seemingly made peace with the idea that its mode...

The United States is now in open conflict with Iran after a joint U.S.–Israeli operation killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the opening hours of what the White House has dubbed Operation Epic Fury. The geopolitical aftershocks are already reshaping the Middle East, and could upend the fate of the midterms come November. Over the weekend, American and Israeli forces launched a coordinated campai...

We are officially in the phase of a campaign where decency gets tossed aside and the opposition research file is emptied directly into a 30-second spot. One local ad targeting Cook County Commissioner Samantha Steele opens with footage from her DUI arrest and the now-infamous line, “I’m an elected official.” The ad’s structure is ruthlessly efficient. Lead with the footage. Transition from self-im...

I sat down with Capitol Hill reporter Juliegrace Brufke to unpack the explosive allegations surrounding Rep. Tony Gonzalez and his reported relationship with a former district staffer, whose tragic death last year has sent shockwaves through Texas politics and beyond. We walk through the timeline of the affair, the emergence of explicit text messages, claims of coercion, the husband’s response, an...

President Trump says he will decide within 10 to 15 days whether to continue diplomatic efforts with Iran or authorize military action. On paper, talks in Geneva have been described as “positive.” In practice, the military posture tells a more urgent story. Significant naval assets are in place, including carrier strike groups positioned to project air power quickly. What stands out is the operati...

The Iran situation remains murky. President Trump says he will be indirectly involved in renewed nuclear talks in Geneva, describing them as “very important,” while simultaneously ordering a significant military buildup in the Persian Gulf. A second aircraft carrier. Additional F-35s. Diplomacy and deterrence running in parallel. I am genuinely unsure what the endgame is here. Is this Venezuela-st...

Over the past couple of weeks, Senate Republicans have come up with this plan to bring back the talking filibuster, all in an effort to pass the SAVE America Act. On paper, it is clever. Force Democrats to physically hold the floor to block voter ID legislation that polls as an 80-20 issue. Make them read the phone book. Make them look unserious. Put Jon Ossoff and other swing-state Democrats on t...

Jasmine Crockett has a new ad, and it’s everything you’d expect out of 2026 so far. It’s a TV ad utilizing an anime style — and potentially some AI. It is inventive, loud, and undeniably designed to cut through clutter. In a vacuum, it might even be smart. Anime specifically has real cultural traction, especially with younger and Black voters, and the ad signals energy in a race where attention is...

The renewed focus on Jeffrey Epstein has pulled Bill and Hillary Clinton back into a political posture they know better than almost anyone. Hillary Clinton’s decision to publicly challenge House Oversight Chair James Comer and call for a live, televised hearing was not defensive or impulsive. It was classic Clinton strategy. When scrutiny becomes unavoidable, they prefer exposure on their own term...

Texas has found itself in the spotlight over the past few days, and for pretty interesting reasons at that. First, we saw a Texas special election that flipped a deeply Republican district at the state level. In a seat Donald Trump carried by roughly 17 points, Democrats managed to pull off a low-turnout win. This was not a wave election, and pretending otherwise does not help anyone. Special elec...

In the immediate aftermath of the fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis, Senate Democrats are attempting to translate outrage into leverage. After a closed-door caucus, they emerged unified around a set of concrete demands tied to Homeland Security funding: tighter warrant requirements, bans on agents wearing masks, mandatory body cameras, visible identification, and a uniform code of conduct with ind...

The killing of Alex Pretti is different from the earlier death of Renee Good in ways that matter politically and institutionally. The video is clearer, the optics are harsher, and the official response has been far less defensible. In this case, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem immediately claimed Pretti brandished a weapon and intended to inflict maximum harm on officers. There is no evide...