The American Conservative Morning Briefing

Good morning! Today is Thursday, May 21st 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Thomas Massie's primary defeat in Kentucky, fueled by more than $30 million and a Trump-aligned super PAC built solely to destroy him, signals that the Republican Party now answers to one man rather than any platform or principle. As the U.S.-Israel-Iran ceasefire enters its forty-third day, Tehr...

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, May 20th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Daniel R. DePetris argues the President's much-touted ceasefires in Ukraine, Gaza, and Lebanon are crumbling, with battlefield exhaustion likely to end these wars long before any White House diplomacy does. As the Iran War ceasefire reaches day 42, President Trump says he called off Tuesday's pl...

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, May 19th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. On day forty-one of a fragile Iran ceasefire, Tehran unveils a new Strait of Hormuz authority as Trump warns "the clock is ticking" and a New York Times/Siena poll finds sixty-four percent of Americans believe going to war was the wrong call. W. James Antle III argues Trump wants a face-saving exi...

Good morning! Today is Monday, May 18th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Scott Greer warns in TAC that America's debt crossing 100 percent of GDP went unmourned because the country has lost the spirit of sacrifice, with voters demanding more services, lower taxes, and no entitlement reform all at once. Peter Van Buren defends his public membership in the controversial B...

Good morning! Today is Sunday, May 17th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Kevin Warsh takes the Fed chair with an inflation problem that won't quit and a president who wants cheap credit, and David Brady warns the easy-money path is inflating an AI bubble that could end in taxpayer-funded bailouts. At a Florida commencement, students jeered an executive who hailed AI as...

Good morning! Today is Saturday, May 16th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Jude Russo argues Trump's Beijing visit lays bare a decade of strategic drift, with a sub-300-ship Navy, an Iran war cannibalizing Asian assets, and Xi dictating terms on Taiwan with little pushback. Ted Snider unpacks four revelations from Putin's Victory Day press conference, including a possib...

Good morning! Today is Friday, May 15th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. A war powers resolution to rein in Trump's Iran campaign died on a 212-to-212 tie in the House, even as April import prices posted their steepest annual jump since 2022 and Brent crude held at $104 a barrel. More than twenty House Democrats are pushing to end decades of official ambiguity around Is...

Good morning! Today is Thursday, May 14th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. As President Trump lands in Beijing for the first U.S. presidential visit to China in nearly a decade, Evan Sankey argues the Iran war has quietly become a policy of deprioritizing Asia—and that the administration must engage Taiwan and other first-order political questions, not just renew last y...

Good morning! Today is Monday, May 11th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Reality TV star Spencer Pratt's longshot bid for Los Angeles mayor is less about beating Karen Bass than testing whether celebrity and cultural grievance can become the GOP's new path into deep-blue cities. On day 33 of the Iran ceasefire, Tehran has delivered its formal response to Washington's pe...

Good morning! Today is Friday, May 8th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Andrew Day reports that a one-page U.S.-Iran framework is within reach, with Tehran signaling openness to an enrichment moratorium—but "the Marks" and a new demand to ship Iran's uranium to America threaten to poison the deal. Joseph Addington examines the fallout in Mexico after two CIA agents died...

Good morning! Today is Thursday, May 7th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Andrew Day argues that Seattle's spiraling violence and Mayor Katie Wilson's progressive response illustrate exactly the contrast Republicans should be drawing on crime ahead of the midterms. Doug Bandow offers "one cheer" for President Trump's withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany, warning that...

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, May 6th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Murtaza Hussein examines the strained relationship between Washington and Baghdad more than two decades after the invasion, as U.S. airstrikes against Iraqi forces fuel protests and Iran reaps the spoils of a war the architects of which have never faced accountability. The Pentagon insists the Ir...

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, May 5th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Harrison Berger reports on the unbroken flow of American aid to Israel as a former Mossad chief tours raided Palestinian villages and says he is ashamed, while a daylight school shooting and the killing of a Philadelphia native go unpunished. Ted Snider examines the bind of the Gulf states, which w...

Good morning! Today is Monday, May 4th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. With Iran rejecting Washington's two-month ceasefire offer and demanding the lifting of the Hormuz blockade within thirty days, President Trump signals the latest counterproposal is unlikely to be acceptable as gas prices climb to $4.45 a gallon. Peter Van Buren draws a sharp line between whistleblo...

Good morning! Today is Friday, May 1st 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. First-quarter GDP rebounded to 2 percent, but the Iran War keeps Brent crude above $110 and gas at a four-year high. Iran retains most of its missile arsenal while America has burned through critical interceptor stockpiles, shifting the leverage at the negotiating table. Trump pulls Casey Means's su...

Good morning! Today is Thursday, April 30th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Ted Galen Carpenter argues Beijing is quietly turning the Iran war to its advantage, with Chinese ships defying the U.S. blockade of Hormuz and reports suggesting direct military aid to Tehran that could mirror NATO's role in Ukraine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the House Armed Services...

Good morning! Today is Wednesday, April 29th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted a second time under the Trump administration, this time accused of threatening the president's life over an Instagram post of seashells spelling "86 47.". The acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine is reportedly preparing to retire over frustration...

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, April 28th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. W. James Antle III argues Trump's five-month Iran war is sliding into the same trap that ensnared Bush — a regime too damaged to deal with but not collapsed enough to replace, with no face-saving exit on offer for Tehran. On day twenty of the ceasefire, Iran proposes reopening the Strait of Horm...

Good morning! Today is Monday, April 27th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Iran offers to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. lifting its naval blockade, proposing to table the nuclear enrichment question for later talks as the ceasefire enters its twentieth day. Ali Rizk argues in TAC that Hezbollah has become a national security imperative for Tehran,...