“Everybody’s got a plan,” Mike Tyson once said, “until they get punched in the face.” The American media’s plan for last night’s vice-presidential debate between Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz was that the two running mates would, all …
Can Kamala charm swing voters?
Never have two American presidential candidates been so different from one another. The Black-Indian daughter of Left-wing academics versus the white son of a wealthy Ku Klux Klan sympathiser. The woman who spent her entire career in public service versus …
Can Trump flip the unions?
The thick-necked union boss, who’s short on manners and long on tough talk and machismo, is in many ways an endangered American archetype. Amid rampant political correctness and professionalisation, they seem like anachronisms from a lost age; Sean O’Brien, president …
The two women who define Trump
One is loud, the other quiet. One is crude and unfiltered, the other reserved and prim. One courts controversy at every turn, the other mostly shuns it. One is a Donald Trump-seeking missile; the other seems to have as little …
The folly of America First
In his 2017 inauguration speech, Donald Trump made a vow to the American people: “A new vision will govern our land, from this day forward, it’s going to be only America first.” Every decision on trade, taxes and foreign affairs, …
Donald Trump is a Silicon Valley fantasy
The love affair that has blossomed between MAGA and the digital visionaries of Silicon Valley has left liberal pundits mystified. Why would America’s brainiest tech bros swipe right for Donald Trump? But it seems their love knows no bounds: yesterday, …
The reason people want to kill Trump
“Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”, asked Henry II in 1170, to no one in particular. He was referring to his fractious Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket; in turn, some of Henry’s knights took his remark as …
The night Trump lost the election
Last night’s presidential debate was described as “the most consequential presidential debate in modern American history” so many times that no one bothered to ask just why that was so. For one thing, it could only be described as consequential …
Trump vs Harris is just a front
When Donald Trump and Kamala Harris step into the ring this evening, America will be treated to an illusion. For the past month, we’ve been told that tonight’s showdown in Pennsylvania will be pivotal — that, finally, the nation will …
The next President will be beholden to regional elites
It has become conventional wisdom in the waning days of Biden’s presidency to say that America has launched a new era in economics. Concepts like industrial policy, trade protectionism, antitrust enforcement and child subsidies — all once verboten during the …
Pennsylvania is slipping out of Trump’s reach
David Urban is worried — and he should be. The native Pennsylvanian knows the Keystone State. As a senior advisor to Donald Trump in 2016, he helped deliver Pennsylvania and, thus, the White House to his boss. But the veteran …
Will Trump make me Poet Laureate?
After President Biden’s farewell debate, I had a problem. It was evident that Donald Trump would win. I fantasised that he would offer me the post of Poet Laureate, and I wondered if I would accept. After all, Washington D.C. …
Trump’s Red Scare will backfire
And so we enter the beginning of the end. After months of insecurity, Democrats have united behind Kamala Harris as their nominee, while Republicans seem to have adjusted their messaging in response to their new opponent. The election finale is …
It’s time to flee your utopia
I was recently at a party when someone I hadn’t seen in a while said, “I found out that two of my cousins are actually Trump supporters. Like, actual Trump supporters. Seriously. Like they actually support Trump. I couldn’t believe …
The Republicans’ weird problem predates Vance
Politics has taken an unexpected turn. For decades, weirdness was associated with the Democrats. Excessively concerned with a culture war most Americans don’t care about while remaining captive to parochial subcultures — this used to be the purview of the …