Archive: The Wall Street Journal

What’s New in Trump Two His policies are the same, but he is less restrained, is more hardened, and acts as if he sees no boundaries.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

Next week marks the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s second inauguration, so it’s a good time to revisit his essential nature, which appears to drive everything. I queried acquaintances of mixed political disposition: What have you seen of Donald Trump the past year that is different from his first administration? A Trump foe said, “He […]

A Good Riddance, but a Disquieting One No one should mourn the fall of Maduro, but the world is becoming more brutish and narrow.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

Nicolás Maduro wasn’t the president of Venezuela but an illegitimate head of state, brutal and criminal, whose presence was ruinous for his country and its people. No good person mourns his fall. Beyond that, some points: The U.S. military reversed the script. After news broke Saturday of Mr. Maduro’s removal, gone was the picture you […]

What Was Susie Wiles Thinking? My guess is that she wanted to be understood, which is almost always a mistake in public life.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

President Trump’s address to the nation Wednesday evening was bracing and, as such things go, revealing. As is often the case with Mr. Trump there was text and subtext—the sparkling surface and, below, deeper currents that tugged this listener’s thoughts toward the more fundamental meaning of Mr. Trump’s efforts and a realization, once again, that […]

Trump May Be Losing His Touch At the end of his 11th month, he’s surrounded by mood shifts, challenges and ominous signs.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

Donald Trump and his tumult nearly 11 months in: He’s a rocket going not up but sideways or down. All polls say down. On Thursday AP-NORC reported his approval on the economy and immigration has “fallen substantially” since the spring, with 31% of Americans approving his handling of economic matters, down from 40% in March, […]

We’re in an Era of Political Violence Trump has been a target, but he speaks so carelessly that he could end up becoming an instigator.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

Somebody is going to get hurt. Somebody already has. This is a partial list of those killed or wounded recently in politically driven violence: Two members of the West Virginia National Guard ambushed while on patrol near the White House on Nov. 26. Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, killed; Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, is in […]

Don’t Be Shy, Gratitude Is Good for You Giving thanks for a certain political scientist, friends, this courteous young man I know, and Shohei Ohtani.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

Practical advice from one Charles Dickens in “Sketches by Boz”: “Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” G.K. Chesterton took a different tack—gratitude is “the highest form of thought.” Tolstoy took it a step further: You can infer from his work that […]

Epstein Is a Failure of the 21st-Century Elites What the story is really about is unloved girls, let down by parents and ‘the people who run things.’

-- The Wall Street Journal:

We are thinking still about Jeffrey Epstein. I first wrote of him in these pages days after his death on Aug. 10, 2019. Why does his story have such a hold on America’s consciousness? To state the obvious, it is a moral horror show. From the federal indictment released on his arrest on sex-trafficking charges […]

What Do Mainstream Democrats Stand For? Kamala Harris’s memoir gives you little idea of what she believes. John Fetterman’s is better.

-- The Wall Street Journal:

Earlier this week everyone piled on congressional Democrats, or furiously defended them, over the government shutdown and its end. It was the longest in U.S. history, 43 days, and utterly pointless. When it was called I thought of Albert Brooks in “Broadcast News,” who asked, of a different predicament, “Does anybody ever win one of […]