Author: W. James Antle III
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Trump takes fight to jeering Democrats in speech full of red meat
If President Donald Trump was under any political pressure to extend an olive branch to Democrats during his first speech to Congress since returning to the Oval Office, they quickly showed they would not take it. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had to intervene when Rep. Al Green (D-TX) disrupted the proceedings. The Texas lawmaker,…
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Trump spends his political capital early in second term
President Donald Trump will speak to Congress and the nation Tuesday night at the height of his political power as he tests the durability of the mandate he won in November across multiple fronts. After nearly a decade atop national politics, Trump has weathered sustained Democratic attacks and wrested away control of the Republican Party…
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Democrats and media rekindle Biden age debate
The debate over how Democrats and the media handled questions about former President Joe Biden’s age-related decline has been reopened by former aides and a forthcoming book. Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described a Democratic “firing squad” forcing her boss out of the presidential race. “I had never seen a party do that…
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Democrats search for signs the tide is turning against Trump
Democrats have been looking for signs that the tide is beginning to turn against President Donald Trump ever since he returned to the White House over a month ago, with a few recent possibilities emerging. The first is the polls, which, in some cases, have begun to move against Trump. But the polling hasn’t been…
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Senate Republicans are giving Trump the Cabinet he wants
President Donald Trump got his two former progressive Democratic Cabinet picks confirmed with little Republican dissent this week despite early predictions that they would have trouble getting through a GOP-controlled Senate. When the Senate held the final votes on Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of health…
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Trump shares the spotlight in his second term
President Donald Trump did a remarkable thing earlier this week: He let Elon Musk take reporters’ questions about the Department of Government Efficiency live from the Oval Office. While Musk’s son ultimately stole the show, Trump sat at the Resolute Desk while his tech billionaire ally defended DOGE, a government-cutting project currently dominating the headlines,…
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Trump’s poll numbers look better than ever as second term gets rolling
President Donald Trump is enjoying some of the best poll numbers of his near decade in national politics as he plows ahead with his agenda at breakneck speed and dominates the airwaves. Trump is above water by 2.6 percentage points in the national RealClearPolitics polling average, albeit with significant differences in the results found by…
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Lights, camera, action: Trump and his TV-savvy team blanket the airwaves
When President Donald Trump strode out of the White House to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a camera tracked his movements. The moment when Trump greeted his visitor was captured on video and quickly posted to social media. Something similar happened when Trump signed an executive order keeping biological males out of women’s sports…
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RFK Jr. nomination fight pits old GOP coalition against new
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for secretary of health and human services sets up a fight between older and newer elements of the Republican electoral coalition. Here are two examples of the split. A group aligned with former Vice President Mike Pence launched a six-figure ad buy on Fox News to try to sink Kennedy’s…
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Trump claims first win in big tariff gamble
President Donald Trump claimed vindication of his strategy to use tariffs to wring concessions from foreign governments as Canada and Mexico reached agreements to pause such duties for a month. “Well, how do you like them apples?” Vice President JD Vance asked on Monday. It remains to be seen whether this was a short skirmish…