A broadcast of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025. (Damon Winter/The New York Times) By JAMELLE BOUIE Can President Donald Trump distinguish truth from fiction? Does he know what is real and what is the product of a computer program? One wants to believe that the president of the United States, cloaked in immense power, would understand the difference between reality and fantasy. One would hope, given the terrible stakes of his de

Visitors outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, June 27, 2026. Facing an intense backlash, the influential fashion designer John Galliano has taken the unprecedented step of withdrawing from a planned exhibition in his honor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Ryan Murphy/The New York Times) By BRET STEPHENS In principle, and as often as possible in practice, it’s best to separate judgments about an artist from judgments about the art. Roald Dahl was an unabas

By ROSS DOUTHAT When Paul Ehrlich, noted overpopulation doom-monger, passed away last winter, his death inspired online controversialist Richard Hanania to go back and read some of Ehrlich’s original writings on the “population bomb.” What Hanania discovered, he wrote, was that Ehrlich was actually worse than the quotes and clips often plucked by his critics would suggest. He was profoundly hostile to human progress, “misanthropic” at every turn, always ready with “blueprints

It is practically cliché at this point to observe that President Trump is jealous of the trappings of monarchy, Jamelle Bouie writes. (Max Slobodda/The New York Times) By JAMELLE BOUIE To commit lèse-majesté was, and in some places still is, to commit an offense against dignity of the crown. The basic idea was that under a monarch, and especially an absolute monarch, the integrity of the state rested on the stature of the king (or queen or equivalent figure). To insult or den

A mortar team from Ukraine’s 3rd Brigade prepares to fire on Russian positions near Bakhmut in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, July 16, 2023. (Finbarr O’Reilly/The New York Times) By BRET STEPHENS Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I wrote a column under the headline “This Is How World War III Begins.” More than four years on, I wonder how much I got right. My argument was based on the origins of World War II, which did not simply start with Germ

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks to the press on July 22, 2026. (Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Alex Kent/The New York Times) By CARLOS LOZADA There is a difference between changing your mind and shifting your tactics, between evolving in your views and abandoning them because they’ve become unpopular or politically perilous. When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, quoting a political ally, recently suggested to ABC News, with a laugh and a smile,

President Donald Trump speaks during an event in Garden City, N.Y., Aug. 14, 2026. (Al Drago/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD President Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to impose tariffs have become an encapsulation of his second term. They have hurt the American economy and his own popularity. They also range from legally dubious to blatantly illegal. With Trump now engaging in a trade war with Canada — which has decided to stand up to his bullying — we want to ste

“Good for Ocasio-Cortez for acknowledging mistakes. Now can we have some accountability for the vast damage that Woke 1.0 did, not to mention the damage that Woke 2.0 continues to do?” writes New York Times columnist Bret Stephens. (Harris Allen/The New York Times) By BRET STEPHENS It’s all but official. “Woke 1.0 was crazy,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said this month, quoting a far-left New York City Council member. Given Ocasio-Cortez’s own record — she previous

White House aide Natalie Harp looks on as President Donald Trump speaks during an expanded bilateral meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in the presidential compound in Ankara, Turkey, July 7, 2026. (Doug Mills/The New York Times) By MAUREEN DOWD I’ve spent my career watching officials maneuver and scheme, often in absurd ways, to get closer to presidents. But I’d never seen anything like the photo of Natalie Harp dashing after President Donald Trump’s golf

Patriotic netting stretched over construction scaffolding in Washington on July 4, 2026. (Gregory Halpern/The New York Times) By MICHELLE GOLDBERG Psychologist John Gottman said that nothing is so destructive to a marriage as contempt. Couples can come back from many sorts of conflicts, but not festering disgust — a sense, by one or both people, that the other is beneath them. That’s why, if blue and red America were spouses, the relationship would look hopeless. Call it irre