The Emerging Liberty dime, created for the U.S. Semiquincentennial, shows a woman who personifies Liberty on the heads side; on the tails side, there's a bald eagle holding arrows in its talons for war, but it's missing olive branches in its other talons for peace.
Indeed, regional "divisions" - others might say "alarm" or "outrage" - had intensified during the fall of 2025 following the US's massive military build-up in the Caribbean, its air strikes against alleged drug boats - resulting in scores of extrajudicial killings - and the threats of a US attack on Venezuela.
Trump is a president with an approval rating below 40 percent. There is little evidence to suggest it will ever rebound much. There may now be a lower floor than in the first term. The Trump administration's savagery in Minneapolis destroyed the popularity he had enjoyed on the issue of immigration. His advantages on the economy are gone, too, as Americans confront a K-shaped recovery that has thrilled the rich while leaving much of the rest of the country with higher costs and a meager job market.
More than two decades ago, I semi-seriously proposed calling this website The American Conservative Online. My reasoning was twofold: 1) At that time, we ink-stained wretches were still somewhat in denial about this whole internet thing, so we liked to append "online" to our website titles. 2) The acronym would have been "TACO." The hilarity of publishing broadsides against George W. Bush's proposed immigration amnesties on something called TACO would have been hard to deny, but cooler heads prevailed.
Nobody escaped 2020 without hearing of at least a couple of media personalities that became wildly popular amongst conservatives for abandoning the left. They themselves, though, framed things a little differently. "The left left me," they proclaimed. There is something deeply revealing in this statement. These commentators didn't move an inch to the right. Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is Bari Weiss, former op-ed editor at the New York Times and now editor-in-chief at CBS News.
Our first president could have remained all-powerful but chose not to twice. In doing so, he set a standard for all presidents to live up to. Washington modeled what it means to put the good of the nation over self-interest and selfish ambition. He embodied integrity and modeled why it's worth aspiring to. He carried himself with dignity and self-restraint, honoring the office without allowing it to become invested with near-mythical powers.
At the beginning of The Sting, veteran con-man Henry Gondorff explains the way of the big con to ambitious rookie Johnny Hooker, who wants to play for a vicious mobbed up New York banker. It's not like playing winos in the street. You can't outrun [the guy]. . . . You gotta keep his con even after you take his money.
From George Washington's first presidential "administration" to Donald Trump's promises to cut taxes "bigly," U.S. presidents have played a big role in shaping the direction of the country, including the words we use to talk about everything from national politics to everyday objects and actions.
After the administration announced the expansion of its law-enforcement surge in Minnesota early this year, calling it the "largest DHS operation ever," Donald Trump laid out a series of stinging critiques of the state, which he said had an "incompetent governor," a huge welfare-fraud problem, high crime, and a corrupt voting system. "What a beautiful place, but it's being destroyed," he said.
Official lies after an ICE killing begin to backfire. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the fatal shooting of a protester by border control agents triggered mass demonstrations and presented the Trump administration with an unexpected test of its immigration strategy. Footage captured by onlookers has undercut official statements and intensified questions about the level of force and use of high-tech tools being used to crack down on dissent.
The Department of Homeland Security's Facebook account recently posted a recruiting notice for ICE under the banner "WE'LL HAVE OUR HOME AGAIN"-the title of a white-nationalist anthem by the Pine Tree Riots ("By blood or sweat, we'll get there yet"). The Department of Labor recently posted a video montage referencing American battle scenes under the tagline "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American"-a slogan close to the Nazi-era Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer.