Grenell, long known for his hyper-aggressive confrontations with journalists and political rivals on Twitter and then X, served as US ambassador to Germany and then acting director of national intelligence during Trump's first term. He was appointed despite no prior arts experience. Grenell was a central player in Trump's push to dramatically overhaul the Kennedy Center following the president's return to office.
CPAC has been a fixture of the American political landscape for half a century, serving as a trade show for consultants and a vacation destination for older conservatives.
Jackson Lahmeyer has made headlines for his inflammatory comments, including labeling the LGBTQ+ community as 'sick' and calling Black Lives Matter a terrorist organization. His provocative style has garnered attention and positioned him within the MAGA movement.
With regard to Tucker Carlson, I'll just tell you, just yesterday he said that his only loyalty... is to the American people. Why is that noble? I just don't get it. It's a tribal-based morality that I don't relate to.
Buckley's campaign was successful in re-energizing the conservative base. As Buckley biographer Sam Tanenhaus commented to The American Conservative, '[TAC Co-Founder] Pat Buchanan told me that after Goldwater's defeat in 1964 and before Nixon's victory in 1968, "Bill Buckley was all we had. He was the biggest guy."'
Lutnick said in a 2025 podcast interview that he had cut ties with Epstein in 2005, three years before Epstein's conviction in a Florida state court. But recently released Justice Department documents indicate that Lutnick and members of his family had lunch with Epstein on a boat at Epstein's Caribbean island in 2012.
"My general view here," the CBS News editor-in-chief wrote in a memo before shelving the now-infamous 60 Minutes report on El Salvador's CECOT concentration camp, "is that we do our viewers the best service by presenting them with the full context they need to assess the story. In other words, I believe we need to do more reporting here." Expediency, personal prerogative, servility to power, all smuggled under the cover of journalistic scruple:
Charlie Kirk believed that gay people should be stoned to death, that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a "huge mistake," that we should legally be allowed to whip foreigners in the U.S., that Muslims only move here to destroy the country, that American Jews encourage anti-whiteness, that men should physically attack transgender people, that all women should submit to their husbands, and that Black professionals "steal" their jobs from more qualified white people.
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly is fluent in insult, particularly when it comes to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: "unqualified," like "a 12-year-old playing army." In November, Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers-all of them military or intelligence veterans-released a video telling current service members, "Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders." President Donald Trump was predictably furious, writing on Truth Social, "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH."
A year ago just a year ago the Kennedy Center in Washington DC was a world-class centre for the performing arts. It had a resident opera company, respected artistic teams, and a run of the acclaimed musical Hamilton to look forward to. It had a bipartisan board that upheld the dignity of an organisation that, since it was conceived of in the mid-20th century, had been treated with courtesy and supported by governments of both stripes.
Business leaders who believe staying quiet about the Trump administration will protect their companies are making a dangerous miscalculation, says Reid Hoffman. The LinkedIn cofounder and tech investor said in an episode of the "Rapid Response" podcast published Tuesday that he rejects the idea that executives can simply wait out political turbulence. "The theory that if you just keep your mouth shut, the storm will blow over and it won't be a problem - you should be disabused of that theory now," Hoffman said.
Elie, I take your point that you think it's both sides, but let me just say the data, respectfully, disagrees with you. According to government and independent analysis, since 2001, 85% of political deaths have been from right-wing extremists. There was a study posted on the DOJ about right-wing extremism being one of the biggest issues in America. Of course, it quietly disappeared when Donald Trump came into office, submitted Cross.
the rotting carcass of the MAGA era, its shrieking insecurities, its pathetic resentments, its festering hatreds, and that distinct, metallic tang of panic rising in the back of its throat behind the soft wattle.
On January 15, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced $75.1 million for humanities projects across the country. Presented as part of President Donald Trump's January 25, 2025 executive order, "Celebrating America's Birthday," the move is the latest example of how the Trump administration is increasingly using federal funding as a vehicle to achieve its broader goals of reshaping higher education.
The Trump administration has once again immersed the United States in a crisis. The officers who are supposed to be protecting America's borders have again been unleashed on an American city-this time, Minneapolis. The authorities in Minnesota want the Border Patrol and ICE forces to leave; the U.S. government's response has been to continue to allow them to operate without any limits.
Ben Shapiro is a conservative provocateur. Ever since he was a teen-ager at U.C.L.A. writing op-eds for the Daily Bruin, he has shown a penchant for the rhetorical grenade. Women who have abortions are "baby killers." Western civilization is "superior" to other civilizations. "Israelis like to build," he tweeted in 2010. "Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage. This is not a difficult issue. #settlementsrock." Shapiro is now forty-two, and his rhetoric has mellowed only somewhat.
I mean, for meI said, I don't care what happens, I'm going to a meeting every day,' he explained. And I said, I'm not scared of a germ; I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats. And I know this disease will kill me if I don't treat it, which means, for me, going to meetings every day.' He added, For me, it was survival.
The word that comes to my mind is dissidence. If we want to understand why the whistleblowing, camera-wielding people of Minneapolis have caused the Trump administration-and Donald Trump himself-to flinch, I believe we need some added history, and a bigger map. What we've been watching is part of a long, established tradition-one that might help Americans unlock a different kind of future.
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.