Recent news about the Trump administration separating migrant children from their parents was apparently enough to puncture the protective bubble provided by Republican voters. Only a slender majority of self-identified Republicans—a group that tends to overwhelmingly and enthusiastically support President Donald Trump’s actions—approved of the practice. The rest joined independents […] Read more »
Trump’s bad week: A policy rollback, a political setback and a still-defiant president
President Trump has weathered one week after another of controversy, missteps and turmoil. None quite compares with what he experienced with the storm over his policy to separate migrant children from their parents. It was a trifecta of ineptitude: a policy hash, a political debacle and the most dramatic personal […] Read more »
Why Rank-And-File Evangelicals Aren’t Likely To Turn On Trump Over Family Separation
… After a firestorm of protest, Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday ending the family separation policy. But it’s not clear how much damage to his popularity and credibility has already been done, particularly among white evangelical Protestants. This group has been a bedrock of Trump’s base since he […] Read more »
Has Trump Irreversibly Altered the GOP’s Foreign Policy?
In his sledgehammer assault against the cornerstone institutions of the Western alliance, Donald Trump is replaying one of the defining confrontations in the Republican Party’s history. Only this time, the outcome is being reversed—with potentially tumultuous implications for both the GOP and the future of American foreign policy. Trump is […] Read more »
The divided public heart
What drives political change – culture or economics? The surge of the Right in the United States and Europe in the past two years has renewed debate on this important question. On one side, the cultural determinists attribute Donald Trump, Brexit and the rise of European populist movements to nativism, […] Read more »
President Trump Is a Very Political Animal
President Trump has an almost Apollonian daytime argument in favor of his continued political dominance, which is “Jobs Jobs Jobs!,” “MAGA!” and so forth. He also has a nighttime argument about decline, racial resentment and ethnic hatred. He pushes both strains hard, but the evidence suggests that his heart is […] Read more »