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Tina Nguyen

Formerly a political correspondent at Politico and Vanity Fair, chronicling the egos and intrigues inside Trumpworld.

THE LATEST ARTICLES
NEWSLETTERS
Ignoring Donald Trump has essentially been Ron DeSantis’s strategy over the past two years while angling for a ’24 presidential run—but a well-placed G.O.P. comms official fully disagreed the approach, calling it “consultant stuff that sends all the wrong signals.”
WASHINGTON • March 22, 2023
Is the Republican Primary Already Over?
With the Manhattan district attorney threatening to put Trump on trial, and DeSantis declining to stand in his way, G.O.P. operatives are coalescing around the notion that it’s now the ex-president’s race to lose.
DeSantis’s promise to ensure that no “blank checks” will be written to Ukraine placates the MAGA voter, and reassures the norms-based international order and moderate Republicans hoping for a less volatile president.
WASHINGTON • March 15, 2023
DeSantis’s ’24 Policy Gamble
News and notes on the subtle movements on the right: DeSantis’s domestic policy-based foreign affairs play, and the N.R.A.’s long shadow.
Has CPAC transformed from a big-tent activist spectacle into a polarizing MAGA-world sideshow?
WASHINGTON • March 8, 2023
CPACalypse Now
An insider’s analysis of how D.C.’s preeminent conservative political summit lost its clout.
Glenn Beck’s The Blaze merged with CRTV in 2018, and late last year raised a round of financing from investors including the billionaire DeVos family.
MEDIA • March 3, 2023
Glenn Beck & DeVos Make a Deal
The Blaze, one of the original conservative politics-meets-lifestyle brands of the digital media era, has raised a new round of financing from investors including the billionaire DeVos family.
A wave of political figures have publicly indicated their inclination for Ron DeSantis for president, presumably over Trump.
WASHINGTON • March 1, 2023
DeSantis’s Unholy Coalition
If early proto-endorsements are any indication, DeSantis is racking up the support of Taliban 20ers, Florida-adjacent rich guys, and people who want to destroy Trump. Is that a leading indicator of ’24 viability?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.aFlordia governor Ron DeSantis, as a matter of rhetoric, has made his presumptive candidacy about the general feeling that the left’s social-justice warriors have gone too far.
WASHINGTON • February 22, 2023
DeSantis Donor Fears & Haley’s MAGA Turn
A candid conversation about the political fundraising questions percolating in the pre-’24 landscape: Will DeSantis eventually alienate the Silicon Valley bigwigs? Will MAGA buy Haley’s act? What’s behind the Larry Ellison-Tim Scott bromance? And can George Santos keep from imploding?
DeSantis, a 2005 graduate of Harvard Law, isn’t any sort of threat to return us to a world of taxation without representation, but he’s an expert MAGA dog-whistler.
WASHINGTON • February 15, 2023
The DeSantis Constitution
A little arcane constitutional dog-whistling has provided DeSantis with a clever way of courting an insurrectionary segment of the MAGAverse while playing inside the confines of a party practically begging for an insurrection-free presidency.
Until recently, DeSantis had been careful not to antagonize the former president or to alienate his base; Trump, in turn, had mostly avoided taking potshots that might inadvertently elevate a presumptive rival.
WASHINGTON • February 8, 2023
The Trump-DeSantis War Goes Nuclear
News and notes on the modern Republican party: Trump’s decision to escalate his war on DeSantis, M.T.G.’s diminishing clout among the Taliban 20, and a new Peach Pit for the MAGA crowd in the swamp.
“Taliban 20”
WASHINGTON • February 1, 2023
The Dark Squad Rises
News and notes on the G.O.P.’s “Taliban 20” detente, George Santos’s political personality disorder, and Ron DeSantis’s digital army.
jeremy boreing
WASHINGTON • January 25, 2023
A Millennial Right-Wing Media War
The messy, $50 million battle between The Daily Wire and Steven Crowder highlights the embiggening financial stakes pitting MAGA cancelation jockeys against “Big Con.”
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