WASHINGTON
Julia Ioffe
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February 25, 2025
The Fallacy of the Trump-Putin Pact
Precisely three years into Russia’s war on Ukraine, we’re right back where we started in many ways. “At some point, American ambitions will collide with Russian realities,” one Republican foreign policy insider told me, “which is to say, the same story we have watched about a half-dozen times before.”
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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February 23, 2025
Scenes From the Democratic Marriage
A month after the inauguration, rival Democratic factions are coalescing around the potency of an anti-billionaire messaging. On the topic of pretty much everything else, however, they are aligned in agreeing to disagree.
Tara Palmeri
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February 21, 2025
Steve Witkoff’s Art of the Deal
Inside the State Department, Witkoff’s elevation has some wondering if the billionaire real estate investor and longtime Trump homie has become shadow secretary of state. “In terms of setting direction,” a State official says, “Witkoff outranks Rubio.”
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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February 20, 2025
Even Republicans Have DOGE Anxiety Attacks
Publicly, Republicans have nothing but kind words for Trump, Musk, and the DOGE agenda. Behind the scenes, however, they’re lobbying fiercely against cuts out of political self-preservation.
Peter Hamby
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February 19, 2025
Kamala ’28 Falls in the Forest
Revealing new poll numbers on the next (celebrity?) iteration of counter-Trump politics, and what Democrats want for Harris’s future.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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February 16, 2025
“Not the Time to Panic”
Hill Democrats aren’t just depressed about their lack of political power and direction. Privately, they wonder aloud how they’ve been swept up in a McCarthy-esque cultural purge. Rep. Adam Smith offers a slightly more constructive view.
Peter Hamby
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February 13, 2025
Caruso, Kamala, and the Battle for L.A.
With eyes on both the L.A. mayor’s office and the governor’s mansion, Rick Caruso is reinjecting himself into California politics at a frenetic pace—rebuilding the city, taking potshots at Karen Bass, and potentially squaring off against Kamala Harris as she considers her own next act.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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February 13, 2025
Trump’s Roy Problems
House Republicans have finally started to move on a budget bill that is expected to add trillions to the national debt. Now they must face down the usual right-flank hardliners and even contemplate the dreaded B-word (bipartisanship).
John Heilemann
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February 12, 2025
Don’t Waste a Constitutional Crisis
A sobering conversation with Laurence Tribe, the esteemed legal scholar, about the separation of powers, crossing the Rubicon, and the definition of a coup.
Abby Livingston
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February 11, 2025
Curb Your DOGE
As D.C. Democrats bluster and grandstand, state attorneys general across the country are going to court to pump the brakes on the runaway Trump-Musk train. Herewith, New Jersey A.G. Matthew Platkin outlines his legal counteroffensive with the White House.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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February 9, 2025
I’m That Mitch
Newly unencumbered by leadership responsibilities and party loyalties, Mitch McConnell is free to spoil nominations, torment his former tormentor, and defend against a new wave of isolationism. Could the most mischievous member of the Senate be the 82-year-old former leader who’s battling infirmity and, possibly, his own party?
Tara Palmeri
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February 7, 2025
John Fetterman: Stop “Freaking Out” About Trump
An unusually candid conversation with Pennsylvania’s borderline heretical Democratic senator about working with Trump, winning back white men, and when the pendulum will swing back.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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February 6, 2025
The USAID Grenade
A longstanding tool of American foreign policy has practically collapsed in less than a week, and Republicans—who mostly declined a chance to partly defund it just a year ago—aren’t shedding any tears. Plus, notes on Marco Rubio’s staffing headaches at State.
John Heilemann
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February 5, 2025
Tropic Thunder
Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz has a message for shell-shocked Democrats struggling to find the right resistance in Trump 2.0: “Don’t chase every flying monkey Trump hurls at us.”
Peter Hamby
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February 4, 2025
The Pritzker Prize
With Democrats leaderless, some in the party are looking to the states, where ambitious governors often find their “laboratories of democracy” make great soapboxes, too. Illinois’ J.B. Pritzker, an all-but-certain presidential candidate in 2028, is one of them.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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February 3, 2025
Survivor: Trump Cabinet Edition
News and notes on Tulsi Gabbard’s “rush job,” Kash Patel’s surprisingly strong showing, and R.F.K. Jr.’s knife’s edge.
Tara Palmeri
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January 31, 2025
Nightmare on K Street
A 360-degree review of the dreaded O.M.B. memo, as seen by the blue chip lobbyists scrambling to explain what it might mean for their clients.