Matt Bai
@mattbaidc.bsky.social
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity." National Affairs Columnist at @RollingStone.com. MBai@rollingstone.com
Trump Is Turning D.C. Into a Theme Park for the American Century The president erects monuments to the nation's greatness at home, while undermining it all over the world. Read @mattbaidc.bsky.social's commentary: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
When discussing the various indictments he has faced during Trump’s second term, Comey says: “I think [Trump’s] approach to me and to many others is… I need to get even with people.” Read more of @mattbaidc.bsky.social's interview with @jamescomey.bsky.social: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Rolling Stone@rollingstone.com · 2mo agoJames Comey warns against turning the justice system into a partisan operation: “It just can’t work if you’re looking at partisan allegiance, race, creed, wealth.” Comey argues that maintaining independent institutions is vital. Interview: bit.ly/4g2C1ha
While Donald Trump threatens, repeatedly, to obliterate the Iranian state, he seems increasingly inclined toward creating his own theocratic republic right here at home. Read @mattbaidc.bsky.social's commentary: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
The American Ayatollah from @mattbaidc.bsky.social with a classic illustration from Victor Juhasz www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Donald Trump: The American Ayatollah
Iran is the world's only functioning theocratic republic. Donald Trump wants to turn the United States into one.
rollingstone.com
My latest Rolling Stone essay, with terrific art. (Limited time gift link.) www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Donald Trump's Incompetence Is Costing Him the Country
Donald Trump has led us to chaos — war with Iran, spiking gas prices, unstable markets — that may lose him the Republican party and the nation.
rollingstone.com
Fantastic piece. Bravo to all involved in getting this out, and especially to @mattbaidc.bsky.social A perfect description of Brendan Carr— “a cultural claims adjuster, a pasty-faced, soft-spoken agent of Trump's retribution.”
FCC Chair Brendan Carr, the man leading Donald Trump’s media vendetta, is a brown-nosing bureaucrat. And that what makes him so dangerous. Commentary from @mattbaidc.bsky.social rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Brendan Carr, the FCC, and the Banality of Evil
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is a brown-nosing bureaucrat, which is why he's so dangerous as Donald Trump's media minion.
rollingstone.com
"If you were going to single out the most dangerous functionary in Trump’s little circle of Hell, you’d have plenty of candidates from which to choose. ... But don’t sleep on Brendan Carr. His legacy of awfulness may yet prove more durable." Read @mattbaidc.bsky.social on Trump's FCC chair ⬇️
Brendan Carr, the FCC, and the Banality of Evil
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is a brown-nosing bureaucrat, which is why he's so dangerous as Donald Trump's media minion.
rollingstone.com
Interventionism is more like physics than biology — every action sparks unpredictable reactions. The costs of war with Iran are only beginning. Read @mattbaidc.bsky.social full analysis: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Regime Change Is Never Painless: "The costs of regime change won’t be clear for some time. That there are always costs, always unforeseen, is the last century’s inescapable truth." From @mattbaidc.bsky.social www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Regime Change Is Never Painless
Donald Trump's war against Iran is the latest in a long line of American attempts to topple foreign regimes, all leaving have left in their wake.
rollingstone.com
“Years of tortured rationalization had created, in the end, a party of hypocrites.” @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes about Democrats’ decades-long relationship with Bill Clinton, and why they’re finally filing for divorce www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Democrats Are Divorcing Bill Clinton
Democrats are finally divorcing Bill Clinton, with party lawmakers voting to force his testimony as part of the GOP's farcical Epstein investigation.
rollingstone.com
My latest Rolling Stone column, on Bill Clinton and the left. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Democrats Are Divorcing Bill Clinton
Democrats are finally divorcing Bill Clinton, with party lawmakers voting to force his testimony as part of the GOP's farcical Epstein investigation.
rollingstone.com
How a forgotten Norman Mailer story explains why the president needs to own the Arctic wilderness, and so much more. Commentary by @mattbaidc.bsky.social: bit.ly/4qYrpmn
Timely new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now: www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
From Bruce Springsteen on Minneapolis to CSNY on Kent State — a History of Instant Protest Songs
We look back at rapid-response songs -- from Woody Guthrie and Nina Simone to Bruce Springsteen's quick turnaround on 'Streets of Minneapolis'
rollingstone.com
@mattbaidc.bsky.social explores how Trump’s Arctic strategy mirrors Norman Mailer’s ‘Why Are We in Vietnam?’ "Greenland is Trump’s feral grizzly, and it must be subdued" to reestablish a "natural order" of white male dominance. Commentary: bit.ly/4qYrpmn
How a forgotten Norman Mailer story explains why the president needs to own the Arctic wilderness, and so much more. Commentary by @mattbaidc.bsky.social: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
My first @rollingstone.com column is now live! Thanks for reading and reposting, and please consider subscribing if you don’t already. (Piece also available on Apple News.) www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Trump's 'Year Zero' Is Over. Now Comes the Reckoning
TK
rollingstone.com
20-odd years ago, I was fired from my dream job at Rolling Stone before I could publish anything. So let's try this again! Thanks to all who read me in the Post these past 6 years - hope you'll follow the next chapter.
"Trump and his acolytes in Congress can live under a delusion of their massive popularity and stride around like Caesar and his guards, but voters who get to decide these things are largely repulsed," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes. https://wapo.st/3JkGRZz
Opinion | Be afraid, Republicans. Be very afraid.
Democrats don’t agree on their message or who should deliver it. They won everywhere anyway.
wapo.st
"It’s a rare glimpse of bluer skies for Democrats since last year’s presidential election," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes. "But if their plan on immigration is to rely on Trump’s overreach, then they’ll be making the same mistake they made at the start of the Biden administration."
Opinion | Trump’s immigration tactics repel voters. Can Democrats attract them?
If their plan is just to rely on Trump’s overreach, then they’ll be repeating Biden’s mistakes.
wapo.st
"As much as you insist that the shutdown is about delivering health insurance to ordinary Americans, that gets lost in the noise," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes. https://wapo.st/4o67zUo
Opinion | The shutdown is only proving Trump’s point
The president argues that the federal bureaucracy is useless. Shutdowns tend to reinforce that view.
wapo.st
"Rarely has the corrosion of social media been so plainly exposed as it has been since last week, after the horrific killing of Charlie Kirk." The latest from @mattbaidc.bsky.social:
Opinion | The real enemy of democracy sneaked up on me
I used to be a cautious optimist, but social media has changed our politics for the worse.
wapo.st
"I can’t stop thinking about the giant banners of Trump that keep appearing on the front of our national buildings," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes. https://wapo.st/3Vrj5NX
Opinion | Is Trump an autocrat, or does he just play one on TV?
Here’s why I am so bothered by the giant banners of Trump’s face on government buildings.
wapo.st
"That we have often failed to apply freedoms equally — and can acknowledge that fact — isn’t an indictment of America, as Trump believes it to be; it is the story of Americans striving toward enlightenment," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes. https://wapo.st/4oTa65v
Opinion | What the Smithsonian taught me about Trumpism
Trying to sanitize the American story is the antithesis of what makes the country exceptional.
wapo.st
"As long as Trump is seen by a healthy plurality as the flawed but tolerable instrument of their anti-elite, anti-government rage, then we shouldn’t expect other institutions to keep him in check," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes. "That’s not their brief. It’s ours."
Opinion | Our institutions aren’t failing. We are.
It is the American people who must hold the president accountable, and we’re failing spectacularly.
wapo.st
Kamala Harris made the right decision to skip the governor’s race, because she clearly wasn’t dying to do the job, @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes. "She should make the same call on the presidency — even if that’s the job she wants."
Opinion | Does Kamala Harris really scare anybody?
After skipping the California governor’s race, she should make the same call on the presidency.
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