Column: Pay attention to the deficit, even if Trump won’t President Trump said he would balance the federal budget "overnight." In reality, debt is now approaching the highest level in U.S. history.

Column: For all the achievements Trump claims—ending eight wars in a year!—here’s a real one: Despite promises to balance the budget ("overnight"), he's on a path to break his own record for the most debt in one term, $8.4 trillion. Where's the outrage?
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Column: Amid Trump's insane comments, it was Karoline Leavitt's remark that really unsettled me: “Only the President knows where things stand and what he will do."
Impeachment and the 25th Amendment aren't realistic. The only check: A Democratic majority in Congress.
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Column: Given everything in the news, why care about the White House demolition? In a nation founded on ideals, after throwing off a king, the idea of a people’s house that’s not palatial is one worth protecting.

‘The fight for the symbolic and architectural integrity of the White House is of a piece with the broader fight against the lawless, self-aggrandizing impunity with which Trump approaches everything’

Via @jackiecalmes.bsky.social

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Given everything in the news, why care about the White House demolition? In a nation founded on ideals, after throwing off a king, the idea of a people’s house that’s not palatial is one worth protecting.

Column: For months, Trump's White House desecration has upset me to tears, but I'd check myself: What's a building when he's tearing up lives?
Well, I decided, this is more than a building. It's a symbol--of the nation, and of all that's wrong the resident.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Trump's recklessness endangers the nation He gutted counterterrorism in the U.S. government and then started a war with Iran, a notorious state sponsor of terrorism.

Column: Make America Safe Again? Trump’s Iran war risks retaliatory terrorist strikes in the US, experts warn--a threat that's higher because he sacked counterterrorism hands who had any role in investigating him and reassigned others to deportations work.
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Column: On Iran, Russia and China, Trump's weakness for strongmen explains his foreign policy There is no Trump doctrine because this president is highly suggestible by authoritarians such as Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Column: Yes, Trump has broken his vow not to start foreign wars. What’s worse is than in the major theaters of foreign policy—the Mideast, Europe and Asia—he's led along by foreign leaders. And Netanyahu, Putin and Xi do not have U.S. interests at heart.
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Column: Trump's address to Congress trumpets how he usurps Congress Even just days after his own conservative Supreme Court reprimanded him for trying to take over lawmakers' role, the president was unashamed of his power grabs.

Column: Days after the Supreme Court all but begged Congress to take back power Trump has usurped, Republican lawmakers at his State of the Union speech only seemed poised to give away more. All the more reason voters should take away the Capitol keys in November.
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Column: Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden, please speak out against Trump Presidents who could speak truth to power are so constrained by their devotion to norms that they won’t confront a president who’s shattering the norms of this democracy daily.

Column--America's quandary in Trump times: Ex-presidents and retired commanders who could speak out in unison are so constrained by their devotion to norms that they won’t confront a president who’s shattering norms and laws that are democracy's foundation.
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Column: If he had any other job, Trump would have been fired by now We’re stuck with a president who daily models behavior that we don’t accept in our schools and workplaces.

‘How is it… that kids can get into such trouble for their behavior, accept responsibility and make amends, but the president of the United States does not and will not?’

Via @jackiecalmes.bsky.social

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: If he had any other job, Trump would have been fired by now We’re stuck with a president who daily models behavior that we don’t accept in our schools and workplaces.

Column: After Trump's racist post about the Obamas, a daughter called: How does he get away with behavior that kids in school get punished for? Or adults in any job? Good question. Daily he offends. If only Congress or the Supreme Court would be his H.R.
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Column: Misery has plenty of company in Trump's second term Republicans are quaking ahead of the midterms as Trump says or does something each day to keep alive the disgust so many Americans share for him.

Column: To all who're daily distressed by some Trump outrage, you're not alone. “Every day there’s something insane happening,” said a Texas independent in the red district that just elected a Democrat. Misery has company. And company's coming in November.
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Column: Trump imagines the buck will never stop with him As Republicans object to this lawless administration, they should keep their focus on holding the boss accountable.

Column: Enough with laying blame on Noem, Miller and Bovino for the feds' deadly, terroristic tactics in Minneapolis and elsewhere. This is Trump’s paramilitary. These are his advisers. These are his policies. Don't let him pass the buck this time.
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Column: It will be a long road back after Trump's reign of destruction He has already devastated the credibility of American law enforcement and the military, not to mention our nation's standing around the world.

Column: All of Trump's gilt defiling the White House, his name on the Kennedy Center--those can be easily undone. The same can’t be said for the damage he's done in just a year to the US character and rule of law at home, or its alliances and reputation globally.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Broken Shackles: The Rise of the Imperial Presidency (1776–2025) » One Domino Away Broken Shackles: The Rise of the Imperial Presidency (1776–2025) The Study of Article 2 Section 3's Take Care Clause... "Faithfully"

Robert Yates, Essay No. 15, Mar 20, 1788
“The president, with his immense powers, may easily become the tyrant of America."

onedominoaway.com/broken-shack...

An Old Whig, Open Letter Oct 27, 1787
“The president of the United States… will be in reality more like a monarch than any king in Europe.”

Column: Trump celebrates our nation's founding while imitating tyrant King George III The Declaration of Independence faulted the king for sending 'swarms of Officers to harrass our people' and protecting the agents 'from punishment for any Murders which they should commit.' Sound fami...

‘It’s Americans’ bad fortune that such a man as Trump, a wannabe king, is the presider in chief for the yearlong commemorations of the rebellion that ultimately threw off a real king who’d met protesters with force and retribution.’

Via @jackiecalmes.bsky.social

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Trump celebrates our nation's founding while imitating tyrant King George III The Declaration of Independence faulted the king for sending 'swarms of Officers to harrass our people' and protecting the agents 'from punishment for any Murders which they should commit.' Sound fami...

Column: Trump's conflicting takes on protest in Iran and the US is especially gross in the 250th year of the Declaration of Independence. Its indictments of King George have parallels today. Like, he “sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people.”
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Trump's 626 overseas strikes aren't 'America First.' What's his real agenda? The president who promised domestic solutions has instead inserted the U.S. into many other nations' conflicts, most recently Venezuela's. Why?

Column: Who knew that by “America First,” President Trump meant all of the Americas? With the Donroe Doctrine--Might makes right--the wannabe king turns out to be a wannabe emperor of an entire hemisphere. While exacerbating, not fixing, problems at home.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

(Sorry to be so late with good wishes!) 🎉

You too!

Column: Trump's motto in 2025? 'Me, myself and I' To an extent that’s shocked even critics long convinced of his sociopathic narcissism, the president has fashioned a government that’s of Trump, by Trump and for Trump.

Column: Trump's most potent '24 campaign ad delivered a punch line with real punch: “Kamala Harris is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” In 2025, the self-aggrandizing president only lived by the first-person pronouns: me, myself and I. A review.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: 'Happy holidays' is how we embrace the Christmas spirit of generosity There is no 'war on Christmas,' so our season's greetings are not political statements. Unless you want them to be.

Column: A man told a Salvation Army bell-ringer at the grocery, “Because you said ‘Merry Christmas’ and not ‘Happy Holidays,’ I’m giving you money. America’s back!” It's a mindset Trump stokes. Such kind wishes aren't political--unless you want them to be.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Some truth leaked out of the White House Damning candor from Trump's chief of staff, along with the president's own embarrassing rant against Rob Reiner, show the crumbling of this administration.

Column: There is a Santa Claus, and light in the dark. Susie Wiles' candor on Trump 2.0 in Vanity Fair is a Christmas-Hanukkah gift. Along with Trump's sliming of Rob Reiner, voters got the clearest mirror yet to the ugliness that is Trump. Happy 2026.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Signs of the regulatory apocalypse Trump announced that he would 'be involved' in deciding which company is allowed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. The Supreme Court signaled an end to regulatory agencies' independence.

Column: Even as the Supreme Court this week signaled it will end regulatory agencies' independence, Trump's interference in the fight over Warner Bros. Discovery showed what the future holds: Presidents picking winners and losers, politics over expertise.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Now it's clear why Trump got rid of the top military lawyers People who know and enforce the law would have been inconvenient during the president's undeclared war in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Column: First Trump fired the lawyers, Months on, the storylines around him are tangled in a knotty mess of lawlessness, hypocrisy & war crimes: killings at sea of supposed drug-runners, retribution for critics, yet a pardon for an ex-narco-state leader.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Be thankful for the judges upholding the law On immigration alone, more than 100 federal judges — including many Trump appointees — have ruled that the administration’s actions violated civil rights or were otherwise illegal.

Column: Today family comes first, but give thanks too for an independent judiciary, for the many federal judges, including Trump picks, who've withstood harassment and death threats to hold the wannabe king and his toadying turkeys to account. Examples:
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Column: Instead of addressing injustice, pardons now pervert justice Across the political spectrum, Americans are disgusted with how presidents have abused the pardon power for personal and political benefit.

Column: Presidents of both parties have abused the pardon power but Trump's corruption and perversion of the rule of law surpasses them, making reform a national imperative: Amend the Constitution to repeal the unchecked power or give Congress a veto.
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Column: Trump's improv approach to policymaking doesn't actually make policy On social media and in interviews, the president has been blurting out proposals that are news even to the advisors who should be vetting them first.

Column: A defensive Trump has been flailing, pinballing dumb ideas--$2,000 rebates and debt payoffs with nonexistent "trillions" from tariffs, 50-year mortgages, ending Obamacare. Policy ignorance has been a defining trait, but this knee-jerk junk is nuts.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

A belated thanks to you for reading, and taking the time to write.

Column: Trump's tone-deaf displays are turning off voters The president faced poetic comeuppance after his ostentatious party: a blue wave in Tuesday’s elections.

Column: A gilded White House, Gatsbyesque parties, crypto-grift. Trump won two elections on his appeal to working class voters, but he seems utterly out of touch, enjoying his personal Golden Age as voters struggle with costs he vowed to contain. They've noticed.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Argentina bailout shows that Trump's Cabinet has no adults in the room To survive in this administration means to be servile. And Scott Bessent of Treasury is doing both.

Column: Only next to the inept radicals and flatterers in Trump's Cabinet does Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stand out as a “normie.” But his Argentina bailout at rural America's expense is just the latest sign that he's normal only by Trump standards.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...