Jamelle Bouie is the chief political correspondent for Slate and a political analyst for CBS News, covering campaigns, elections, and national affairs. His work has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Washington Post, The Nation, and other publications. Before Slate, Bouie was a staff writer at The Daily Beast and a writing fellow at The American Prospect magazine. He attended the University of Virginia, where he graduated with degrees in political and social thought, and government.
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“America First” has a specific history, as a nativist and isolationist slogan, popular among Americans who resisted entry into World War II and were associated with the demagoguery and anti-Semitism of Charles Lindbergh. And it’s a fitting slogan for Trump.
Both job and stock-market growth have been on upward trajectories for the last year, and manufacturing decisions from automakers and other firms reflect long-standing plans. Trump is taking credit for events and trends that precede him and his election.
It’s the antimatter Cabinet—an ungovernment brought forth by reactionary hostility to the idea of the public, a throwback to the industrial oligarchy that eventually brought American democracy to its knees.
As for Bannon, he’s not just an informal spokesperson for President Trump; he is the president’s chief ideologist, and along with Sessions and Stephen Miller, has had a huge hand in crafting the administration’s agenda.
His total lack of expertise about the issues HUD confronts was on full display at Thursday’s confirmation hearing.
If the question is a commitment to civil rights, Jeff Sessions falls far short.
If Donald Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” feels like a con, that’s because it is.
Even if you agree with his decision to attack Syrian government assets, there’s still no evidence that his temperament has changed, or that he’s gained any wisdom or insight.