Opinion

In the Catholic Church, committing a cardinal sin means you’re doomed. For those who aren’t Catholic, a cardinal sin would include killing innocent Americans in their neighborhoods or threatening to live-stream a third-world execution,

On Wednesday, in a bit of prophetic writing, I stated — as a former press secretary myself — that newly appointed White House press secretary Katie Zacharia had committed two cardinal sins as a public spokesperson: she wasn’t honest with the press and she didn’t speak with authority.

I probably should have written that she would be gone by the end of the week. However, deep down in my former spokesperson and kind Catholic heart, I wanted to give her a chance in a truly thankless job — take it from me, it is. ...

Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.

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If the Trump campaign wants a rally playlist, it should skip morbid tunes like "Phantom of the Opera" and "November Rain" and go straight to the classic dance track from 1994, the Real McCoy's "Run Away."

It's the one song brainwormed on the minds of most Republicans on the November ballot. First came the convention no-shows, then the scrubbed websites, and now the empty seats. Even Texas Governor Greg Abbott bailed on Trump's San Antonio rally last week. If Abbott bails on you, then you know you’re fixin' to catch a beating.

None of this is new, of course. But the running away has been intensifying, just as Trump has been putting frequent flyer miles on that luxury jet that he took from Qatar. The exodus began in the closing weeks of summer, when dozens of Republicans in competitive races found reasons to skip the GOP's own midterm convention in Dallas, among them Sens Susan Collins, Mike Rounds and Dan Sullivan. ...

If we know anything about this administration, it's that there is no limit to anything, no bottom to any matter — it's a given. But that's quite different than saying it's beyond the power to shock.

At times, Trump 2.0's actions can still jam a jaw to the floor, particularly when the move involves absurd grift while servicing some of the most pro-fascist, pro-Russian forces on Earth, and especially when the White House connection lands at the feet of the second most powerful person ensconced in the dump.

CBS News reported last week that Katie Wiles, the daughter of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, recently traveled to Republika Srpska, the Bosnian-controlled territory led by pro-Russian Serb strongman Milorad Dodik. A fascist meeting a fellow fascist, and not for a vacation. ...

It’s one of the great unanswered questions of the past decade: what the hell could Russia’s dictator president Vladimir Putin have on Donald Trump that would force the American president to consistently behave with such deference and fear, bordering on total submission?

The query was raised anew this past week over the deal suspending fuel import sanctions on Russia for six months to allow for diesel sales at market prices — a surefire boon to the Russian economy. It was done at the behest, naturally, of Trump, who made it even worse by mocking the reaction to it of Ukraine’s courageous leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

When it comes to Putin and Zelensky, Trump always purposefully gets things exactly backwards, pretending it was Russia that was invaded and Ukraine has demonstrated unreasonable aggression while defending its ongoing existence. It’s insane — but it’s also part of Trump’s calculated currying of favor with Putin....

The attacks in the war between Russia and Ukraine have finally gone too far for President Donald Trump.

But it's not the bodies piling up that have sickened him.

Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist....

In a bid to navigate the “biggest single mistake” of President Donald Trump’s two terms in office, the president has sparked a new “complete catastrophe,” a panel of journalists argued Monday on MS NOW.

“This war with Iran is going to prove to be the biggest single mistake of Donald Trump's two terms in office,” said David Rohde, MS NOW senior national security reporter. “The Saudi Arabian government could fall there — it's a disaster for this country and it's extraordinary what's happening, just the stakes here every day.”

A cascade of attacks has erupted across the Middle East in recent days amid Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran, a conflict that has kept U.S. fuel prices elevated. However, Trump has increasingly blamed the Russo-Ukrainian war for elevated fuel prices....

President Donald Trump delivered his rally speech in Tennessee Saturday to entire sections of empty seats at the F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, new video and photos of the rally revealed.

“President Trump’s crowd on a Saturday afternoon in Clarksville, Tennessee, near the Kentucky border, deep in the heart of Trump country,” wrote New York Times reporter Shawn McCreesh in a social media post on X, alongside a video showing entire seating sections devoid of attendees.

Reuters photographer Seth Herald also captured a photo featuring “a section of empty seats” at the arena while Trump delivered his rally speech, which was disrupted within minutes by a heckler....

President Donald Trump said “Too bad!” when asked about Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, his son’s former fiancée, whom his own administration’s watchdog is now investigating.

Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House on Friday as he prepared to depart on Marine One with boxer Mike Tyson.

The State Department’s Office of the Inspector General, the department’s internal watchdog, is investigating Guilfoyle and the U.S. Embassy in Greece, two people familiar with the decision told NBC News....