David Atkins

His actions look like a terrifying direct test of the judicial branch’s power to stop Trump.

Yesterday’s news was as dramatic as it was fast. Trump issued an executive order banning immigration from certain Muslim countries–but not from ones where he has business connections. The result was chaos, confusion and catastrophe. Hundreds of legal residents and immigrants from doctors and scholars to vetted refugees sat in limbo both here in the United […]

As a Californian, the idea of seceding from the union can be tempting. We’re the world’s sixth largest economy, home to the country’s largest agriculture sector, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and a thriving economy, diverse in its people and its production. We also voted for Clinton over Trump by 30 points, with a couple more to Jill […]

Trump’s first week in office has been a disaster. The new president has veered from embarrassment and denial over his poorly attended inauguration, to anger and disbelief over massive protests that dwarfed his inauguration numbers, to a mishmash of poorly conceived, counterproductive and unpopular executive orders. Trump is at war with the press, members of […]

Sometimes as a political writer, events transpire such that there’s not much one can say without resorting to invective or mere speechlessness. Trump calling NATO “obsolete” today is one of those times: Donald Trump called NATO obsolete, predicted that other European Union members would follow the U.K. in leaving the bloc, and threatened BMW with […]

Trump wants to ban the White House press corps. Here is why that’s good for journalism.

Few people today think much about the George W. Bush Administration prior to 9/11. The collective memory of the early Bush presidency is mostly condensed to the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision, followed by not much of interest until the 9/11 attacks. But it’s important to recall that the Bush Administration floundered on foreign policy […]

Donald Trump has no sense of shame or caution. As the allegations of direct Russian interference in the election continue to swirl around him, Trump isn’t just misrepresenting and slamming American intelligence officials. He is refusing to even step back from policy that would open him to direct accusations of quid-pro-quo policy favoring Russia: President-elect […]