Outside the Beltway

Pete Buttigieg, the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is the latest entrant into the 2020 race for President. To say is a long-shot is an understatement.

In what amounts to a setback, the Supreme Court has lifted an injunction barring the Trump Administration’s ban on transgender service in the military to go forward pending further legal proceedings.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet again in February, but it’s hard to see why.

Thoughts on politics and constitutional powers.

With Democrats making a new proposal and the President set to speak later today, there could be movement on ending the government shutdown. I wouldn’t be too optimistic, though.

The efforts by Speaker Pelosi and President Trump to leverage their institutional powers raise interesting questions.

As the government shutdown continues, Washington is coming to resemble a fight between toddlers. Except the toddlers have the excuse of not knowing any better.

President Trump responded to the suggestion that the State of the Union be rescheduled by revoking military transportation for a Congressional trip to visit troops in Afghanistan.

The Speaker is well within her rights to make Trump’s invitation conditional on ending the shutdown. But let’s not pretend we can’t keep him safe.

Donald Trump continues to appear to advocate ideas that harm American national interests and benefit Vladimir Putin. Draw your own conclusions as to why.

Two years of Republican control of the Legislative and Executive Branches has put us back on a path toward $1 trillion budget deficits.

Carlos Sanchez, who portrayed Juan Valdez the unofficial ambassador of Colombian coffee for some 30 years, has died at the age of 83.

Paul Manafort’s attorneys reveal in a pleading that their client provided insider campaign data to Russian intelligence sources, something that seems an awful lot like collusion.

Herb Kelleher, who helped found an airline that revolutionized the industry thanks to his unconventional choices, has died at the age of 87.

Terrorists aren’t walking across the desert to get here. Flying is so much easier.

As the shutdown drags on, the President is digging in his heels even further.

Former Senator and Denocratic Presidential candidate Jim Webb is reportedly being considered for Defense Secretary.

It is sincerely disturbing that the POTUS has this level of understanding of history and foreign policy.

In his annual message, Kim Jong Un sent a message to President Trump on denuclearization and the future of the Korean Peninsula.

The President is blaming Democrats for the fact that so many of his Ambassadors have not been confirmed. The truth, of course, is quite the opposite.

President Trump announced today that James Mattis would be out as Secretary of Defense by the end of the year.

President Trump has lost another one of his top advisers on the fight against ISIS.

The Pentagon is being ordered to draw up plans to withdraw roughly one-half of the American forces remaining in Afghanistan. It’s about time.

In what clearly appears to be a rebuke of the President, Defense Secretary James Mattis is retiring as Secretary of Defense.

The North Korean government is making clear what it means when it speaks of denuclearization, and its far different from what the United States means.

The Trump Administration is reportedly preparing to withdraw the small contingent of American troops from Syria. If it actually happens, this would be a good move.

Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema will end up representing Arizona in the Senate together.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the U.S, Attorney for the Southern District of New York have filed sentencing memos that directly implicate the President in a series of felonies.

President Trump is expected to name a former Fox News host as Ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump has reportedly told aides that he doesn’t really care about reports of an approaching crisis of the budget deficit and national debt because he’ll be out of office before it becomes a problem.

Defense Secretary James Mattis has announced that the deployment of U.S. troops to the Mexican border will be extended through the end of this year.

Citing substantial cooperation, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is recommending no jail time for former Trump associate Michael Flynn.

American troops have been in Afghanistan for seventeen years now, it’s time to bring them all home.

Notwithstanding the temptation to do something, both the United States and NATO need to resist the temptation to get involved in the latest conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The evidence against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi continues to mount. Will the Trump Administration care?

An effort by the Federal Government to prosecute Wikileaks founder Julian Assange raises serious First Amendment issues.

President Trump has canceled a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the recent confrontation between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea.

National Security Adviser John Bolton offered an utterly absurd explanation for why he had not listened to the tape of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

The Trump Administration is attempting to bypass the Circuit Courts of Appeal and get immediate Supreme Court review of the President’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the military.

In what has to qualify as one of the most horrifying displays of moral depravity on the international stage, the Trump Administration is saying it doesn’t really care if the Saudi Crown Prince is a murderer or not.

Another part of the country that was once a Republican stronghold is now almost completely blue.

A filing in an unrelated case has apparently revealed the existence of a sealed indictment against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

President Trump recently blamed former President Obama for “losing” Crimea. It was never ours to lose.

The next head to roll in the Trump Administration appears to be frequent Trump target DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Nor is it Armed Forces Day.

A slight variant of the uniform from World War II and Korea is coming to a soldier near you.

Over the weekend, it was confirmed that the man once referred to as Vladimir Putin’s favorite Congressman was defeated in last week’s midterms.

One hundred years after the end of World War One, the forces that led to it are waking up from a long slumber.

Claiming it was because of the weather President Trump chose to skip a visit to a cemetery at the site of one of the bloodiest battles involving Americans in World War One.