Outside the Beltway

After eight months in office, the pressures on Chief of Staff John Kelly continue to mount under a President who cannot be controlled and whose behavior will not change.

President Trump won’t attend nerd prom again this year. That’s a good thing.

Thanks to a combination of sensationalism and outright lies, a fairly conventional story about an annual protest march in Mexico was turned into Fox News fodder that raised images of an invading army of illegal immigrants.

The “caravan” of immigrants that sent the President off the deep end on immigration issues is basically coming to an end.

President Trump wants to send the military to the Mexican border. This is both unnecessary and a bad idea.

News anchors at dozens of local stations owned by conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group were recently required to read a script mandated by corporate headquarters, and it’s leading to some bad media coverage for Sinclair.

Johnetta Benton was caught on tape in a 15-minute rant against President Trump’s campaign slogan. She ain’t wrong.

As a general rule, Presidents are entitled to have a Cabinet and advisers he is comfortable with, but a Cabinet full of “yes men” is not ideal with any President, and certainly not with this one.

Normally attorneys would be jumping at the chance to represent the President of the United States. With Donald Trump, the lawyers are distancing themselves from him as fast as they can.

If the polls are any indication, Democrats may fall short in their bid to take back the House in November.

New polling shows that public support for several gun control proposals continue to increase in the wake of February’s shooting at a Parkland, Florida High School.

Like many Presidents before him, Donald Trump wants a line-item veto. Getting there won’t be easy, nor should it be.

Organizing protests was the easy part. The hard part for those who would seek to expand gun regulations is yet to come.

From Europe to the Middle East, to Asia, America’s allies are concerned about what the selection of John Bolton as National Security Adviser means going forward. They should be, and so should every American.

Breitbart News appears to be fading in terms of readership, but the alt-right politics it represents is not going away.

The network’s longtime “strategic analyst” is “ashamed” of his association because they’ve become a “propaganda machine.”

Joseph E. diGenova has touted the theory that rogue FBI elements have tried to frame Trump in the Russia probe.

The Trump presidency is the latest step in treating commentators like policy experts. It is all a manifestation of how the modern GOP is a populist party.

H.R. McMaster appears to be on the way out as National Security Adviser. The important question is, who replaces him?

Having journalistic integrity at the Fair and Balanced network has never been more challenging.

The selection of Mike Pompeo as the next Secretary of State makes it more likely that President Trump will take the foolish and dangerous step of withdrawing the United States from the nuclear deal with Iran.

Not surprisingly, the Trump Administration is backing away from gun regulations opposed by the N.R.A.

There won’t be any tanks, but it looks like President Trump will get his military parade.

Two seemingly contradictory essays out today highlight the exhausting political conversation environment.

Netflix no longer offers President Frank Underwood. They’re lining up a replacement.

The Federal Government has fired another shot in the ongoing war over so-called “sanctuary cities.”

The legal distinction between “personal capacity” and “official capacity” makes no sense for senior presidential appointees.

While Team Trump has gone out of its way to waylay the Russia investigation, this may not be is part of that effort.

POLITICO buries the lede in making the case for “Donald Trump’s bubble presidency.”

After skipping such events in his first thirteen months in office, the President tried his hand at stand-up last night to mixed reviews.

Responsible governance from the Golden State?

Once again, the Administration is walking back the President’s statements on a controversial issue.

What is CPAC telling us about the contemporary conservative movement?

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have released a memo that completely eviscerates the memo prepared by Committee Chairman Devin Nunes.

The students who survived last week’s mass shooting in Parkland, Florida are speaking out, and some on the right are responding by engaging in personal attacks and spreading conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump’s dereliction of duty in response to clear evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election is a staggering and flagrant dereliction of the duties he agreed to take on when he took the Oath Of Office more than a year ago.

In my life I have not once, not a single time, encountered the name of Chelsea Handler in any context apart from Fox News articles. 

Donald Trump’s lawyer admits to making a six-figure payment on the eve of the 2016 election to a porn star that Trump was alleged to have had an affair with. That just raises a host of other questions.

President Trump spoke up about the spousal abuse charges against his former Staff Secretary Rob Porter. His response was entirely predictable.

President Trump is reportedly considering replacing his chief of staff. Again.

While most of America slept, the government was shutdown thanks to some faux theatrics by a single Senator.

Administration officials are admitting that it’s likely that Russia will try to interfere in the midterm elections just as it did in 2016, but they don’t seem inclined to do anything about it.

Donald Trump spent much of the past year touting the rising stock market, now he’s getting a lesson in reality.

With Republicans fully in control in Washington, their concerns about the budget deficit seem to have disappeared.

Congress seems no closer to a DACA deal than they were in January.

A newly released poll has encouraging signs for Democrats in 2018, but there are several caveats.

Mostly it just tells us that Nunes and his allies are hacks.

The guy who found Al Capone’s vault wishes we had a guy like Sean Hannity back in the Watergate era.

Imagine a world where Hillary Clinton was President and stood accused of the same things Donald Trump and his campaign are currently under investigation for.

John Kelly continues to throw away the good name he earned in decades of service as a Marine to serve the agenda of President Trump.