• Skip to main content
  • Current
  • Home
  • About
    • About Current
    • Masthead
  • Podcasts
  • Blogs
    • The Way of Improvement Leads Home
    • The Arena
  • Reviews
  • 🔎

Trump

Thomas Frank on “fake populism”

John Fea   |  February 20, 2025

Nathan Robinson, the editor of Current Affairs, starts his interview with author Thomas Frank by quoting from Frank’s 2016 book Listen, Liberal: “Now all political parties are alliances of groups with disparate interests, but the contradictions of the Democratic Party […]

Trump opposes an immigrant bill that does not yet have a text. Republicans line-up behind him.

John Fea   |  January 29, 2024

The Senate is putting the finishing touches on a bipartisan border policy deal that would also provide aid to Ukraine. We are waiting for the text of the bill. Without a text, no one knows what is in the bill. […]

Donald Trump: The Lord’s apostle

John Fea   |  October 16, 2023

Here is Roger Stone at this weekend’s “Pastors for Trump” conference in Miami: Apparently Trump prays with Stone: Meanwhile, Stone’s partner in Christian Trumpism, former National Security Director Michael Flynn, will do a cameo with you for $150:

Trump: Immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”

John Fea   |  October 7, 2023

Some of my critics often say that I have “Trump derangement syndrome.” I usually ignore these criticisms since those who make them are in danger of normalizing Trump, Trumpism, and his rhetoric. I refuse to do that. Donald Trump’s brand […]

More evangelicals criticize Trump on abortion

John Fea   |  September 20, 2023

We’ll have our regular evangelical roundup tomorrow, but here are a few more responses to Trump’s new view on abortion. (Get up to speed here and here and here.) Sean Feucht is trying to have it both ways: Al Mohler […]

Trump’s pro-Unionism and changes on abortion show an “eagerness to win even at the expense of ideological consistency”

John Fea   |  September 20, 2023

Here is Ross Douthat at The New York Times: In the last week, the man whose judicial appointees overturned Roe v. Wade and whose administration was reliably hostile to unions has condemned the six-week abortion ban signed by DeSantis, promised […]

Welcome to Pottersville

John H. Haas   |  June 13, 2023

Back at the dawn of this century, writer Gary Kamiya penned one of the most arresting meditations on America I know.  It was hard to tell just how tongue-in-cheek “All hail Pottersville!” was. The setting of George Bailey’s nightmare vision […]

There were three major investigations of Donald Trump’s presidency. What if we took them as a whole?

John Fea   |  February 10, 2023

There are three published investigations of Donald Trump and his presidency: The Mueller Report, the House Intelligence Committee Report on Trump and Ukraine, and the January 6th Report. Future historians will bring these reports into conversation with one another. Carlo […]

Are evangelicals really abandoning Trump?

John Fea   |  November 23, 2022

The press seems to love this story. Here is The Huffington Post. Here is The Washington Post. Here is Rolling Stone. But are evangelicals really abandoning Trump? It’s too early to tell. James Robison’s comments at National Association of Christian […]

Trump’s desperate appeal to QAnon

John Fea   |  September 21, 2022

Here is Juliette Kayyem at The Atlantic: For a man who believes in nothing, has no coherent ideology or value system except his own continuing relevance, obsesses over conspiracies, and subsists on grievance and anger, Donald Trump took a long […]

Why presidents can’t keep their documents

John Fea   |  August 15, 2022

There is a reason why the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago last week. Here is a nice explainer from National Public Radio: For the first two centuries of U.S. history, outgoing presidents simply took their documents with them […]

The GOP as Trump Steaks

John Fea   |  April 6, 2022

Tim Miller writes for the conservative online magazine The Bulwark. He was the communications director for the 2016 Jeb Bush campaign and spokesperson for the Republican National Committee. Here is a taste of his piece “The Republican Party Is Trump […]

January 6 Committee makes a case for criminal charges against Trump

John Fea   |  March 3, 2022

Here we go: The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said on Wednesday that there was enough evidence to conclude that former President Donald J. Trump and some of his allies might have conspired to commit […]

I was with Greg Locke for the first fifty seconds…

John Fea   |  January 11, 2022

Watch the Tennessee megachurch pastor: Please get vaccinated and boosted! The vaccine is safe and effective.

The GOP will need to live with a potential Trump indictment

John Fea   |  May 26, 2021

Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. As MSNBC team notes, they had a chance to walk away from him after the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, but instead they doubled-down in their support of […]

Biden dumped Trump’s 1776 Commission, but its members are still meeting

John Fea   |  May 22, 2021

If you are not familiar with the 1776 Commission, get up to speed here and here and here. Here is The Washington Examiner: The education advisory commission set up by former President Donald Trump will resume operations despite being disbanded by President Joe […]

Liberty University sues Jerry Falwell Jr. for $10 million

John Fea   |  April 16, 2021

I can’t keep up with all these Liberty University stories. Last week disgraced former president Jerry Falwell Jr. was touting the COVID-19 vaccine and catching a lacrosse game on campus. Earlier this week Liberty fired Trey Falwell, Falwell Jr.’s son. […]