@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social
NYT Columnist, visiting professor at Lipscomb University. Married to @nancyfrench.bsky.social. Iraq vet, Grizzlies fan, born in War Eagle Country and raised in Big Blue Nation.
Eight minutes.
That’s the length of President Trump’s video announcing his war with Iran. He didn’t go to Congress. He didn’t obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution. Instead, he did perhaps the most monarchical thing he’s done in a monarchical second term: He simply ordered America into war.
This is a great piece. And it makes one wonder if we had a government that cared about making and supporting its friends how much better off Ukraine would be right now.
Shameful
@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social hosts a clear-eyed discussion of the Ukraine war that is neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic.
It's just that so many more people will suffer and die before we reach the time that is not on Russia's side.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/o...
I talked to Michael Kofman, a voice I truly trust, on the course of the Russian invasion. The war is grim, but there are seeds of hope: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/o...
26.02.2026 17:30 — 👍 116 🔁 16 💬 5 📌 1
If we keep electing men like Trump, they will keep undermining that foundation, until it finally collapses.
One day that may well happen. But on Friday, the Supreme Court said not this day. On this day the presidency is stuffed back into its box. On this day the Constitution holds.
2025, the year that empathy died.
"Many in MAGA decided that cruelty was a virtue, decency a vice, and — worst of all — that empathy was a sin. Now we live in the harsh new world they made." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/o...
Good column by @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social on the rising tide of antisemitism and its deep roots in the Trump administration.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/o...
Beyond natural curiosity I'm not usually heavily invested in internal theological debates within Chrisitanity, but they are once again affecting the safety of my own people.
In that spirit, move past the headline and read this excellent article by @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social. ty for writing it.
Thank you!
15.02.2026 15:40 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
And since Christians have persecuted Jews so viciously, we have a special responsibility to make amends, to repair the damage that the church has done. That begins by turning to the new Christian antisemites and shouting “No!” Ancient hatreds and ancient heresies have no place in the church today.
15.02.2026 15:39 — 👍 101 🔁 21 💬 6 📌 1
With the amateurish and corrupt effort to indict six Democratic members of Congress, we may have reached the incompetence-corruption singularity.
That, and more, in this week's roundtable. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/o...
In an alternate world, “Trump could be riding high simply by securing the border [and conducting regular deportations in the manner] the Constitution requires.
“But that is not what the admin is doing. It’s procuring a series of detention facilities that are concentration camps in all but name.”
Two judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit have issued a ruling that, if allowed to stand, could result in the indefinite detention of millions of immigrants in inhumane, overcrowded facilities scattered across the United States. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...
12.02.2026 19:27 — 👍 102 🔁 34 💬 8 📌 9Thank you, Christian.
08.02.2026 18:47 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
"I'm not exactly the target audience for a film about chair-making religious extremists."
I, on the other hand, unironically am. 🙋 Especially when they're also pacifists.
This is a beautiful essay.
"Our nation is not a place — it never will be a place — where we all agree with one another, much less look like one another, or even come from a common culture. But we can live together as neighbors so long as we recognize one another’s inherent dignity and worth." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...
08.02.2026 16:12 — 👍 119 🔁 19 💬 9 📌 3
Yes, a corrupt president may pardon the crooks who act on his behalf, but a modest change in the law could give them pause. Violating civil rights should carry a profound cost, and the message to the Trump administration must be clear: Protect the integrity of the election, or we will make you pay.
05.02.2026 18:12 — 👍 126 🔁 36 💬 4 📌 7
"A president who doesn’t care about the law, who commands an obedient Congress and is supported by a radicalized base of tens of millions of people who believe his lies, represents a threat to the next election. I fear that millions of citizens are still too complacent."
01.02.2026 21:41 — 👍 232 🔁 74 💬 8 📌 6
Consider this column to be something like a fire drill. "It’s an alarm, one of thousands that should be ringing across the country. MAGA’s acts of aggression are already intimidating. Trump isn’t just trying to “stop the steal” again; another kind of theft might already be underway."
01.02.2026 16:14 — 👍 620 🔁 230 💬 23 📌 7
"I'm coming to Boston and I'm bringing hell with me."
--Homan in February
"Do I expect violence to escalate? Absolutely."
-- Tom Homan in March
"I actually thought about getting up and throwing that man a beating right there in the middle of the room"
-- Homan in July, referring to a D congressman
I think @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social is a lot more realistic than some Democratic pols.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...
Protests make MAGA mad. Journalism makes MAGA mad. Accountability makes MAGA mad. And the anger keeps building until a single sentence starts to spread across the length and breadth of Trump’s base: “Invoke the Insurrection Act.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...
29.01.2026 14:45 — 👍 102 🔁 25 💬 3 📌 4
Take off their masks. End their immunities. Limit their jurisdiction. Restrain their tactics. All of this can be done through legislation without inhibiting humane immigration enforcement. If it’s done correctly, legislative reform can lead to greater accountability across the whole of government.
26.01.2026 17:14 — 👍 228 🔁 39 💬 17 📌 4Thank you!
23.01.2026 04:39 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
How do you preserve the free world when America goes Rogue? On Tuesday, Mark Carney provided an answer.
He called Donald Trump’s bluff. Trump wants subjects, but he’s getting rivals, and the American people will pay the price. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/o...
President Trump is stress-testing American law, and the law is failing the test. The health of the American experiment rests far more on the integrity of any given American president than we realized. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...
18.01.2026 15:15 — 👍 182 🔁 44 💬 23 📌 7
If we break our alliances, we are smaller and weaker. If we break them for pride and power and greed, then we don’t just break an alliance, we break our own character. We diminish ourselves in every way that matters, and no amount of newly sovereign frozen ground can obscure our national shame.
16.01.2026 03:08 — 👍 1051 🔁 249 💬 49 📌 9That's well said. Courage should shame the cowards.
12.01.2026 03:24 — 👍 214 🔁 29 💬 5 📌 0
Donald Trump is putting on a clinic about how to break the United States.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/o...
Thank you so much, Becca.
06.01.2026 02:31 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0