Matthew Cooper

Things Aren’t Going Donald Trump’s Way He hasn’t ended the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. His economy looks shaky. And then there’s Jeffrey Epstein.

Bad news in Gaza and Ukraine. Bad news on the economy. Mismanagement everywhere. Obvious corruption. Epstein. And Epstein again.

Even loyal Republicans are now starting to worry about Trump. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

YouTube video by Washington Monthly Dems should go all out on gerrymandering warfare

Dems should go "all out on gerrymandering warfare," says @billscher.bsky.social @washingtonmonthly.com, and fight fire with fire in California and elsewhere.

From this week's politics roundtable: @glastris.bsky.social @mattizcoop.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/shorts/zDK_p...

Opinion | Where Can Gaza Go From Here?

"If Netanyahu makes the colossal mistake of trying to reoccupy Gaza for the long term, then no thoughtful person can be pro-Israel without also being against him."

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/o...

Washington Monthly Founded in 1969, the Washington Monthly is an independent magazine based in Washington, D.C. Over the years, the Monthly has launched some of the biggest names in journalism, including James Fallows o...

Join @mattizcoop.bsky.social @glastris.bsky.social @billscher.bsky.social @washingtonmonthly.com at 10 AM this am as they talk about the mess in Texas redistricting, Trump's latest authoritarian move with the BLS, and a GOP rift on Israel

www.youtube.com/@washingtonm...

Crises and chaos shake the GOP with a power grab in Texas, a dispute over jobs data and a looming rift on Israel Washington Monthly Politics Roundtable · Episode

The Texas GOP's outrageous power grab could be doomed to fail anyway, says @billscher.bsky.social @washingtonmonthly.com

ICYMI, watch this week's livestream with Bill, @mattizcoop.bsky.social @glastris.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/6QgU...

YouTube video by Washington Monthly Trump will talk about anything other than Epstein

Trump will talk about anything - anything - to distract from the furor over Jeffrey Epstein - including reviving racist names for sports teams, says @mattizcoop.bsky.social @washingtonmonthly.com

youtube.com/shorts/b7D06...

Washington Monthly Founded in 1969, the Washington Monthly is an independent magazine based in Washington, D.C. Over the years, the Monthly has launched some of the biggest names in journalism, including James Fallows o...

Join @glastris.bsky.social @billscher.bsky.social @mattizcoop.bsky.social on @washingtonmonthly.com’s politics round table at *10 AM TODAY* with special guest Tamar Jacoby, joining us living from Ukraine.

Watch here:

youtube.com/@washingtonm...

The Clinton LAX haircut comes to mind

Trump’s Shift on Ukraine is Welcome, but Now What? | Washington Monthly The president's had tougher language for Putin and Russia and put through a stalled arms shipment to Ukraine. Is the change real?

Trump might offer Ukraine kind words in his big speech tomorrow, but judge him by his deeds. @washingtonmonthly.com Kyiv correspondent Tamar Jacoby on what the president must do to put himself on the right side of history. washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/13/t...

America the Beautiful? Yes | Washington Monthly The poem that inspired the song, America the Beautiful, is 130 years old today, and it resonates more than ever.

The poem that inspired the song, America the Beautiful, is 130 years old today, and despite the threats to democracy, it resonates more than ever.

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/03/a...

Ukraine Infantry Adapts to More Menacing Drones | Washington Monthly Drone warfare between Russia and Ukraine grows more varied and deadly. That means the infantry must adapt. Inside a storied Ukrainian brigade.

For an elite unit, rapidly evolving drone warfare makes the “toughest job in the army” both easier and more perilous. A frontline dispatch from Ukraine:

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/07/u...

YouTube video by Washington Monthly Feeding the World But Killing the Planet | Michael Grunwald

One of the biggest contributors to climate change might be sitting in your fridge.

@mikegrunwald.bsky.social talks about the high environmental toll of agriculture and his new book, We Are Eating the Earth, at @washingtonmonthly.com @billscher.bsky.social

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/09/f...

Feeding the World But Killing the Planet w/ Michael Grunwald | Washington Monthly Agriculture is the biggest threat to the planet, says Michael Grunwald—and organic farming, grass-fed beef, and biofuels are making it worse.

We talked about why beef is the baddie, why twee organic farms aren’t better for the planet, and other WE ARE EATING THE EARTH stuff on the @washingtonmonthly.com pod. Here’s the audio and transcript:

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/09/f...

From @glastris.bsky.social and Kainoa Lowman.

The Broadband Story Abundance Liberals Like Ezra Klein Got Wrong | Washington Monthly Ezra Klein and abundance liberals blame red tape for broadband delays. But the real story behind Biden’s BEAD program is far more complicated.

When Ezra Klein told Jon Stewart about out-of-control regulations ruining Biden's rural broadband program, the clip went viral, with Elon Musk’s help. But the story wasn’t true—and the telecom monopolies who were the real saboteurs are still laughing.

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/09/t...

YouTube video by Washington Monthly Elon Musk's "America Party"? Not taking bets.

Will Elon Musk's "America Party" find an audience? @mattizcoop.bsky.social isn't holding his breath.

Watch this week's politics roundtable @washingtonmonthly.com here: youtu.be/_lIsRDxoYjg?...

youtube.com/shorts/CTzXm...

Welcome to Trump’s America, Again | Washington Monthly Trump's "one big beautiful bill" is now law, packed with front-loaded goodies and back-loaded pain.

Republicans will own the pain of Trump's "big beautiful" law, predicts @mattizcoop.bsky.social

Matt and @billscher.bsky.social break down the coming backlash to the OBB on this week's @washingtonmonthly.com's politics roundtable:

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/07/07/w...

Inside the Media’s Traffic Apocalypse The whole premise of internet publishing — that you could reach audiences far and wide — is starting to crumble.

nymag.com/intelligence...

Emmy-winning Austin, TX based TV meteorologist on Facebook:

Washington Monthly Founded in 1969, the Washington Monthly is an independent magazine based in Washington, D.C. Over the years, the Monthly has launched some of the biggest names in journalism, including James Fallows o...

Trump's "one big beautiful" bill is an even bigger disaster than you may have thought.

Join @glastris.bsky.social @mattizcoop.bsky.social @billscher.bsky.social for @washingtonmonthly.com's politics LIVESTREAM at 10 AM Eastern today.

Watch here:
www.youtube.com/@washingtonm...

Politics LIVE - 6-30-25 - The GOP Spending Bill: One Big Betrayal of Trump's Base YouTube video by Washington Monthly

Trump's one big "beautiful" bill is not only a budget-buster but a betrayal of his base.

ICYMI, watch today's @washingtonmonthly.com's weekly livestream with @billscher.bsky.social @glastris.bsky.social @mattizcoop.bsky.social here:

www.youtube.com/live/X7WM5d_...

The story of the 1850 act contains many lessons about American politics. Most importantly, once the federal government undertakes to treat a part of the population without rights, its demands will inevitably escalate. During the antebellum era, what Americans called the Slave Power demanded draconian fugitive slave laws; it demanded slave access to the territories; it demanded that new states be open to slavers and their "property"; they demanded the reopening of the African slave trade, which had been banned in 1808; they demanded U.S. annexation of Cuba, as a potential domestic supplier of slaves. By 1858, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas, a Democrat and a staunch ally of slavery, was proposing a federal "sedition act" to outlaw any criticism of slavery, North or South.

Can a nation committed to human equality treat human beings like chattel? "A house divided against itself cannot stand," Abraham Lincoln famously said in 1858, "I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-I do not expect the house to fall-but I expect it to cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." The federal government is now committed to treating immigrants almost precisely as the antebellum South treated slaves. They are to have fewer rights than others; to their jailers, they are not even truly "persons"; they need not receive due process, or indeed any process, before being detained

This is an excellent piece in @washingtonmonthly.com on Trump’s massive & dehumanizing deportation efforts resembling fugitive slave hunts of the 1850s.
I fear we could end up in a civil war. If so, remember that the anti-slavery side won the Civil War in 1860s
washingtonmonthly.com/2025/06/11/t...

No surprise it was the ATF that proved aggressive at Waco, etc. All law enforcement is honorable, but the agencies that have less recognition and respect, I think, are quicker on the draw, or so it seems sometimes. I'm not sure.

It’s Not Just a Constitutional Crisis in the Trump Era. It’s Constitutional Failure | Washington Monthly While Trump defies constitutional norms, Congress remains conspicuously silent and the Supreme Court has abdicated its responsibility.

This is a subject I have been brooding about for some time. I am grateful to the Washington Monthly for posting this piece.

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/06/27/i...

Re-upping this, which will likely be proven wrong in 20 minutes!

US economy shrank 0.5% in the first quarter, worse than earlier estimates had revealed The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.5% annual pace from January through March as President Donald Trump’s import taxes at least temporarily disrupted business, the Commerce Department reported Thursday in ...

The Trump Slump

apnews.com/article/econ...

Column | Federal Insider columnist says farewell after 17 years Joe Davidson is among nine Federal Diary/Federal Insider columnists who have written The Washington Post’s longest running feature. This is his last.

wapo.st/3GlaJTT

Will Trump’s Strikes on Iran Unleash a Global Arms Race?  | Washington Monthly Since World War II, nonproliferation efforts have limited the number of countries with nuclear weapons. That may be about to change.

Will Trump’s Strikes on Iran Unleash a Global Arms Race?  washingtonmonthly.com/2025/06/24/w...

Politics LIVESTREAM: Trump Wages War | Special Guest - Jacob Heilbrunn Washington Monthly · Episode

"Trump's team is a team of clowns. ... These guys are not capable of conducting a longer term conflict."

@jacobheilbrunn.bsky.social on today's @washingtonmonthly.com politics livestream with @glastris.bsky.social @mattizcoop.bsky.social

ICYMI: open.spotify.com/episode/2MSy...

Trump's War Gamble: Isolationist President Opens Pandora's Box With Iran | Washington Monthly Editors weigh in on potential military escalation, domestic political divides, and economic fallout from Trump's strike on Iran.

Trump’s War Gamble: "Isolationist" President Opens Pandora’s Box With Iran. A spirited conversation.

Featuring @jacobheilbrunn.bsky.social @glastris.bsky.social @mattizcoop.bsky.social and host @anne-s-kim.bsky.social:

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/06/23/t...