David Firestone

Opinion | Trump’s Cultural Revolution Is Just Getting Started Art can be effective at illuminating and healing only if it is unconstrained by authority.

For President Trump, “denying entire chapters of American history is as easy as denying last month’s jobs numbers, and it is no less dangerous to the nation’s understanding of itself,” David Firestone writes.

Opinion | Trump’s Cultural Revolution Is Just Getting Started

New op-ed: The Trump administration has made an aggressive effort to rewrite not only its own history but also that of the United States, especially as it is documented in its official museums and cultural artifacts. No shameful narratives are allowed. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/o...

We put together a very visual and mobile-friendly look at how videos shot by people on smarthpones have become a defining way that the public is seeing Trump's immigration crack down.

www.nbcnews.com/specials/tru...

Scene from a low-tax state:

Remembering Tom Robbins, Journalist Who Crusaded for New Yorkers in Need A stint on THE CITY’s investigations team capped a career exposing the corrupt and the criminal on behalf of tenants, workers and incarcerated people.

There is no one post or piece that can capture the force that was @tommyrobb.bsky.social, but my colleagues and I at @thecity.nyc did our best. Thank you, Tom, for your relentless focus on leaving the world better than you found it, knowing It’s not only possible to change things, but imperative.

Opinion | The Justices Can’t Avoid Trump’s Blow Against the Constitution

New post: As much as Trump's lawyer tried to change the subject, the brazen unconstitutionality of the birthright citizenship order was impossible to ignore at the Supreme Court on Thursday. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05...

Opinion | Behind Miller’s Threat to Suspend Habeas Corpus Is the Fact That They’re Losing

Desperate to deport more immigrants without hearings, the White House is furious that federal judges have blocked all their flimsy legal justifications. Now Trump and Miller want to up the ante by suspending habeas corpus, but that's likely to fail, too. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05...

Opinion | The Texas Alien Enemies Act Ruling Is Important A Trump appointee in Texas cares more about the history of what Trump is trying to do with the Alien Enemies Act than the president does.

New post: Stephen Miller thought he found a way to deport immigrants by claiming Venezuela had invaded the U.S. A federal judge -- Trump's first Latino judicial appointment, back in 2017 -- ruled that there's no invasion going on, demolishing this flimsy pretext. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04...

Opinion | A Mistake in a New York Court Exposes the Truth About Trump’s Legal Strategy The episode of the inadvertent court filings in the New York congestion-pricing case embodies the full range of the Trump administration’s incompetence.

New blog post: Which is more astonishing, the rank incompetence of the Trump administration, or the dishonesty revealed by its many mistakes? www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04...

In a single day, Wisconsin voters showed how to beat Trumpism (and Muskism) on a practical level, and Cory Booker showed how on an emotional and moral level. That's the combination Democrats will have to repeat many times over as they begin to take on this fight.

Opinion | Wisconsin Voters Have a Huge Opportunity to Brush Back Trump and Musk Are the mass of voters really worked up about this administration’s actions? Tuesday night may provide some answers.

New post at NYT Opinion: Musk has given Wisconsin voters precisely the caricature of a clueless, cheesy billionaire that Democrats could have wished. But tonight we'll find out whether that's enough. Is the mass of voters angry yet about Trump's first 70 days? www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/o...

Thanks, Anne.

Opinion | Elise Stefanik Is the First Casualty of the Great Trump Disillusionment Republicans may seem oblivious to voter discomfort with the administration’s excesses, but Elise Stefanik’s pulled nomination shows they see trouble ahead.

New blog post: Her years of sycophancy discarded in an instant, Elise Stefanik is now paying the price for her dear leader's excesses and incompetence. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...

Opinion | Those Are Definitely ‘War Plans’ in The Atlantic’s Group Chat Story

New blog post: The administration's definition of "operational security" means lying, sneering, and stonewalling to change the clear nature of reality. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...

Opinion | The MAGA War on Speech If only the powerful are free to speak their minds, it’s not free speech.

The Trump White House doesn't care about free speech, the NYT editorial board writes. It prioritizes far-right ideology — celebrating lies and hate speech — "while simultaneously trying to silence independent thought, inconvenient truths and voices of dissent."

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/o...

Opinion | Refusing to Carry Out Trump’s Flagrantly Dishonest Orders The Trump administration is trying to bake quid pro quo deal making, coercive tactics, loyalty tests and other dishonorable practices into American government.

The corrupt Adams deal "is the clearest example yet of this administration’s efforts to bake quid-pro-quo dealmaking, coercive tactics, loyalty tests and other dishonorable practices into American government," the NYT editorial board writes. Adams must go. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/o...

Opinion | Trump Dares the Courts to Stop Him The president is challenging the constitutional order.

Scholars can argue about a constitutional crisis, the NYT editorial board writes, but what's clear is that Trump's actions "are a frontal assault on the laws and norms that underpin American government — by the very people who are meant to execute the law." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/o...

Opinion | Trump’s Test of the Constitution Two weeks in, the president is quickly moving to eliminate tools of accountability.

NYT editorial on Trump's arrogation of power: He "is testing Washington and the American people to see how far he can go in accumulating authority and in marginalizing anyone in a position to question his actions. It is a test the Constitution cannot afford to lose." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/o...

Opinion | Trump’s Opening Act of Contempt To open his term with such an act of contempt toward the legal system is audacious, even for Mr. Trump.

It was the worst thing that Donald Trump did on an awful day, and only one major newspaper condemned it in an editorial.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/o...

Opinion | Trump’s Opening Act of Contempt To open his term with such an act of contempt toward the legal system is audacious, even for Mr. Trump.

By granting clemency to every rioter, Trump is proclaiming that violence is a perfectly legitimate form of political expression and that no price need be paid by those who seek to disrupt a sacred constitutional transfer of power. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/o...

Opinion | New York Needs a Turnaround to Show That Big Cities Still Work (Gift Article) The nation’s biggest metropolis remains one of its safest, but there’s more to do.

Anti-city sentiment is on the rise, and is likely to dominate Washington.

New York has to show America that big cities can still work www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/o...

While some other ed boards ducked their responsibilities this year, we did the right thing, and I'm proud to have worked for an Opinion section that doesn't cower or bend the knee. Many thanks to a group of truly inspiring colleagues and lasting friends. /end

No one seems to believe I'm serious, but I'm retiring from the NYT this week, after almost 50 years in the business. I started at The Times in 1993 and it's been a privilege to work in many different sections, most recently the editorial board (after some great years at 538 and NBC News). /1

Opinion | The Trumpian Attitude at the Heart of the Gaetz Report Both men display the same contempt for the law.

Yes, it's amazing that Matt Gaetz might have been attorney general, but when you read through the full ethics committee report, it's not hard to see what Trump and Gaetz have in common.
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/o...

Michael Brewer, Whose ‘One Toke’ Was a Big Hit, Is Dead at 80 The duo he formed with Tom Shipley reached the Top 10 in 1970 with “One Toke Over the Line,” a ditty about marijuana that ran afoul of censors.

A loss for those of us who went to high school in Kansas City in the '70s.
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/a...

A sobering account from @fstonenyc.bsky.social of how the vice is likely to tighten around press freedom. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/o...

Opinion | There’s Still Time for the Senate to Support the First Amendment Trump hasn’t been the least bit reticent about his plans to reshape Washington in his image.

All it took was one social media post (inspired by Tom Cotton?) for Trump to kill the national reporter's shield bill in the Senate. But if any Republican senators are left who believe in the First Amendment, they can still make it a priority. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/o...

Opinion | Worthwhile Canadian Resignation Chrystia Freeland’s departure raises questions about how sharply Trudeau will counter Trump.

Worthwhile Canadian Resignation, from Serge Schmemann

Opinion | The Point: Conversations and insights about the moment.

What if John Tower drank only white wine? Maureen Dowd remembers the last time alcohol poisoned a defense secretary nomination. www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12...

Opinion | The Senate Should Leave No Judgeship Unfilled Donald Trump will try to fill every judgeship that Democrats leave open.

The Senate might have been able to confirm more circuit judges had it not been for opposition from some independents and a few Democratic senators. Now Trump will fill those openings. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/o...