Matt Bai

Opinion | Does Kamala Harris really scare anybody? After skipping the California governor’s race, she should make the same call on the presidency.

Kamala Harris made the right decision to skip the governor’s race, because she clearly wasn’t dying to do the job, @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes.

"She should make the same call on the presidency — even if that’s the job she wants."

Opinion | Trump wants you to have your choice of Cokes — and not much else Mexican Coke, now made in America. But the rest of his agenda is taking us in the opposite direction.

"In keeping with his generally nostalgic worldview, Trump seems to harbor the ideal of a country that produces most of its own goods, and mostly for its own citizens."

The latest from @mattbaidc.bsky.social: wapo.st/4o18Lcx

Opinion | Democrats have only one escape route Unifying behind platitudes isn’t the way out of irrelevance. Making voters choose is.

The last time Democrats went through an existential crisis over how to rebrand themselves, the main agitators were outsiders with little or no governing experience, @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes.

"Now, a similar upheaval is underway." wapo.st/3TJEUY1

Opinion | CVS was so worried about shoplifting that it stole its own soul My local pharmacy’s products are now encased in glass, and the whole thing makes me very nervous.

"CVS and other pharmacies have been struggling to contain a rise in thefts by gangs of fast-moving thieves," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes.

"Unfortunately for CVS, the solution might be worse for business than the organized shoplifting."

Opinion | This tax testifies to the utter corruption of conservative thought Congress is coming for your EV — and what’s left of conservatism.

"My issue here really has nothing to do with whether EV owners should pay more to use the roads," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes. "It’s entirely about how they’re being asked to pay." wapo.st/3G4F4pz

Opinion | This tax testifies to the utter corruption of conservative thought Congress is coming for your EV — and what’s left of conservatism.

“If you’re looking for a party to check the expansion of federal taxing power into new and previously unimagined terrain, you’ve come to the wrong city.”
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Trump is doing Democrats a favor by elevating Newsom The Democrats will be stronger if their opposition to Trump comes from outside Washington.

“By sending troops into California and challenging the sovereignty of states, Trump seems poised to do for Democrats what they can’t do for themselves, which is to provide a national hearing for a pretty deep bench of governors.”
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Thanks. And actually I never post on X, other than to share the column, same as I do here. Not sure why you have that impression.

Opinion | Washington didn’t wreck DOGE. Elon Musk did. He failed not because his ambitions were too grand, but because they were so pathetically small.

“You’re supposed to be this great, visionary, hyperloopy guy, and this is all you’ve got? A re-org plan? The Cat in the Hat arrived with more sophisticated tricks.”
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | In Springsteen’s protest, a fitting Memorial Day plea His lyrics echo a nation’s slow descent from hope to distrust — and hint at redemption.

"No longer is Springsteen lamenting that long walk home to the America we used to know," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes.

"Now, he’s begging us to turn around and take it."

Opinion | Graduates speak their minds. Universities freak out. In punishing students who make pro-Palestinian commencement speeches, schools lose their way.

“No university that’s true to its values ought to attempt to censor a student’s remarks, let alone treat extemporaneous speechmaking as a crime. What is this, the Democratic National Convention?”

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Thanks.

Opinion | Someone’s actually winning the trade war. It’s Elon Musk and Starlink. Are countries being pressured to help the world’s richest man? Or are they just making smart deals?

I've touched on this in a couple of pieces, but here's a worthwhile big dig into Elon Musk's global Starlink dealmaking and the ethics laws/rules nobody seems to care about anymore. By @mattbaidc.bsky.social in, yes, @washingtonpost.com. GIFT LINK (part of my end-of-month sale) wapo.st/3YV66G2

Opinion | Someone’s actually winning the trade war. It’s Elon Musk and Starlink. Are countries being pressured to help the world’s richest man? Or are they just making smart deals?

Interesting that right as Trump is holding countries hostage to make new trade deals, a lot of them seem to be feeling the pressure to make deals with Elon Musk’s companies! www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Someone’s actually winning the trade war. It’s Elon Musk and Starlink. Are countries being pressured to help the world’s richest man? Or are they just making smart deals?

India, Vietnam, Bangladesh — Starlink's flurry of expansion comes as most of the world views Elon Musk as the second most powerful man in D.C., @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes.

"So it raises some obvious questions." wapo.st/3Gz2qUf

Opinion | Someone’s actually winning the trade war. It’s Elon Musk and Starlink. Are countries being pressured to help the world’s richest man? Or are they just making smart deals?

Spent the last couple of months trying to figure out the connection between Starlink and US trade policy. Here’s what I learned.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | If the ADL thinks Trump’s thuggery is protecting Jews, it’s wrong The Anti-Defamation League should loudly oppose the unlawful roundup of pro-Palestinian activists.

"We’re running out of bulwarks, and American Jews shouldn’t feel good about that just because the white nationalist arrow hasn’t yet spun in their direction." Thanks for reading.

Opinion | If the ADL thinks Trump’s thuggery is protecting Jews, it’s wrong The Anti-Defamation League should loudly oppose the unlawful roundup of pro-Palestinian activists.

"Find me a moment in history when Jews anywhere benefited from a mix of rampant nationalism and repression," @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes.

"You’ll be looking awhile." wapo.st/3E6gELt

Why I Left the Washington Post Owner Jeff Bezos wants to transform the Opinions section of the paper, where I worked for forty years. After the publisher killed my column disagreeing with that move—it appears here in full—I decided...

“Here is the unavoidable truth: the Washington Post I joined, the one I came to love, is not the Washington Post I left.” @ruthmarcus.bsky.social writes about her decision to resign from the paper in the wake of editorial changes made by its owner, Jeff Bezos.

This feels like a slippery technicality, at best.

Opinion | The blinding contempt of the DOGE bros Terrorizing USAID isn’t reform. Here’s an inside story of Elon Musk’s takeover.

"A $50 billion agency — funded by taxpayers, empowered by Congress and employing something like 11,000 people around the world — is now controlled by a handful of 20-something software engineers who have never worked a day in government."

From @mattbaidc.bsky.social (gift link): wapo.st/3QCdXDY

Thanks for reading.

Opinion | Where is the anti-Trump resistance? Trump and Musk lay siege to Washington. What should Democrats do?

Trump and Musk lay siege to Washington. What should Democrats do?

The latest from @mattbaidc.bsky.social , @perrybaconjr.bsky.social and David Von Drehle: wapo.st/3ERNfVf

Opinion | The blinding contempt of the DOGE bros Terrorizing USAID isn’t reform. Here’s an inside story of Elon Musk’s takeover.

“For me, it raises a fundamental question about Musk’s work, and I don’t think I’m alone in asking it. Is it what Musk is trying to do that makes me recoil — or is it the way in which he’s doing it?” My latest dispatch on DOGE…

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Thanks. I’m a big fan, by the way.

“A Congress that has surrendered its authority to Donald Trump on every front since he took office last month remains deeply unpopular among Americans, with one notable exception: diehard Trump voters.” That would be way better. (2/2)

New Poll Shows Americans’ Approval for Congress Has Soared, but Probably Not for Long A major public poll indicates that Americans’ approval for Congress has soared, powered by a surge in positive assessments by Republicans. History shows such booms are common and rarely last.

Dear former @nytimes.com colleagues, I mean this in the most constructive way, but the headline and lead here are just wrong. "Americans" are not "loving" anything when the approval rating for Congress is at 29%. Allow me to donate a more accurate lead... (1/2)

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/u...

President Trump and the end of the American Century It’s inauguration week just as the Framers must have imagined it: citizenry streaming into the capital from every state to celebrate the most sober and symbolic moment in the democracy, even as the so...

I would argue, @nytopinion.nytimes.com, that Trump actually brought the American century to a close 8 years ago.

Oh, wait. I did.
www.yahoo.com/news/preside...

Opinion | Elon Musk seems to want to break government. Can anybody stop him? - The Washington Post Elon Musk, the unelected billionaire tasked by President Trump with finding government efficiencies, is in many ways treating the federal bureaucracy as if it’s a private company he just bought. Colum...

Elon Musk seems to want to break government. Can anybody stop him?

@danamilbank.bsky.social, Ruth Marcus and @mattbaidc.bsky.social discuss: wapo.st/4jKHVDf

Opinion | What is Elon Musk doing? Not slashing the budget. DOGE isn’t getting anywhere near $2 trillion in spending cuts. Here’s a plan that would.

🧵 The world’s richest man is said to be sleeping on a pullout couch in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

@mattbaidc.bsky.social has talked to multiple agency officials and policy experts who reported different versions of the same basic story about DOGE. wapo.st/4jLmvG0