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Trump is dominating the news

When President Trump threatened to slap tariffs on Colombia if President Gustavo Petro did not accept criminal migrants deported from the U.S., he did not get the initial response he expected. Instead of immediately caving to Trump, Petro countered with plans for his own tariffs on U.S. goods coming into Colombia, then issued a fiery statement in which he called the U.S. president a “white slaver” who is trying to “wipe out the human species because of greed.” In a category of over-the-top statements, that one is currently in the lead. After a tense back and forth, Colombia has ...

Trump leads US boldly into decline

Not a month old, the second Trump presidency is barreling toward the decline that big-mouth leaders have been sending their countries for centuries. Theodore Roosevelt warned of such dangers. Speaking at the 1901 Minnesota State Fair, he famously shared the African proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Roosevelt elaborated: “If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble.” For a nation, he added, “It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation ...

An invitation to worship

The tone was set by Franklin Graham’s invocation. Preachers are a fixture at presidential inaugurations, but until now they’ve confined their words to asking the Almighty to bless the new president and his family and to guide the nation to goodness and mercy. The prophets were popular choices. Not this time. Graham used the opportunity not to praise God but to worship Donald Trump. Regarding the inauguration, Graham exulted, “Look what the Lord has done!” It was a theme the most glassy-eyed Trump acolytes have sounded since the Pennsylvania assassination attempt — that God ...

Working toward harmonious world

This year’s National Day of Racial Healing, sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, emphasized the importance of children growing up in supportive communities that nurture their talents and stimulate their desire to learn in school. In a short video presentation, the foundation’s president and CEO, La June Montgomery Tabron, discussed how all children deserve to live their lives free from “racism, discrimination and bias” and that they should grow up in a “just world” where “everyone can succeed.” In reflecting on her comments, I thought about how children view the ...

What Trump describes as an ‘energy emergency’

Oil and gas production in the United States is hitting record highs, easily outpacing consumption growth and fueling an export boom that in 2020 achieved the country’s first trade surplus in energy since at least the 1950s. Renewable energy generation has also expanded at a healthy clip, more than four times as fast during Joe Biden’s presidency as during Donald Trump’s first term. Also, the price of gasoline has been falling steadily since mid-2022, following an upsurge at the tail end of the pandemic. This is what Trump describes as an “ energy emergency.” One executive ...

The press cannot help itself

The American press corps covers Republican presidential administrations very differently from Democratic presidential administrations and covers Donald Trump’s administration differently from everything. To the press, Donald Trump is a bad man — a would-be authoritarian tyrant. Therefore, any policy is presumed to be bad, and it will be covered by highlighting victims. That can lead to farce. In his first day in office, the President, Trump, not Biden (hallelujah), signed an executive order designating Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. At the end of his ...