Welfare gerontocracy: The White House’s draft budget, which boosts spending on defense and cuts just about everything else, suggests that Trump is delivering on his promises to old white people, writes Jamelle Bouie. Given how much Trump can offer them, Bouie predicts, almost all conservatives will embrace his white nationalist agenda.
Capital comeback: The death penalty is at a record low across the U.S. In Dallas, a new district attorney wants to bring it back. Jessica Pishko’s story launches Trials and Error, a partnership with the Fair Punishment Project that will document the realities of the criminal justice system.
The POTUS memory test: As an emergency medicine physician, Jeremy Samuel Faust often has to test patients’ awareness by asking four questions: their name, the location, the date, and, finally, “Who is the president of the United States?” Since the answer to that last question became “Donald Trump,” he’s seen some striking responses.
We’re the puppets: Trumpian language has crept into our speech under cover of satire. But Katy Waldman urges us to reconsider all those sads and biglys and tremendouses: They announce the victory of Trump’s worldview.
Disneyland economics: A European soccer official has said that Trump’s travel ban could hurt the U.S.’s chances of hosting the 2026 World Cup. As Daniel Gross points out, that’s just one of the ways Trump threatens tourism to the U.S.
For fun: Take a stab at guessing the title of Lorde’s next album.
Reassessing my diction,
Molly Olmstead
