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Project 2025 and the Assault on Immigrants

Project 2025 and the Assault on Immigrants

I Fought To Keep VOA Independent. Now It’s Gone.

I Fought To Keep VOA Independent. Now It’s Gone.

Just the Facts: Digital Services Tax

Just the Facts: Digital Services Tax

China and Russia Condemn U.S. Strike on Iran—but Stay on the Sidelines

China and Russia Condemn U.S. Strike on Iran—but Stay on the Sidelines

An occupational therapist sits with a young boy at a table as they work on some of his motor skills.​

Federal Medicaid Cuts Will Harm Americans with Disabilities

Video: Virtue, progress, and American institutions today

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America's Public Forum: Virtue, Progress, and American Institutions Today
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The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumFeb 18, 2022
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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Steven Pinker has argued in books such as The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now that we are living in a peak era of human progress, one that modern society must cease to take for granted. But in A Time to Build, Yuval Levin argues that the integrity of our modern institutions is in free fall, opening up the possibility of the fast unraveling of our democratic and cultural life. Can these things be true at the same time? And if so, how can we preserve our institutions so that we do not lose the progress of modern civilization?

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Financial planning. Budgeting. Expense tracking. Profit and loss analysis. Data analysis. Spreadsheet software. Productivity. Efficiency. Financial literacy. Personal finance. Business finance.
Money & Politics

The Public Says, ‘This Is Not My Beautiful Bill’

American flag in pieces
Bridging & Common Ground

Disillusionment Isn’t the End, but the Beginning of Change

For Sale. Public Lands. Never Imagined.
Governance & Legislation

For Sale. Public Lands. Never Imagined.

Illness, Presidents, and Confidantes
Ethics & Leadership

Illness, Presidents, and Confidantes

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Donald Trump

Trump's reliance on inflammatory, and often dehumanizing, language is not an unfortunate quirk—it’s a deliberate tactic.

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

From ‘Obliteration’ to ‘Enemies Within’: Trump’s Language Echoes Authoritarianism

When President Trump declared that the U.S. strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, it wasn’t just a policy claim—it was an exercise in narrative control. Predictably, his assertion was met with both support and skepticism. Yet more than a comment on military efficacy, the statement falls into a broader pattern that underscores how Trump uses language not just to communicate but to dominate.

Alongside top officials like CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump claimed the strikes set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by years. However, conflicting intelligence assessments tell a more nuanced story. A leaked Defense Intelligence Agency report concluded that while infrastructure was damaged and entrances sealed, core components such as centrifuges remained largely intact. Iran had already relocated much of its enriched uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency echoed that damage was reparable.

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Trump Shows That Loyalty Is All That Matters to Him

Guests in the audience await the arrival of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during the Federalist Society's Executive Branch Review Conference at The Mayflower Hotel on April 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images/TNS

Trump Shows That Loyalty Is All That Matters to Him

Last week, the Court of International Trade delivered a blow to Donald Trump’s global trade war. It found that the worldwide tariffs Trump unveiled on “Liberation Day” as well his earlier tariffs pretextually aimed at stopping fentanyl coming in from Mexico and Canada (as if) were beyond his authority. The three-judge panel was surely right about the Liberation Day tariffs and probably right about the fentanyl tariffs, but there’s a better case that, while bad policy, the fentanyl tariffs were not unlawful.

Please forgive a lengthy excerpt of Trump’s response on Truth Social, but it speaks volumes:

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Democrats, Gavin Newsom Is Not Your Blueprint

California Governor Gavin Newsom (right) speaks as California Attorney general Rob Bonta looks on during a news conference at Gemperle Orchard on April 16, 2025, in Ceres, California.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/TCA

Democrats, Gavin Newsom Is Not Your Blueprint

Few in American politics are as desperate as California Gov. Gavin Newsom is right now.

Newsom, long considered — by himself, anyway — a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, has been positioning himself and repositioning himself to be next in line for years.

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Americans Want To Rein In Presidential Power

Protestors march during an anti-Trump "No Kings Day" demonstration in a city that has been the focus of protests against Trump's immigration raids on June 14, 2025 in downtown Los Angeles, California.

Getty Images, Jay L Clendenin

Americans Want To Rein In Presidential Power

President Trump has been attempting to expand presidential power more than any president in recent history, in large part by asserting powers that have been held by Congress, including federal funding and tariffs. Public opinion research has shown clearly and consistently that large majorities—often bipartisan—oppose expanding presidential powers and support giving Congress more power.

The Pew Research Center has asked for nearly a decade whether presidents should not have to “worry so much about Congress and the courts” or if giving presidents more power is “too risky.” Over seven in ten have consistently said that giving presidents more power would be too risky, including majorities of Democrats and Republicans, no matter which party is in power. In February 2025, 66% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats took this position.

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