Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator
Any future history of the decline and fall of the American Republic ought to include a page or two on the Iowa caucuses of 3 February 2020. It’s a meltdown story for the ages. The Democratic party, desperate to undo the victory of Donald Trump in 2016, somehow managed utterly to cock up its first
33 min listen
In the aftermath of the Streatham attack, we take a look at how our prisons became finishing schools for extremists (00:40). Plus, what on earth happened in the Iowa caucus (11:25)? And last, is there anything true in the stories about Calamity Jane (22:50)?
12 min listen
It would be sad if it wasn’t quite so funny. In the race to declare success without knowing the result of the Iowa caucuses, Pete Buttigieg is the winner. But then, as campaigns prepare to release their own data, in lieu of any official results, the real victors are confusion, Donald Trump, and Michael Bloomberg.
There’s conceit, there’s pomposity, and then there’s the New York Times editorial board. Yesterday, the Grey Lady wiggled her well-connected bottom, cocked a leg authoritatively, and let her hotly anticipated Democratic primary endorsement rip through cyberspace. ‘In a break with convention,’ declared the board, breaking wind with tradition, ‘the editorial board has chosen to endorse
Leaders are often accused of escalating a conflict abroad in order to distract from headaches at home. On Tuesday, before Iran’s missiles were fired, Donald Trump seemed to be doing the opposite. He and his media surrogates started their now all-too-familiar yabbering about impeachment and the Democrats. It felt as if they were trying to
That gathering drumbeat you hear could be the sound of World War III, or it could be 10,000 journalists still Googling facts about Iran following the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. The internet is a bluffer’s paradise, but it also means that everybody— not just the hacks — now feels a strong impulse to talk knowledgeably
If you think the election here has been a disorientating exercise in post-truthiness, try following the latest twists in Washington. In the coming days Donald Trump will become the third American president to be impeached. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker, is rushing the vote on articles of impeachment through the House of Representatives, so that
Never mind the polls, Conservative insiders are more terrified about something else at the moment. The Donald is coming. CCHQ is quaking. After Black Friday comes Orange Monday, when the US president will touch down again in Great Britain ahead of another Nato summit. Trump is, we all know, a news cycle hurricane. What havoc
Who likes Mike? The billionaire Michael Bloomberg has ended years of speculation by announcing that he is running to be president in 2020. You can see his twinkling piano new campaign ad here. The video pitches him as the reluctant hero who always steps up when America needs him. Keep those inspiring chord changes coming:
This week, a malign foreign actor invaded the British media, spreading disinformation and seeking to meddle in the general election. A malevolent force exploiting our democracy to advance its own interests. That’s right, Hillary Clinton has been in London. She has another book to promote, The Book of Gutsy Women, and she’s again talking about
If you believe the headlines, President Donald Trump is in deep trouble. The great impeachment saga is gathering pace. House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff has been conducting closed-door interviews as part of his investigations into whether the President abused his executive power in his efforts to dig up dirt on his political rival, Joe
Trump’s presidency is, in many ways, the Obama Undoing Project. Look at the Iran deal, environmental legislation, labour laws, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and much else. Anything Barack did, I can undo better. That could be the Donald’s leitmotif. (Put aside Obamacare, for now.) One Obama-era accomplishment cannot be undone, however: the killing of Osama bin
We’ve just launched the US edition of The Spectator and the reaction so far has been great. Americans can be quite gloomy these days, but business optimism runs in their blood. They seem enthused about The Spectator’s transatlantic appeal. I met no end of Rod Liddle fans who thrilled at the sight of his name on
Democrats have long criticized Donald Trump for his addiction to Twitter, his rolling-news attention span, the backlit narcissism of his reality-TV presidency. But the most media-addled people in public life are, in fact, Trump’s critics. Nobody is quicker to reach the most hysterical conclusions. The anti-Trump show must go on, just like the president’s Twitter
It should be obvious by now — but somehow isn’t. Whenever @realDonldTrump says something wild, you can bet the real Donald Trump is contemplating something sensible — and vice-versa. Often the Commander-in-Chief does the opposite to what his social media handle has just said. Trump the Twitterer is the yin to Trump President’s yang. One
Jez he did! Jeremy Corbyn has just surprised absolutely nobody by calling Prime Minister Boris Johnson ‘Britain’s Trump.’ He labelled Boris a ‘fake populist’ and a ‘phoney outsider.’ No doubt Labour speechwriters think this is a great attack line ahead of a general election. But it might backfire – for two reasons. First, Trump is
Just when you think @realDonaldTrump has lost his ability to shock, he outdoes himself. He tweets what he’d call ‘a beauty’ — and most of the media calls a nasty. Everybody goes into spasms of apoplexy, and we are all left still whirring in the Trump outrage news cycle that began in 2015. Trump himself
It seems a fitting end to an ill-fated premiership. As Theresa May prepares to leave No. 10, a major quarrel erupts between her government and its most powerful ally, the United States of America. Leaked diplomatic cables show Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador in Washington, calling President Donald Trump ‘inept’, ‘insecure’ and ‘uniquely dysfunctional’. The
There is a reason Boris Johnson is avoiding the TV debates, and his name is Lynton Crosby. Crosby is running the Johnson leadership campaign — in awkward conjunction, it seems, with Boris’s girlfriend Carrie Symonds. He is a veritable TV debatephobe. He has run the last two Tory general elections, and he ordered David Cameron and
