Charlie Sykes

Milwaukee

Contributor at MSNBC

Freelance Journalist at Freelance

Founder and Writer at To the Contrary

Author, Substack newsletter “To the Contrary.” Dog owner, grandfather. MSNBC. Still Never Trump. https://t.co/W264eBcve2

Articles

What We Need to Remember About D-Day

1 day ago | charliesykes.substack.com | Charlie Sykes

Quick video to remind us that America did not storm the beaches at Normandy alone on June 6, 1944. We had allies who fought with us. Allies from Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and Poland. Those allies who made us stronger. In that sense, D-Day was a decisive repudiation of the movement that called itself “America First”. We’re still stronger together.
Trump-Musk: An Orgy of Karma

1 day ago | charliesykes.substack.com | Charlie Sykes

O, for a Mencken, a Twain, an Orwell, or a Hunter Thompson to be with us at this hour to describe the scene unfolding before us. The political punditry of our time is simply not up for this. Words fail. Cliches faint. Images fall short. Even Schadenfreude throws up its hands and orders a stiff drink.
Kinzinger-Sykes: Rewriting the Rules of War

2 days ago | charliesykes.substack.com | Charlie Sykes |Adam Kinzinger

This is a good one. Adam Kinzinger and I dig into the political fallout from Elon Musk's split with Donald Trump…We explore how the culture war has overtaken fiscal policy, the strategic shifts in the war in Ukraine, Trump’s TACO bleat about President Xi, and the geopolitical implications of China’s dominance in rare earth minerals.
Adam Kinzinger: The Billionaire Breakup - To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes (podcast)

2 days ago | listennotes.com | Charlie Sykes

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Charlie Sykes and Adam Kinzinger dig into the political fallout from Elon Musk's dramatic split with Donald Trump, examining what it means for MAGA loyalty, conservative orthodoxy, and the future of Republican messaging. They explore how the culture war has overtaken fiscal policy, the strategic shifts in the war in Ukraine, and the geopolitical implications of China’s dominance in rare earth minerals.
Abominations, Pettiness, and Your Daily Dose of Dystopia

3 days ago | charliesykes.substack.com | Charlie Sykes

Posted from the sky; aboard Southwest Flight from DC home to Milwaukee. So pardon the turbulence. **It was inevitable. And it was foretold. But the era that will be best remembered for the Booger-in-the-Oval; the ketamine besotted chainsaw wielding; and the bromance between the world’s richest man and its most powerful is sadly, but definitively over, demised, cancelled, and deleted. And we are reminded once again how badly this tweet aged:Happy Wednesday.
Slava Ukraini

4 days ago | charliesykes.substack.com | Charlie Sykes

By definition, the fog of war distorts and obscures reality, so it sometimes takes a few days to fully take the measure of something as audacious and brilliant as what we just saw. In one of the most extraordinary military operations in history, Ukraine just rewrote the rules of modern warfare; reminded us of its extraordinary resilience and defiance; and delivered a substantive as well as symbolic defeat to Vladimir Putin — and to all the princes, principalities, and orcs allied with him.
Slava Ukraini

4 days ago | charliesykes.substack.com | Charlie Sykes

By definition, the fog of war distorts and obscures reality, so it sometimes takes a few days to fully take the measure of something as audacious and brilliant as what we just saw. In one of the most extraordinary military operations in history, Ukraine just rewrote the rules of modern warfare; reminded us of its extraordinary resilience and defiance; and delivered a substantive as well as symbolic defeat to Vladimir Putin — and to all the princes, principalities, and orcs allied with him.
Trump's Dumbing Down of America

5 days ago | charliesykes.substack.com | Charlie Sykes

“If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves....
Julian Zelizer: Trump's Discarded Allies

6 days ago | charliesykes.substack.com | Charlie Sykes

“Was it all bullshit?” the world’s biggest bullshit artist reportedly asked. Now that Elon Musk is out the door, Trump aides are telling the Wall Street Journal, that Trump was “skeptical” of Musk’s hallucinatory budget cuts. “Was it all bullshit?” Trump asked, according to administration officials, wondering whether Musk could have ever come close to the cuts he promised to carry out through the Department of Government Efficiency.
Julian Zelizer: The End of the Bromance - To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes (podcast)

6 days ago | listennotes.com | Charlie Sykes

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Historian Julian Zelizer joins Charlie Sykes to discuss Donald Trump’s growing hostility toward former allies—from the Federalist Society to Elon Musk—and what it signals about a second Trump term. They explore the erosion of institutional guardrails, the chilling effects on higher education, and the constitutional dangers of unchecked presidential power. Plus, how Trump’s loyalty-first mindset is reshaping the judiciary, trade policy, and America’s global reputation.