Jeff Jacoby

1 week ago | bostonglobe.com | Jeff Jacoby

Republicans like to think of themselves as upholders of law and order — never more so, it often seems, than when railing against undocumented immigrants. Long before Donald Trump elevated his unforgiving brand of nativism to national policy, many on the right had adopted the view that what matters most about foreigners who lack immigration papers is that they didn’t abide by the rules.

1 week ago | bostonglobe.com | Jeff Jacoby

Most of this year’s high school graduating class was born 18 years ago. In 2007 American families welcomed more than 4.3 million new babies. They have been welcoming fewer ever since. Only about 3.6 million were born in 2024, roughly the same as a year earlier, when US births hit a new low. In other words, the Class of 2025 is the largest we are likely to see for the foreseeable future. The US baby bust is well underway, with all the grim social and economic changes that implies.

2 weeks ago | bostonglobe.com | Jeff Jacoby

As President Trump’s first term in the White House was coming to a close in January 2021, I recalled in a column how, as a candidate for president, he had assured voters that his election would launch an era of “so much winning.” He had indeed scored some important wins, I acknowledged. But those successes were overshadowed by more numerous and more comprehensive defeats and debacles. In the end, Trump’s first presidency had been marked by so much losing.

3 weeks ago | bostonglobe.com | Jeff Jacoby

Fortunately, the governor and his family weren’t hurt. They were asleep in another part of the house and were evacuated by firefighters. But the episode could have ended in a bloodbath. Balmer told police he was “harboring a hatred” for Shapiro because of his support of Israel. According to the affidavit outlining the charges against him, Balmer planned to attack the governor with his sledgehammer if he encountered him inside the residence.

3 weeks ago | bostonglobe.com | Jeff Jacoby

When President Trump announced in February that he was imposing stiff new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, he said his power to do so came from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, a law passed by Congress in 1977. Two months later he again invoked that statute as he unveiled his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs, which mandated levies of between 10 percent and 50 percent on imports from nearly every country on earth.