John Harwood

Jan 22, 2025 | propublica.org | John Harwood |Joshua Kaplan |Molly Redden |Sharon Lerner

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. A few weeks ago, the clerk of the South Carolina Senate called out each of the 46 members’ names, then directed them all to stand and raise their right hands. He needed to swear them in for the new session. Among the supermajority of Republicans, zero women stood.

Jan 16, 2025 | zeteo.com | John Harwood

Conventional wisdom hardened rapidly after Joe Biden took office as president: he had opened America’s southern border and triggered unprecedented levels of illegal immigration. In early 2021, Republicans made “Biden’s border crisis” a heavy weapon. By 2024, it was a pillar of Donald Trump’s campaign to recapture the White House.

Jan 9, 2025 | zeteo.com | John Harwood

Donald Trump, who values image over reality, complains that America’s flag will fly at half-staff over his inauguration. He thinks it makes him look bad. Yet Trump has deeper cause for discomfort. The reason for the somber image Americans will see on January 20 creates an extremely unflattering contrast. Flags over government buildings are flying at half-staff to honor former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.

Dec 11, 2024 | zeteo.com | John Harwood

In his second presidency, Donald Trump aims to break many things: the federal bureaucracy, the rule of law, America’s international security alliances. But is he planning to break the US economy, too? It’s not a flippant question. Campaign demagoguery notwithstanding, outgoing President Joe Biden will leave his successor an unusually strong economic hand, with solid growth, rising wages, and falling inflation that has made the US the envy of the world.

Dec 6, 2024 | zeteo.com | John Harwood

During Donald Trump’s first presidency, his staunch political opponents became known as “the resistance.” The label will doubtless return during his second term. But that gets the action-reaction dynamic backward. If you step back from immediate political skirmishes, a moment’s reflection makes clear: it’s Trump himself who leads a movement of resistance.