Nick Catoggio

2 days ago | thedispatch.com | Nick Catoggio

My gut reaction to Zohran Mamdani’s surprise victory over Andrew Cuomo was that it’s a useful reality check for anti-Trump conservatives. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a seductive fallacy, as one can’t help but sympathize a bit with allies in a common struggle. Joseph Stalin briefly became “Uncle Joe” in Western media during the 1940s because he was on the right side of a momentous conflict.

3 days ago | thedispatch.com | Nick Catoggio

There’s no inconsistency in my position, Trump would say. A ceasefire is in order now because the U.S. did achieve “total, complete victory” when it “obliterated” Iran’s enrichment facilities this past weekend. The problem is that it’s not clear that each of those facilities truly was obliterated, just as it’s also not clear what happened to the hundreds of pounds of highly enriched uranium that the regime had socked away for future bomb-building.

4 days ago | thedispatch.com | Nick Catoggio

One peacenik MAGA “influencer” after another dutifully lined up behind the president on social media once the bombs fell on Saturday night, sometimes in comically hypocritical ways. No other Republican (and certainly no Democrat) in 2025 could have proceeded with something as hair-raising as a bunker-buster bombardment of Iran’s nuclear program confident that the American right—or most of it, anyway—would hang together afterward.

1 week ago | thedispatch.com | Jonah Goldberg |Ivana Greco |LuElla D'Amico |Nick Catoggio

So now they're okay with pissing Trump off? Published June 21, 2025 Jonah Goldberg has spent the week knee-deep in eggheadery of the highest order and must alleviate himself from the resonant voices in his head. Therefore, today’s Ruminant presents listeners with an hour of punditry on Israel and its existential value, the painful Ted Cruz-Tucker Carlson interview, the sorry tale of the Golden Goose, and liberal theory run amok.

1 week ago | thedispatch.com | Nick Catoggio

We are sending today’s Boiling Frogs newsletter, normally reserved for paying members, for free. To make sure you receive the full version of Nick’s newsletter in your inbox five days a week, become a Dispatch member by clicking here. The press is having fun today with the White House’s new timeline on bombing Iran. “I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” the president said Thursday in a statement.