Tori Otten

1 month ago | newrepublic.com | Tori Otten

In the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency, Elon Musk lost nearly twice as much money as he cut in government spending as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Following a particularly humiliating earnings report from Tesla Tuesday, Musk told investors that starting in May, he would be reducing the amount of time he spends in the White House to pay more attention to his struggling electric car company.

2 months ago | newrepublic.com | Tori Otten

Beneath the seemingly hourly chaos of Donald Trump’s second term is a simple dynamic. Republicans, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk and his gang of teen and twentysomething coders, are all action: gutting entire agencies, upending domestic and foreign policy, and threatening much worse. Democrats, meanwhile, have been caught flat-footed by the seemingly endless onslaught of destruction. The party in power never stops moving; the opposition hasn’t figured out how to start.

2 months ago | yahoo.com | Tori Otten

Beneath the seemingly hourly chaos of Donald Trump’s second term is a simple dynamic. Republicans, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk and his gang of teen and twentysomething coders, are all action: gutting entire agencies, upending domestic and foreign policy, and threatening much worse. Democrats, meanwhile, have been caught flat-footed by the seemingly endless onslaught of destruction. The party in power never stops moving; the opposition hasn’t figured out how to start.

Oct 31, 2024 | newrepublic.com | Timothy Noah |Tori Otten

We’re having this election on Tuesday. The way it works is that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris each tell voters what they want to do and then voters decide which set of policies they prefer. The same is true of Republicans and Democrats running for Congress and in state races. That’s how representative democracy works. You like what I promise? Elect me. You don’t? Elect somebody else. Except it turns out that isn’t how representative democracy has been working lately.

Sep 18, 2024 | newrepublic.com | Tori Otten

MAGA Republicans seem weirdly upset that inflation is going down. The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will cut interest rates by half a percentage point, a move that signals inflation has decreased significantly. The announcement comes after Donald Trump and J.D. Vance spent months attacking the Biden administration for high levels of inflation, even as it fell to the lowest rate in years.