Us politics

It was a sound move by Donald Trump to single out the North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho in his first State of the Union address last night. In 2006, Seong-ho had hobbled his way out of what Trump rightly called a ‘depraved country’ to find freedom abroad. ‘Seong-ho, I understand you still keep those crutches as a reminder of how far you have come’, Trump declared. Seong-ho stole the show by rising to his feet and waving his old, battered crutches in the air to tumultuous applause at the United States Capitol. Earlier in the day, however, the administration made waves with the revelation that Victor Cha, who worked on

The real story about Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech today may not be what he says, but that Melania is showing up to attend it. Melania, left livid at reports claiming Trump paid porn star Stormy Daniels £90,000 ($130,000) in hush money on the eve of the 2016 election, skipped Davos and has stayed out of the public eye since. She tweeted a picture of herself with a Marine on her thirteenth wedding anniversary even as Daniels hosted a show at a nightclub entitled ‘Making America Horny Again’. Daniels will be interviewed tonight by talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel after Trump delivers his speech. At the same time, Melania will make

Why aren’t spy stories sexy anymore? The revelations last year that Beijing destroyed America’s espionage ring inside China a few years ago, including executing a number of US informants, got a brief flurry of attention and then subsided beneath the waves. News reports of American bureaucrats arrested for passing information to the Chinese have also barely raised eyebrows. Now the ex-CIA agent suspected of being the mole that led to the collapse of America’s spy operations in China has been arrested, though on a lesser charge of simply possessing classified information. How long before Americans turn back to Donald Trump’s tweets or the latest #MeToo charges? And why don’t more people seem

Wow. As far as I know, Donald Trump has only apologised twice since he emerged as a presidential candidate in 2015 — never apologise, never explain seems to be his usual rule. Once he said sorry after the famous ‘locker room’ talk Access Hollywood tape was leaked in 2016. And today, with his pal Piers Morgan, he offered an apology for retweeting Britain First’s videos, saying: ‘Here’s what’s fair. If you’re telling me these (are) horrible people, horrible racist people, I would certainly apologise if you’d like me to do that.’ WORLD EXCLUSIVE: In his first international interview since becoming US president, @realDonaldTrump says sorry for retweeting anti-Muslim videos. @piersmorgan https://t.co/kFCEKnYxyI

Compared to previous instances in US history when political paralysis and dysfunction shut down Washington for weeks at a time, the three-day government shutdown that ended on Monday was a rather mundane and unremarkable occurrence.  Indeed, unlike the 21-day saga in 1995-1996 between President Bill Clinton and House Republicans or the 16-day clash between House Republicans and President Barack Obama in 2013, this weekend’s fight had nothing to do with budget numbers, federal spending, tax rates, entitlements, or health care policy.  It was, instead, largely a crisis manufactured by Senate Democrats in an attempt to pressure their Republican colleagues on the immigration issue, one of the most controversial topics in

Donald Trump had hoped to mark his first anniversary as president basking in surprisingly positive media headlines and enjoying a lavish party at his Mar-a-Largo estate in Florida. Instead he must contend with a government shutdown and another major political crisis in Washington, the political swamp he promised to drain. Congress has remained in session all weekend as Republicans and Democrats seek to resolve the shutdown — and blame each other for having caused it. But who will Americans blame? The President? The Republican Party? Or the Democrats? The answer is everybody, probably. President Trump has taken a hardline with the Democrats, seemingly convinced that he can pin them for

Next up on America, it’s the season two premiere of The Donald Trump Show. All your favorite characters are back—or are they? Will The Mooch be able to scheme and scream his way back into the White House? Will Steve Bannon, last seen indulging a quaff from his hip flask as a door embossed with the words ‘Robert Mueller’ closed behind him, continue his vengeance against the man he helped elect? Will the Wooster-and-Jeeves act of Trump and chief of staff John Kelly endure now that the latter was caught undermining his boss’s authority in a meeting? Find out next only (I mean, it could only be) on Fox. I’ll

Another week, another blow to the so-called Special Relationship. The latest sorry news is that Number 10 has been trying to orchestrate a meeting with President Donald Trump at Davos — but President Donald Trump reportedly isn’t interested. He’d rather hang out with President Macron of France instead. Oh dear. It looks as if the President wants us to grovel, and we probably will in the end. It’s hard not to feel for May. She spent a lot of political capital in being friendly to Trump in the early weeks of his presidency. While Macron got elected essentially by posing as ;’anti-Trump, she tried to present herself as a sort

Journalists can guffaw at the silliness of President Donald’s Trump’s Fake News Awards as much as they like. The truth is he’s right: the media is biased against him to the point of insanity. And the way Trump has presented the awards on Twitter, and whoever wrote the announcements on GOP.com, has been funny, perceptive, and social-media savvy. In the war that is Trump versus the media, Trump is winning. Through Twitter, Trump has turned media bias against him into his great political asset. Voters who aren’t pathologically anti-Trump can see that he has a point about how unfair the mainstream coverage of him is, and increasingly people tend to believe him

The Trump presidency has been a disorienting moment in American political life. Imagine a time traveller starting in the year 1990. He steps forward 25 years to 2015. Who are the leading candidates for president? Bush and Clinton — again! What are the top issues? Iraq and healthcare — again! Now step backwards 25 years from 1965. The most powerful men in Washington are the head of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 55 unions across the US, and J. Edgar Hoover. There’s a draft and a telephone monopoly and urban riots and liberal Republicans. It’s a different world. I sometimes feel that what Trump has done is restore motion to