Donald Trump complained last week that the courtroom and the surrounding area outside of 60 Centre Street was so locked down — like a “buttoned up vest” — that his supporters couldn’t show up to protest. So this week, Trump got some backup. A series of former and current advisers and friends arrived at the courthouse to serve as a kind of security blanket, providing some small measure of moral support to a man accustomed to being surrounded by a coterie of advisers, admirers and flatterers. After three weeks of being regularly encircled by court personnel, lawyers, strangers and the media, for ..read more

In late March, 5,000 Democratic luminaries packed into a star-studded Radio City Music Hall fundraiser featuring President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. From the fat cat attendees to the guests of honor, the sold-out spectacle was rife with comedic opportunity. But there was little skewering to be found on late night television that evening or afterwards. One reason: The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert, one of the most famous comedians in the world and a self-styled hero of the ongoing resistance against former President Donald Trump, served as the event’s moderato ..read more

A long-awaited Jan. 6 documentary from a pair of Oscar-winning filmmakers sheds dramatic light on police and others whose lives were affected by the assault on the Capitol. But its absence from the website of its own studio, and from major subscription streaming outlets, have raised questions about just how America remembers that day — and about whether entertainment titans are pulling their punches as a potential second Trump term looms. The Sixth, by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, is officially a collaboration between the award-winning Beltway-based duo and A24, the red-hot studio behind suc ..read more

Over 50 schools. Nearly 2,000 arrests. One canceled graduation ceremony — so far. We’re in the midst of the most widespread campus unrest since the 1960s, sparked by the war between Israel and Hamas. Over the last two weeks, campus protests have escalated, with pro-Palestinian tent encampments set up in public spaces, triggering counterprotests and, on more than 30 campuses, clashes with police. With so many incidents taking place in so many places, it’s hard for anyone to grasp what’s really happening at America’s universities right now. So POLITICO Magazine reached out this week to top stude ..read more

As Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell weighs how soon to cut interest rates, the economy’s resilience is giving him the luxury of time. He seems determined to use it. But the wait won’t be fun for him. Fed officials will keep rates at their current levels Wednesday, and there are two reasons why. First, they’re not sure yet that they’ve conquered price spikes. Second, they’re not especially worried that they’re about to tip the U.S. into a downturn. That combination of factors could stick around well into 2024, steadily pushing back the timeline for the first rate cut and prolonging the threa ..read more

If it seems like party loyalty doesn’t mean much in politics these days, that’s because the parties themselves don’t mean much. As the political scientists Sam Rosenfeld and Daniel Schlozman argue in their new book, Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics, America’s current system is shaped by a paradox: The parties appear omnipresent — on the ballot line, at the party conventions, on the debate stage — yet they’re unable to perform many of their basic functions, like enforcing ideological discipline among officeholders or building effective electoral c ..read more

If you’ve looked for a job recently, AI may well have a hidden hand in the process. An AI recruiter might have scored your LinkedIn profile or resume. HR professionals might have used a different AI app to scrape your social media profiles and spit out scores for your cheerfulness and ability to work with others. They also might have used AI to analyze your word choice or facial expressions in a video interview, and used yet another app to run an AI background check on you. It’s not at all clear how well these programs work. AI background check companies have been sued for making mistakes that ..read more

The music was thumping, the glasses were clinking and François-Philippe Champagne was in the garden talking passionately about critical minerals. Champagne — Canada’s minister of innovation, science and industry — visited Washington in recent days for a series of meetings that spanned the festivities of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. His trip was not entirely recreational: One of the senior-most members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, Champagne is a leader of the “Team Canada” task force that is preparing for the American presidential election in November. A former glob ..read more

Nuclear war would be bad. Everyone knows this. Most people would probably rather not think through the specifics. But Annie Jacobsen, an author of seven books on sensitive national security topics, wants you to know exactly how bad it would be. Her new book Nuclear War: A Scenario, sketches out a global nuclear war with by-the-minute precision for all of the 72 minutes between the first missile launch and the end of the world. It’s already a bestseller. It goes without saying that the scenario is fictional, but it is a journalistic work in that the scenario is constructed from dozens of interv ..read more

The barbs were sharp last night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — President Joe Biden took aim at Donald Trump’s “stormy days,” wink wink — but the looks were even sharper. At least, some of them were. Others, not so much. As a menswear writer, I watched the glitz and glam of the red carpet from afar with decidedly mixed emotions. Some of the stars (and their co-partiers who count as stars in the Beltway) nailed their looks. And some looked like they needed a designated driver to take them home from the prom. Here is all the best and worst fashion I saw at the White House Corresponde ..read more