menu_open Columnists

Daily Intelligencer

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Democrats’ Old-Guard Primary Purge Skips Massachusetts

One of the big narratives of the 2026 midterm elections is that in Democratic primaries, young progressive insurgents are knocking off old centrist or...

yesterday 0

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

Trump Renaming Spree Gets Even Stupider With ‘Trump Strait’

Both Apple and Google quickly changed the name of Lake Ontario for U.S. users of their respective map apps after President Trump signed an executive...

yesterday 0

Daily Intelligencer

Margaret Hartmann

Neera Tanden, Establishment Warrior

In August, Donald Trump threatened the Center for American Progress with a $5 billion defamation suit, over a report that concluded his deployments of...

yesterday 1

Daily Intelligencer

Nate Weisberg

Fighting Trump’s Agenda Starts in the States

Democrats should stop obsessing over the foolish, petty fights that dominate cable news, says former state senator Daniel Squadron. With just over 60...

yesterday 1

Daily Intelligencer

Errol Louis

Now You’re Paying for Trump’s Fancy Bowling Alley, Too

Nailing down what exactly Donald Trump is doing to the White House and who’s paying for it has been surprisingly difficult. Most notably, Americans...

previous day 2

Daily Intelligencer

Margaret Hartmann

Whistleblower Raises Alarming Possibility About Mail Ballots

With nine weeks before Election Day, a federal whistleblower is raising alarm that the U.S. Postal Service’s rushed implementation of a new and...

previous day 2

Daily Intelligencer

Nia Prater

Melania Is ‘Grateful’ to Have Natalie Harp on Trump Duty

When Melania Trump reemerged from her month-long hibernation on August 20, Natalie Harp found herself out of the picture — literally. Harp is...

previous day 3

Daily Intelligencer

Margaret Hartmann

The US Open Has Become the Unpredictable Major

For the past 20-plus years, men’s tennis has served up lots of awe and very few shocks. A handful of players, starting with the Big Three and...

previous day 2

Daily Intelligencer

Kevin Craft

The Justice Department Isn’t Learning From Spectacular Failure

Donald Trump’s Justice Department just had a big, stupid, embarrassing summer. It conjured a slush fund designed to pay $1.776 billion of taxpayer...

previous day 3

Daily Intelligencer

Elie Honig

Trump Personally Bullying Apple to Make It ‘Lake America’

Over the weekend, Google announced that it would comply with Donald Trump’s executive order directing the official renaming of Lake Ontario to...

monday 3

Daily Intelligencer

Nia Prater

Jon Ossoff’s Big Opportunity Beyond His Own Election

Right now, U.S. senator Jon Ossoff is enjoying a bit of a rock-star moment. He’s raised an enormous haul of cash for his reelection campaign. He’s...

monday 6

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

Michael Chang Is Finishing What He Started

On June 5, 1989, the day after the Chinese government sent troops to slaughter demonstrators gathered at Tiananmen Square, a 17-year-old American...

monday 2

Daily Intelligencer

Caira Conner

Trump Can’t Rally the Republicans He Needs

The heart of the 2026 midterm-election battle is a struggle for the high ground of public opinion between supporters and opponents of the president of...

30.08.2026 6

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

Why Trump Won’t Win His New Economic Wars, Either

In terms of their relations with the U.S., Canada, and Iran have very little in common. One is America’s closest neighbor and second-largest trade...

30.08.2026 3

Daily Intelligencer

Jonah Shepp

Texas’s Primary Losers Really Don’t Like the Primary Winners

Democratic representative James Talarico and state Republican attorney general Ken Paxton emerged victorious from their contentious primaries and are...

29.08.2026 6

Daily Intelligencer

Nia Prater

Plenty of States Have Flipped. Texas Could Too.

For a data-driven number cruncher of the highest order, Nate Silver is refreshingly honest in admitting his skepticism about the Senate candidacy of...

29.08.2026 7

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

The Right’s Woman Problem

With Karoline Leavitt departing as press secretary, the White House loses one of its most conspicuous women. Leavitt, a 29 year-old mother of two,...

29.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Sarah Jones

Canada Rejects Trump’s Ridiculous ‘Lake America’ Rebranding

On Thursday, President Trump made good on perhaps the silliest threat he has directed toward Canada amid the burgeoning trade war, signing an...

28.08.2026 7

Daily Intelligencer

Nia Prater

Trump Snubs 9/11 Ceremony Because He Can’t Give a Speech

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. So you might think that the president of the United States, a native New Yorker who was in...

28.08.2026 9

Daily Intelligencer

Margaret Hartmann

Big Tech Braces for Possible Post-Midterms Democratic Probes

It doesn’t take an MBA from Stanford to know that the biggest companies in Silicon Valley tend to cozy up to whatever political party is in power....

28.08.2026 7

Daily Intelligencer

Matt Stieb

Why the Editor of Stars and Stripes Is Suing the Pentagon

Last week, the Pentagon fired three journalists at military newspaper Stars and Stripes: editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, publisher Max Lederer, and...

28.08.2026 4

Daily Intelligencer

Michael Calderone

The Fear of Noncitizen Voting

On December 9, 2021, the New York City Council met to decide if noncitizens should be allowed to vote in all municipal elections. Versions of Local...

28.08.2026 3

Daily Intelligencer

Zak Cheney-Rice

Trump Makes Good on Ridiculous ‘Lake America’ Rebranding

The trade war President Trump started with Canada seems to be preoccupying him far more than the actual war he started in Iran. That was apparent on...

27.08.2026 7

Daily Intelligencer

Nia Prater

Is Trump Just Deporting ‘the Worst of the Worst’? Far From It.

There has always been an element of fundamental duplicity in the second Trump administration’s mass-deportation program. In promoting it during the...

27.08.2026 7

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

6 Reasons Republicans Dread Trump’s Midterm Convention

There was a time, not too long ago, when Republicans would be totally stoked to gather together and enjoy some classic Donald Trump rally rants....

27.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Margaret Hartmann

Trump’s Iran War Was Even More Reckless Than We Realized

It’s been abundantly clear that President Trump’s war with Iran was a colossal mistake from the moment it began, but remarkably, six months later,...

27.08.2026 6

Daily Intelligencer

Chas Danner

Flock Is Freaking People Out

Carl Gunn is outside by his pool in St. Petersburg, Florida, sitting near his weapon of choice: a pool skimmer. For the past two months, Gunn has been...

27.08.2026 7

Daily Intelligencer

Matt Stieb

Darline Graham Fumbled Debate, Won Senate Primary Anyway

Despite a lot of late buzz from the D.C. punditry about interim senator Darline Graham wrecking her campaign for a full term with an admission of...

26.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

Meta Will Pay Billions to Avoid Jury in Addiction Trial

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay up to $17 billion in penalties to a coalition of states to settle the landmark federal...

26.08.2026 5

Daily Intelligencer

Nia Prater

The Data-Center Backlash Looms Large Ahead of the Midterm Elections

In the past year, data-center construction has become an unavoidable, extraordinarily toxic issue in local politics. This was an organic process:...

26.08.2026 8

Daily Intelligencer

John Herrman

Trump’s ‘Lake America’ Threat to Canada Is Just Lazy

After trade negotiations between the United States and Canada collapsed last week, the Trump administration slapped new 50 percent tariffs on $20...

25.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Margaret Hartmann

A Democratic ‘Power Grab’ in Brooklyn

Tonight’s tussle for control of the Kings County Democratic Party, scheduled to be held at the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club, is the latest...

25.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Errol Louis

Trump’s Ballroom May Be Built Before the Law Can Stop Him

Donald Trump is no constitutional scholar, but he has long understood and exploited this under-recognized feature of our legal system: It’s hard to...

25.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Elie Honig

Rebecca Katz’s Risky Formula for Winning Elections

It’s a few hours before polls close in Michigan, and Rebecca Katz is alone in front of the stage at the Majestic Theatre in Midtown Detroit, pacing....

25.08.2026 9

Daily Intelligencer

David Freedlander

Politicians Are Now Competing to Prove Who Hates Data Centers the Most

The backlash to data centers seems to be spreading like a contagion, and, with the midterm elections only a few months away, candidates are trying...

24.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Nia Prater

The Enormous Stakes of the Federal Case Against Meta

Meta has endured a lot of scandal and controversy over the years, but its status as one of the most valuable companies in the world was never really...

24.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Benjamin Hart

The Pay-to-Play Childhood

Look, the kid is fine at soccer. At 11, he’s competitive, and he loves the game. But if his mother, Elizabeth, had it her way, he would still be on...

24.08.2026 100

Daily Intelligencer

Caitlin Moscatello

Bill Clinton’s Party Needs a ‘Different Kind of Democrat’ Again

The 42nd president of the United States just turned 80 this past week, and you have to be pretty long in the tooth yourself to remember how very young...

23.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

Despite Primary Whiffs, Poll Haters Are Still Wrong

One of the things about politics that people love to hate is polling. To a certain extent, this antipathy is entirely understandable. As critics often...

22.08.2026 20

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

I Can’t Stop Watching These Botched Amazon Drone Deliveries

Living in the future continues to be really weird. It’s 2026, and we’ve got a lot of new high tech stuff, some of which is cool, entirely useful,...

22.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Chas Danner

AOC and Ossoff Are Young. Why Rush to Run in 2028?

There’s a lot of talk in Democratic circles about the need for “generational change,” which isn’t surprising given the proximate end of a...

21.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

The Communist Conspiracy Theory Consuming the Right

In 2003, the Southern Poverty Law Center warned of a “bizarre” label gaining popularity with the right. “Cultural Marxism” was everywhere,...

21.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Sarah Jones

The Man Taking Mamdani to Court

It is a Monday afternoon in August, and midtown is as empty as it gets all year. But Randy Mastro, the lawyer who has made himself a sharp thorn in...

21.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Chris Smith

Outgunned Ken Paxton Needs a Trump-Musk Bailout

Ken Paxton secured the Republican Party nomination in the Texas Senate race with a political boost from President Donald Trump, but what should be a...

20.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Nia Prater

Midterm-Convention Trump-fest May Backfire on GOP

Democrats’ best hope for the midterms is that voters only have one thing when they head to the polls in November: their opinion of Donald Trump. If,...

20.08.2026 20

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore

ChatGPT Is a Huge Snitch

In 1998, government lawyer Stephen Houck made a novel argument. Asked why the U.S. wasn’t summoning Bill Gates to testify in its antitrust case...

20.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

John Herrman

Bari Weiss Blew Up 60 Minutes. Now She Has to Fix it.

On the last Thursday of May, Tanya Simon’s staff packed up her office. They filled boxes with personal items accumulated over more than 25 years at...

20.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Charlotte Klein

Jeff Bezos, Javanka Have Yet to Score Invites to ‘Billionaire Bunker’ Club

The richest people in the universe are used to getting what they want on account of their gargantuan piles of money. Want to buy access to a...

19.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Bess Levin

Who Is Natalie Harp? Trump’s Most Ardent Aide, Explained

Absolute loyalty to Donald Trump is a job requirement for everyone he employs. So how far do you have to go to scare other people on Team Trump with...

19.08.2026 30

Daily Intelligencer

Margaret Hartmann

Was Darline Graham’s Dumb Debate Answer Just an Act?

Throughout her brief career as a senator and as a candidate to remain one, Darline Graham has gone to some lengths to distance herself from the legacy...

19.08.2026 10

Daily Intelligencer

Ed Kilgore