On Feb. 12, 2025, a reporter in the Oval Office asked President Donald Trump about Ukraine’s terms. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted security assurances, she said — then corrected herself: If the war ended, he wanted guarantees. Two words. Two consecutive sentences. Used as if they meant the same thing. The president said, “We’ll see […]
The Mecca Agreement and regional pipeline bypasses confirm that Middle Eastern self-reliance, as a multinational region, is no longer theoretical. Three months ago, I discussed the transitions underway across the Middle East amid the Iran war. With continual delays and memorandums, it looked as though Iran was running the show. That reading missed what was […]
Thirty-eight years after Iran’s mass execution of political prisoners, the gallows are still being used for the same political purpose: to intimidate a population that challenges the Islamic Republic. On Sunday, Iran executed Shahram Sadeghi in Karaj. He had been convicted of deliberately driving into police officers during the January 2026 anti-government protests. Iran’s judiciary […]
For decades, Washington accepted the idea that American manufacturing jobs were simply the price of globalization. Communities watched factories close, supply chains move overseas, and good-paying jobs disappear, while policymakers insisted that free trade alone would eventually make everyone better off. President Donald Trump rejected that consensus, and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement has shown why […]
President Donald Trump’s decision to curtail the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises exposes a foundational pathology within the U.S.-South Korea alliance. For decades, Washington has tolerated a dangerous asymmetry: Seoul expects the protection of 28,500 American troops, continuous joint training, and billions in U.S. taxpayer subsidies, yet blinks at broader global threats. When Washington requested South […]
I’ve spent a career drafting language that has to mean exactly one thing under stress: contracts, offering memoranda, expert reports, the kind of documents where a loose word costs a client real money. That discipline explains what’s happening in the fight over birthright citizenship. When a court reads your position narrowly, you don’t quit; you […]
President Donald Trump said last week that after defeating Iran, he would declare the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States. I understand the instinct behind the statement. Iran has turned one of the world’s most important waterways into a weapon. It has threatened ships, disrupted energy supplies, and used the strait to […]
Former Colorado elections clerk Tina Peters was offered a new role Monday as an assistant registrar of voters for a county in Northern California following her release from prison over efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. In an appearance on “The Northstar Breakdown” Shasta County Clerk and registrar of voters Clint Curtis stated that...