"The Post’s inability to make money covering a second Trump administration is a business catastrophe. It is also evidence of a moral collapse."

"It’s now impossible for Democrats to change the subject from the United States’ descent into authoritarianism, and they shouldn’t want to"—no matter how often they are advised to focus on the price of eggs or are cautioned against criticizing law enforcement. From @mattjj89.bsky.social

It’s now impossible for Democrats to change the subject from the United States’ descent into authoritarianism, and they shouldn’t want to. Voters do care about the state of our democracy. New from Matt Johnson:

Wow, must have been rough to be stuck in a restaurant for awhile. I heard a crazy story that an ICU nurse was executed for exercising his First and Second Amendment rights

Don’t Back Down, Europe open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...

25th Amendment

“We have done so much for America.” — The mother of a Danish soldier who died in Afghanistan. What a shameful day for the United States. www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Surreal. This is the most dangerous moment of the long Trump decade. A madman with a child’s temper is consciously and single-handedly destroying the most important military alliance in history. Simply unbelievable that we’ve fallen this far.

The effort to force 340 million diverse Americans to accept a narrow, postliberal-approved definition of the "common good" would be terrifyingly oppressive if it wasn't fundamentally unworkable. @mattjj89.bsky.social

The vice president who dismissed outrage over Nazi chat logs as "pearl clutching" draws inspiration from a theorist who thinks liberalism is "more insidious than fascism." @mattjj89.bsky.social

Now the Venezuelan regime has issued an emergency order telling police to “immediately search and capture” anyone who supports “the armed attack by the United States” www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

"It’s easier to dislodge a tinpot dictator in Venezuela than to deter great powers....But this raises the biggest question at the heart of the 'Donroe Doctrine': Does Trump even want to deter those powers? Or does he want to carve up the world with them?"

Is this what Trump meant when he said we are "running" Venezuela?

The Trump administration has decided to prioritize the Western Hemisphere over Europe and East Asia, a decision that empowers the United States’ two most powerful geopolitical rivals. Nothing about that could go wrong! lnk.thebulwark.com/4aHNPmz

Trump is serious about the “Donroe Doctrine,” and he will continue to prioritize hegemony, imperialism, and unilateralism over the liberal international order the United States has maintained for the past 80 years. My latest for @ms.now www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

Beyond the question of what's actually going to happen in Venezuela now, the removal of Maduro is the opening move in a reckless new American grand strategy that will be self-defeating in an era of renewed great power conflict. New from Matt Johnson:

If you missed @mattjj89.bsky.social's epic profile of Rogan in @theunpopulist.net, please give it a read:

Not sure I understand why the Trump administration cares about Christians in Nigeria and not Christians in Ukraine

Anyone who wants to address the virulent conspiracism and antisemitism on the right shouldn’t let Trump, Vance, and the most powerful men in the world get away with acting like craven moral imbeciles. Demand that they break their silence. My latest, no paywall open.substack.com/pub/mattjj/p...

i have never quite understood the praise for deneen's work because he honestly just seems like a crank

Deneen misrepresents liberalism’s fundamental principles and presents a warped history of liberalism that dismisses its achievements and exaggerates its weaknesses. @mattjj89.bsky.social

Would you consider supporting us at @theunpopulist.net? Since our founding, in 2021, we've made available everything we've ever done—essays, podcasts, videos—for free to all. That's not changing. But we do need your help to make all that happen. Asking for $80 for the year. Give us a look 👇

"It has become increasingly clear what unrestrained Trumpism means for the country: corruption and cruelty at home, incompetence and anarchy abroad." Turns out Americans don't love it. lnk.thebulwark.com/48TqBqY

The Trump era has forced Americans to reconsider and reaffirm first principles about our republic. The same applies to the public understanding of the liberal international order. lnk.thebulwark.com/48TqBqY

Not only is Trump personally unpopular; his shambolic and dangerous presidency is giving Americans a new appreciation for free trade, immigration, and international alliances. New from Matt Johnson: lnk.thebulwark.com/48TqBqY

Words, what do they even mean anyway?

So much has been written about PD that I wasn't eager to run another piece at @theunpopulist.net. But this essay by @mattjj89.bsky.social is a one-stop shop for everything that's wrong with the man who wants a Catholic sharia in US. So I couldn't resist. Read it. open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

Musk and his DOGE goons didn’t just fail—they destroyed America’s most important organ of soft power. They made the world sicker, poorer, and more miserable. And it was all for nothing. My latest for @ms.now www.ms.now/opinion/elon...

It’s difficult to think of a less promising political strategy than the insistence that an unpopular and corrupt president is actually a beloved monarch who deserves to shred the Constitution and remain in power after his second term is up. My latest, no paywall open.substack.com/pub/mattjj/p...

The Free Press isn’t fearless or heterodox. It’s a slickly produced right-of-center outlet that flatters its readers’ priors about wokeness while fastidiously deflecting from the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the institutions of American democracy www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/rc...

Glad to see Robby's reading MSNBC — but it's not "reductive" to cite numerous Trump administration-fed stories copy-pasted as "reporting" in The Free Press and call it "Trump-friendly." What's reductive is framing a one-off debate with a MAGA libertarian about Israel as legit ideological balance.

'The hiring of a Trump-supporting, conservative think tank veteran as CBS News' new "bias monitor" — plus the elevation of Weiss — is a clear signal he wants to steer one of journalism’s oldest, most respected institutions in a distinctly right-leaning ideological direction.' @mattjj89.bsky.social

In 2024, Bari Weiss explained why she no longer wanted to work at mainstream media organizations. She said it was a mistake to “delude yourself with the idea that you can transform them from within.” Now she’s editor-in-chief at CBS. My latest for @msnbc.com www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/rc...

American citizens aren’t raw material for military training, you psychopath

Michael Shellenberger, expert on climate, the environment, whales, UFOs, energy, nuclear, censorship, free speech, homelessness, urban policy, drug abuse, trans medicine, philosophy, and the intelligence community, and Chair of Censorship Hoaxes at the University of Austin, is now a 9/11 Truther.

This is it. Cancel culture, but for real. The Twitter Files, but for real. Actual, unadulterated collusion between the government and media-owning corporations to censor Americans. Shame on the MAGA libertarians and fake-heterodox civility cops who helped pave this road to authoritarianism.

The MAGA response to the Kirk killing is a “moral panic, a moment of shameless hypocrisy and opportunism, an appalling assault on free speech and a level of government overreach that should send chills down the spine of any American.” By @anthonylfisher.bsky.social www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

These senators had every last shred of information they needed to know that Kennedy’s confirmation would be a disaster for American health. They chose to placate Trump. Suddenly they’re finding their courage when it’s too late. Absolutely pathetic and contemptible. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/u...

We have now witnessed Trump’s Ukraine policy in action for eight months, and the results are disastrous because his ideas about the war—and foreign policy more broadly—are anything but realistic. My latest, no paywall open.substack.com/pub/mattjj/p...

There’s no telling how long it will take the United States and its partners to rebuild the global aid infrastructure the Trump administration destroyed in a matter of months—or whether that infrastructure is gone for good. My latest, no paywall open.substack.com/pub/mattjj/p...

After all the scolding lectures on how the Trump administration was going to elevate hard-nosed “realism” over “moralistic garbage,” it turns out that those who urged Trump to maintain robust support for Kyiv were right all along.

NEW: "Trump has been forced to concede that Russia is a much greater threat than he once believed. He is discovering that his fantasies of ending the conflict in twenty-four hours were based on a fundamental misunderstanding of Putin’s war aims." www.thebulwark.com/p/as-trump-e...

Trump at least sounds like he's making a bit of a U-turn on his soft-on-Russia approach to Ukraine. His supporters aren't exactly having it. New from Matt Johnson: www.thebulwark.com/p/as-trump-e...

The fact that Laura Loomer is an influential “loyalty enforcer” in the Trump administration tells you everything you need to know @anthonylfisher.bsky.social www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Leaders and faculty at Bari Weiss' University of Austin (UATX) enthusiastically cheered the Manhattan Institute's call for Trump to be the judge and jury of all of America's higher education institutions. New column by @mattjj89.bsky.social‬ at @msnbc.com

Why did the University of Austin — which constantly touts its “fearless” commitment to academic freedom — declare its support for Trump’s assault on higher education? My latest for @msnbc.com www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Brilliant evisceration by @walterolson.bsky.social at @theunpopulist.net of this dumb and dangerous statement from what once used to be a respectable think tank. The Manhattan Institute has disgraced itself: www.theunpopulist.net/p/a-manhatta...