"I don’t want politicians to be 'authentic.' I want them to be decent. I want them to be honest. I want them to be competent. And if they fail those tests, they don’t redeem themselves by opposing Donald Trump." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/o...

From pardons to prediction markets, the transactional nature of the Trump administration is perhaps its most obvious characteristic. And transactional people often soothe their own consciences with the belief that everyone else is ultimately transactional as well — the only question is their price.

America at 250: Where do things stand? KF Senior Fellow @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social speaks with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch about the Constitution, the dangers of concentrated power, and the role of the courts in such a deeply polarized time. https://nyti.ms/4tVvDwh

Human beings are liable for the actions of the machines they create, and if the machines commit crimes or violate the rights of others, then the humans who built the machines should find themselves in profound trouble with the law.

Many thanks to @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social for writing this piece, for having thought the issue through. It is one of the most important issues of our time. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/26/o...

"I don’t think Americans fully appreciate the extraordinary cost of Trump’s bluster. It should go without saying, but once you threaten to invade an allied country, you don’t just place the existence of the alliance in jeopardy; you raise the possibility of allies turning into mortal enemies"

The administration’s public prayers and religious memes are meaningless when that administration discards historic Christian teaching and reviles Christian leaders — all to support a brutal, dishonest man, a man who can’t articulate a legitimate basis for the war he launched on his own command."

When the church abandons its rightful role as the conscience of the state and instead seeks to curry favor with the state, there is a real-world consequence. If you take an already grandiose man and fill him with a sense of divine purpose, you can uncage a tyrant. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/o...

"Putting it all together, and we’ve devised a grim reality for younger Americans. If you want to watch porn or place a prop bet, the wind is at your back. If you want to go to college or start a business, the wind is in your face." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/o...

In the words of Isaiah, we have become a nation of smoldering wicks. We struggle to feel hope. We look at the world around us and ask: “Is this all there is? Is this really what it looks like to live in the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world?”

"In that one moment you saw the contrast between the MAGA legal philosophy and the legal philosophy of most of the justices. MAGA wants specific results, the justices interpret texts. And when MAGA’s argument contradicts the constitutional text, it’s almost always going to lose."

I am alarmed by the negative influence of smartphones and social media on children. All of us should be. I am also worried that in our zeal to protect children from those negative influences that we will violate the Constitution and undermine free speech. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/o...

The American economy is the envy of the world. Actual Americans, however, are not happy about their economy, and they’ve been unhappy about it for a long time. Here's why both statements can be true at the same time: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/o...

People I respect applaud Trump for his courage in taking on Iran. But I don’t see courage. I see recklessness. I see a man who plunged a nation into a conflict without comprehending the risks. I see a man full of hubris. And now he's in over his head, hoping the military can deliver a miracle.

So excited about this Theological Horizons event featuring @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social and me at the 2026 Scoper Lecturers in Christian Thought. Join us!

"I disagree with James Talarico on many things. But I also agree with his desire to reject politics as a blood sport. And unless we can remember — as Dr. King did, with his life perpetually on the line — to seek both justice and mercy, then we’ll be left with neither."

I think @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social and I would disagree on many lower-level policies, but I completely agree with his point that having Christian politicians espouse actual Christian values is sorely what the US needs now as a way out of our division. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/o...

Talarico is one of the few openly Christian politicians in the United States who acts like a Christian, and by acting like a Christian he reveals a profound contrast with so many members of the MAGA Christian movement that’s dominated American political life for 10 years.

Eight minutes. That’s the length of President Trump’s video announcing his war with Iran. He didn’t go to Congress. He didn’t obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution. Instead, he did perhaps the most monarchical thing he’s done in a monarchical second term: He simply ordered America into war.

This is a great piece. And it makes one wonder if we had a government that cared about making and supporting its friends how much better off Ukraine would be right now. Shameful

@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social hosts a clear-eyed discussion of the Ukraine war that is neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic. It's just that so many more people will suffer and die before we reach the time that is not on Russia's side. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/o...

I talked to Michael Kofman, a voice I truly trust, on the course of the Russian invasion. The war is grim, but there are seeds of hope: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/o...

If we keep electing men like Trump, they will keep undermining that foundation, until it finally collapses. One day that may well happen. But on Friday, the Supreme Court said not this day. On this day the presidency is stuffed back into its box. On this day the Constitution holds.

2025, the year that empathy died. "Many in MAGA decided that cruelty was a virtue, decency a vice, and — worst of all — that empathy was a sin. Now we live in the harsh new world they made." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/o...

Good column by @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social on the rising tide of antisemitism and its deep roots in the Trump administration. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/o...

Beyond natural curiosity I'm not usually heavily invested in internal theological debates within Chrisitanity, but they are once again affecting the safety of my own people. In that spirit, move past the headline and read this excellent article by @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social. ty for writing it.

And since Christians have persecuted Jews so viciously, we have a special responsibility to make amends, to repair the damage that the church has done. That begins by turning to the new Christian antisemites and shouting “No!” Ancient hatreds and ancient heresies have no place in the church today.

With the amateurish and corrupt effort to indict six Democratic members of Congress, we may have reached the incompetence-corruption singularity. That, and more, in this week's roundtable. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/o...

In an alternate world, “Trump could be riding high simply by securing the border [and conducting regular deportations in the manner] the Constitution requires. “But that is not what the admin is doing. It’s procuring a series of detention facilities that are concentration camps in all but name.”

Two judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit have issued a ruling that, if allowed to stand, could result in the indefinite detention of millions of immigrants in inhumane, overcrowded facilities scattered across the United States. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...

"I'm not exactly the target audience for a film about chair-making religious extremists." I, on the other hand, unironically am. 🙋 Especially when they're also pacifists. This is a beautiful essay.

"Our nation is not a place — it never will be a place — where we all agree with one another, much less look like one another, or even come from a common culture. But we can live together as neighbors so long as we recognize one another’s inherent dignity and worth." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...

Yes, a corrupt president may pardon the crooks who act on his behalf, but a modest change in the law could give them pause. Violating civil rights should carry a profound cost, and the message to the Trump administration must be clear: Protect the integrity of the election, or we will make you pay.

"A president who doesn’t care about the law, who commands an obedient Congress and is supported by a radicalized base of tens of millions of people who believe his lies, represents a threat to the next election. I fear that millions of citizens are still too complacent."

Consider this column to be something like a fire drill. "It’s an alarm, one of thousands that should be ringing across the country. MAGA’s acts of aggression are already intimidating. Trump isn’t just trying to “stop the steal” again; another kind of theft might already be underway."

"I'm coming to Boston and I'm bringing hell with me." --Homan in February "Do I expect violence to escalate? Absolutely." -- Tom Homan in March "I actually thought about getting up and throwing that man a beating right there in the middle of the room" -- Homan in July, referring to a D congressman

I think @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social is a lot more realistic than some Democratic pols. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...

Protests make MAGA mad. Journalism makes MAGA mad. Accountability makes MAGA mad. And the anger keeps building until a single sentence starts to spread across the length and breadth of Trump’s base: “Invoke the Insurrection Act.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...

Take off their masks. End their immunities. Limit their jurisdiction. Restrain their tactics. All of this can be done through legislation without inhibiting humane immigration enforcement. If it’s done correctly, legislative reform can lead to greater accountability across the whole of government.

How do you preserve the free world when America goes Rogue? On Tuesday, Mark Carney provided an answer. He called Donald Trump’s bluff. Trump wants subjects, but he’s getting rivals, and the American people will pay the price. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/o...

President Trump is stress-testing American law, and the law is failing the test. The health of the American experiment rests far more on the integrity of any given American president than we realized. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

If we break our alliances, we are smaller and weaker. If we break them for pride and power and greed, then we don’t just break an alliance, we break our own character. We diminish ourselves in every way that matters, and no amount of newly sovereign frozen ground can obscure our national shame.

That's well said. Courage should shame the cowards.

Donald Trump is putting on a clinic about how to break the United States. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/o...

"It was Christ’s humble birth that set the stage. It was the first lesson in a series: to oppress others is to oppress Christ, to hate others is to hate Christ, and to love your enemies can be the most dangerous and revolutionary act of them all." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/o...

@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social understands that to oppress others in the name of your God or religion is to refuse the command of imitatio Christi. He also understands that to engage in true imitatio Christi is to antagonize those who patrol the boundaries to keep heretics out. Funny how that works.

Fundamentalist faiths make religion dangerous to others, but Christianity properly lived is dangerous to Christians. It’s dangerous to people who refuse to hate those they are told to hate, to people who refuse to oppress, to conquer, to exploit — even when they’re told to conquer in the name of God

Why the heroes of Bondi Beach mattered so much: "The presence of evil doesn’t break people. From a young age, we learn that there are wolves in our midst. It is the absence of courage that plunges us into crisis." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...

“Even worse, parents and kids learned together to use their phones. We all experienced these new technologies at the same time, and we often behaved no better than our teenage sons and daughters. Our kids were taking notes as social media broke our brains and hardened our hearts.”

@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social, a former Army Reserve major who got a Bronze Star for 2007 service as a squadron judge-advocate, is "still haunted by decisions I made in Iraq." "But I can't imagine the guilt of criminal conduct, of deliberately killing the people I'm supposed to protect." * Gift link⤵️