WASHINGTON, D.C. March 29 (DPI) – The Trump Administration has ushered in a new era of strange things, from compulsive midnight tweets to hilariously false claims by officials who should know better. And while all of that may be unsettling, it’s great news for the nation’s many political columnists, particularly at standard-bearer news outlets The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Readers who follow the likes of Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd of The Times, as well Charles Krauthammer of The Post, are enjoying even richer, clearer and more entertaining criticism, now that the writers have an easy and important target in Donald Trump. What’s most remarkable is that columnists of all political stripes are confronting the new president with a fervor not seen since Richard Nixon was in office.
Trump’s first two months in office have been a messy series of stunts and setbacks, from a failed effort to repeal Obamacare to immigration bans that were quickly shot down by the courts. America’s brigade of experienced columnists are having a field day.
Longtime moderate observer Friedman has produced two recent columns that constructively take on Trump. In one Friedman points out that abandoning the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade deal has only benefited China; in the headline, Friedman asks, “Is Trump a Chinese Agent?” Reader comment boards applauded almost unanimously.
In another, Friedman writes to the more competent – or at least less extreme – members of Trump’s cabinet, and begs them to save the administration from Trump himself. “I believe you are the last “few good men” who can stand up and reverse the moral rot that has infected the Trump administration from the top,” Friedman wrote. Reader comment boards swelled with comments.
Even Krauthammer, widely criticized for years as a Republican apologist, has come out with some of his best work, and all of it critical of the rube in the White House. Most recently Krouthammer pointed out that democratic institutions are holding up just fine in the face of Trump’s authoritarian instincts.