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| President Trump always oversells, and his opponents never give him credit. So naturally the country was subjected to an unedifying debate this past week about whether Iran's nuclear program was "obliterated," as Mr. Trump said, or merely set back by a few months, as a leaked intelligence judgment claimed. For a nonpartisan assessment, read David Albright and Spencer Faragasso of the Institute for Science and International Security who have been following Iran's progress for years and say the last fortnight of bombing "effectively destroyed" the program. | |
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| Meanwhile, claims that Mr. Trump's strike was a big political risk with his MAGA base may be overblown. Karl Rove examines a survey from weeks before the strikes to show that isolationism isn't popular, even with "America First" believers. | |
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| Bad governance is nothing new in New York City, but Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary results are a shock beyond the city limits. The victory of Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old socialist, signals the rise of leftwing economic populism in the Democratic Party, writes the editorial board.
As Congress hashes out its tax bill, don't fall for the claim that Republicans are throwing the needy off Medicaid. The editorial board examines the latest data on who would really be knocked off the rolls. | |
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| The great Eric Gibson, the Journal's arts editor and an expert on sculpture, offers a sharp take on President Trump's proposed garden of American heroes. Hint: Augustus Saint-Gaudens might turn in his grave.
All best,
Paul Gigot | |
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The Economics of … Slavery's Legacy | |
| Harvard economist Roland Fryer explains how examining plantation records and market prices deepens our understanding of a devastating chapter in American history. Photo: The Free to Choose Network
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| President Trump's tariff justifications are various and not logically consistent, but a popular one is that trade wars are needed to revive American manufacturing. But "American manufacturing is not in crisis," economist Michael Strain shows in a recent paper, and in any case "the trade war will not substantially increase manufacturing employment. Indeed, it is likely to decrease manufacturing employment." | |
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| FedEx founder Fred Smith died at age 80 last weekend. Yale-educated and a Marine veteran, Mr. Smith's business acumen was a gift to the country—as was his good policy sense. "There's only two kinds of economic systems: the market-driven and the government-directed. That's it!" he said in a 2022 weekend interview. "The more you move toward a state-directed economy, the less efficient and more corrupt it becomes." For FedEx Founder Fred Smith, the Sky Is Still the Limit — Tunku Varadarajan, The Wall Street Journal, April 15, 2022 | |
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Donald Trump's War Powers and the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' | | Will the ceasefire deal between Iran and Israel hold, and what will Donald Trump do next if it doesn't? And will the Senate finally pass the President's "one, big, beautiful" spending bill? Kim Strassel speaks with Senate Majority Leader John Thune about why he thinks Sen. Tim Kaine's War Powers resolution will ultimately fail on the Senate floor, why getting rid of green tax "scams" is one of his goals for the spending bill, and how he hopes to reform and improve Medicaid spending. | | | | |
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The Supreme Court's Final Hot Summer Rulings | | On the last day of their term, the Justices issue a landmark opinion reining in "universal injunctions," with some pointed words by Justice Amy Coney Barrett toward one of the liberal dissents. Plus, rulings upholding parents' right to opt children out of transgender storybooks in elementary schools, as well as a Texas law that orders adult websites to verify user ages. | | | | |
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 | | | Is New York City Ready for a Democratic Socialist Mayor? | | A shockwave rippled through New York politics this week as little-known 33-year old assemblyman Zohran Mamdani toppled Andrew Cuomo, whose political lineage could not compete with his scandal-ridden tenure as governor, to win the Democratic primary nomination for the city's mayoral election. Mamdani mobilized a coalition of young voters, ethnic minorities and others behind a hard-left platform that called for even higher taxes than New Yorkers already pay and expanded government programs. He has voiced strong support for Palestinian causes and has called to "globalize the intifada" whatever that means. Meanwhile, current mayor Eric Adams plans to run as an independent as a way to head off the new young radical's path to Gracie Mansion. What does Mamdani's stunning success say about Democrats - in New York and in the country as a whole. On this episode of Free Expression, Gerry Baker and political analyst Heather Mac Donald look at some of Mamdani's more radical views, break down just who voted for each candidate, and what the latest far left Democratic plans for a major city may do to New York's economy and financial sector. | | | | |
