Dec. 18, 2024–Jan. 1, 2025 • $7.

99

Avoiding a Repeat The End China Gets Ready Christmas

of Afghanistan of Lawfare For War Books
MICHAEL LUCCHESE — P.26 VARAD MEHTA — P.18 SEAN DURNS — P.22 LIFE & ARTS — P.45

The Axemen Cometh Trump unleashes his allies on the federal budget
W. JAMES ANTLE III — P.12

p. 7, 16, 19, 44 & 61

 Editorials
An opportunity for peace the mullah’s terrorist network, setting the
stage for the Oct. 7 pogrom of Israeli civil-
ians by Hamas.

after Assad collapse Once Israel responded, Biden under-

mined its efforts, calling for restraint and
ceasefires that would let Hamas and Hez-
bollah rest, regroup, and return to the
battlefield to kill again. Thankfully, Israel

T
ignored Biden and did what was needed to
he fall of former President Bashar Syria, significantly weakening the mullah’s protect its security.
Assad’s tyranny in Syria is a “Axis of Resistance” and its ability to project Trump would be wise to support Isra-
strategic victory for the United power in the region. All this demonstrates el in its campaign to rid its neighborhood
States and a defeat for the U.S.’s how misguided former President Barack of Iranian influence, and there is much he
main enemies in the region, Iran Obama and Biden were in the Middle East, could do to help. He could increase pres-
and Russia. It was not a victory authored with both men basing their identical strat- sure on Tehran by revoking the sanctions
by President Joe Biden’s foreign policy but egies on the fantasy that Iran could become waivers granted to Tehran by Biden’s ad-
the direct result of Israel’s brave and legit- a responsible security partner. ministration. He could further weaken
imate response to Iran’s proxy war against This was always dangerously naive, Iran’s economy by cracking down on smug-
the Middle East’s only democracy. Biden’s misconstruing both the nature and capabil- glers who buy Iranian oil illicitly. Finally,
weak and clumsy policy in the region un- ities of the clerical tyranny in Tehran. The Trump could make it clear that any attack
dermined Israel rather than supporting it as Islamic Republic of Iran has always been on U.S. interests by Iran or its proxies would
it should have. a source of violence and instability in the prompt military retaliation.
Principal credit for Assad’s overthrow Middle East, additionally intent on damag- Trump knows Russia’s invasion of
belongs to Syrians. In the end, it was an ing America. It was always an enemy and Ukraine played a role in Assad’s downfall
armed popular uprising of Syrian militias should have been treated as one, contained as well, noting on social media that Mos-
that captured cities and forced Assad to flee and neutered, not empowered and trusted. cow “lost all interest in Syria because of
to his masters in Moscow. But the Syrian President-elect Donald Trump under- Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian
civil war has been raging for over a decade, stood this during his first term in office and soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that
and it wasn’t until Israel’s recent military pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” should never have started, and could go on
actions that new conditions made it possi- that included ending Obama’s foolish nu- forever.”
ble for the rebels to win. clear deal with Iran and enforcing sanctions Now that Russia is feeling the sting of
After Hezbollah attacked Israel with against its oil industry and leaders. Biden its strategic miscalculation, Trump can also
rockets to support Hamas, with which Is- undid these policies, providing resources to help bring an end to that conflict. 
rael was locked in an existential war after
the Oct. 7 massacres, Israel decapitated
the Iranian-backed terrorist organization
in Lebanon in a stunningly impressive and
swift fashion. First, it destroyed the Irani-
an Consulate in Syria, then blew up pagers
used by Hezbollah operatives, putting the
users out of action, and then eliminated
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, be-
fore going on to dismantle the remaining
upper tiers of the Hezbollah hierarchy.
Finally, Israel invaded Lebanon, engag-
ing Hezbollah fighters with withering fire.
Assad relied on the Iranian proxy’s infan-
try to maintain his grip on the country, and
with Hezbollah’s fighting ranks beaten to a
pulp, if not to submission, and their leaders
gone up (mostly in smoke), Assad’s forces
were left alone and proved no match for the
Syrian rebels.
Iran has lost its proxy foothold in Gaza
and Lebanon and its puppet dictator in

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 1

EDITORIALS

Good riddance to Wray director refused to provide records con-

firming that other whistleblowers had
avoided retaliation.
Wray comes in for Grassley’s most
vociferous criticism for thumbing his
nose at congressional oversight. Grass-
ley writes of “the FBI’s failure to pro-
vide basic information I requested more

F
than two years ago related to the FBI’s
ew exiting officials merit fierc- on social media platforms. He repeatedly ongoing mishandling of sexual harass-
er censure than FBI Direc- resisted valid subpoenas for information ment claims made by the FBI’s female
tor Christopher Wray, who is on these and other cases. employees.”
resigning three years early. In Fortunately, Wray will have left As Grassley wrote, “This is based on
an extraordinarily scathing let- his post before President-elect Don- credible whistleblower disclosures alleg-
ter, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) rightly ald Trump is inaugurated next month. ing hundreds of FBI employees had re-
provided it. Grassley, though, does not intend to let tired or resigned to avoid accountability
Wray has been a dissembler since he him slink away. In a blistering 11-page for sexual misconduct.” Grassley is right
took over the bureau in 2017. He came letter on Dec. 9, the senator used some of to characterize Wray’s noncompliance as
into office promising transparency, the examples above, and many others, to outright “obstruction.”
candor, competence, depoliticization, make sure the door hit Wray in the back Similarly, Grassley excoriated Wray
and systemic reform. He has produced on his way out. for more than two years of failing to re-
none of it, acting instead as an obfus- Grassley is furious that Wray has spond to “repeated requests” to provide
cator and excuse-maker, as if his job is “failed,” despite solemn promises when information about Afghanistan evac-
to be the FBI’s corner-cutting defense he was appointed, in his “fundamental uees who were not vetted before being
attorney. As this newspaper and its col- duties” of “compliance with congressio- allowed into the United States, including
umnists have detailed repeatedly, Wray nal oversight requests and the protection “at least 50” the FBI identified as “po-
has shown that neither his word nor his of whistleblowers.” Grassley has been tentially significant security concerns.”
judgment can be trusted. Congress’s most stalwart advocate of These migrants could pose life-threaten-
On case after case and on institu- government whistleblowers for decades, ing dangers to large numbers of Amer-
tional FBI culture more broadly, Wray and his letter seethes when describing icans, as was shown in October when
has covered for the bureau rather than three specific examples of Wray’s failure the FBI apprehended one of them who
dutifully serving the public. On institu- to protect whistleblowers, along with had “planned an Election Day terrorist
tional matters, in 2022, it came to light several high-profile cases in which the attack in the U.S. on behalf of the Islamic
that an internal audit three years earlier State.”
showed that FBI personnel broke the Grassley provides a litany of Wray’s
rules at least 747 times in only a year and failures, obstinacy, and obstruction in
a half in “high-profile” investigations cases ranging from former Secretary of
involving politicians, news media, and State Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of
religious groups, but Wray neither ad- classified information to the FBI’s re-
vised the public of those findings during peated burying of credible allegations
the interim three years, nor made public against President Joe Biden and from
amends, nor addressed the problems un- Biden’s strange cancellation of a success-
til more than a year after the audit was ful anti-cartel program to “allegations
publicized. that the Obama-Biden State Department
Wray contemptuously brushed off obstructed” the arrests of criminals
concerns about the blatant mistreatment helping Iran’s nuclear programs.
of a peaceful pro-life protester subject- Grassley is right to insist the record
ed to an armed raid at his home on a shows that Wray is a disgrace. He is
case that was bogus from the start. He lucky to escape formal sanction. No FBI
MANDEL NGAN/POOL VIA AP

lied to Congress about the extent of the director is entitled to his 10-year term
FBI’s targeting of traditional Catholics if he does not do his job. A decade is a
for “threat mitigation” and prevaricat- maximum allowable tenure, not an en-
ed about the FBI investigating parent ac- FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies titlement. The president has every right
tivists as domestic terrorists and about before the Senate Judiciary Committee to replace him. In Wray’s wake, the FBI
whether the FBI helped censor speech on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. needs a serious disinfectant. 

2 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

THIS IS A COMBINED ISSUE. THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER WILL APPEAR IN THREE WEEKS.

DECEMBER 18, 2024-JANUARY 1, 2025

Volume 30, Number 43

Editorials
1 An opportunity for peace
after Assad collapse

2 Good riddance to Wray

Letter From the Editor

6 No risk, no rewards for America 49 Smiley the Second
Washington Briefing Will Collins

Your Land 29 Midterm Math: Congressional GOP 50 The Birth of the Library
will back Trump, or lose Micah Mattix
7 ‘Feed My Sheep’  CNN Is About
to Pay for Its Bias  Columbia: A 31 187 shades of Gray 52 British Inversion?
Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy Michael M. Rosen
 Not So Glory Days 32 ‘Farewell’ or ‘good riddance’
depending on your viewpoint 53 The Two Tuccis
Will Simpson
Features 34 Why Israelis are fed up with the UN
55 Telling Stories About Colonialism
12 The Swift Sword of DOGE Palestinian ‘refugee’ agency Yuan Yi Zhu
Trump’s spending cutters draw
the toughest, yet most important, 36 Incoming Trump administration 57 The Trouble with Empathy
assignment Madeleine Fry Schultz
By W. James Antle III regulators face challenges reining in
Big Tech 58 Editor’s Note
16 Nicholas Clairmont
Conservatives We Lost in 2024 38 Trump to inherit a Pentagon budget
We should acknowledge the deaths Republicans worry is not up to the
of those who, in living, made the task of deterring China The Columnists
world a better place
By Tevi Troy 59 Hugo Gurdon Trump’s nominees
Business and the fight against the Blob
19
Trump and the Law 42 Tariffs, crypto and interest rates set 60 Daniel J. Hannan Foul-mouthed
The president-elect’s relationship to to dominate 2025 economic agenda Milei shows libertarians the way
the legal system will play a decisive
role in his second term 44 Tiana’s Take The whole world 61 Dominic Green Time to talk Turkey
By Varad Mehta
loves the American health system 62 Michael Barone Free speech: Why
22 Is China Setting the Table even if they don’t know it a tech titan backed Trump
for War?
Washington must act with
urgency to deter Beijing Christmas Books Obituary
By Sean Durns
46 The Numinous and the 63 Jim Abrahams, 1944-2024
26 Trump Can’t Let Ukraine Sentimental Season
Be His Afghanistan Joseph Bottum
Peace through strength is the 64 Crossword
better model than Biden’s debacle 48 The Ubiquitous Nobody
By Michael Lucchese Art Tavana COVER: Illustration by Thomas Fluharty

4 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

HUGO GURDON: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Editors
No risk, no rewards Editor-In-Chief Hugo Gurdon
Managing Editor Chris Irvine
for America News Editor Marisa Schultz
Commentary Editor Conn Carroll

A
Executive Editor (Magazine) W. James Antle III
Content Strategy and Growth Editor Jessie Campisi
senior federal employee lamented to me recently about Managing Editor (Magazine) David Mark
work fights he has with lawyers. It would be bad enough Policy Editor Joseph Lawler
Investigations Editor Sarah Bedford
if these pitted him against attorneys launching lawsuits Breaking News Editor Max Thornberry
against his department, but it’s not. Congress & Campaigns Editor David Sivak
His diurnal conflicts are with lawyers on his own side. Digital Engagement Editor Maria Leaf
Life & Arts Editor (Magazine) Nicholas Clairmont
They constantly press him not to go ahead with one innova-
Production Editor Joana Suleiman
tion or another because, by breaking new ground, he would increase Associate Editor Hailey Bullis
the risk of litigation and financial damages gouged out of federal Trending News Editor Heather Hamilton
funds. Associate Breaking News Editor Keely Bastow
Night News Editor Conrad Hoyt
I asked what department he worked for, and his reply was telling: Homepage Editors Tim Collins and Peter Cordi
“The one where safety comes first, the Department of Defense.” Yes, Deputy Commentary Editor Quin Hillyer
the department that oversees military men and women prepared to Restoring America Editors Kaylee McGhee White, Tom Rogan
give their lives — talk about the ultimate risk — is a place where safe- Contributors Editor Madeline Fry Schultz
Design Director Philip Chalk
ty is the No. 1 concern. Deputy Editor (Magazine) J. Grant Addison
The work done by Pentagon Man — I’ll call him that to avoid iden-
tifying him — requires innovation, new thinking, and departure from Columnists & Writers
Senior Columnists: Michael Barone, Paul Bedard, Timothy P. Carney,
what’s tried and tested. Otherwise, he is not doing his job, at least not Byron York
doing it as well as he might or fulfilling his mission. Senior Writers: Barnini Chakraborty, David Harsanyi, Jamie McIntyre,
He can sack his legal advisers if they become too stifling, but he Mabinty Quarshie, Salena Zito
Staff Reporters: Jack Birle, Mike Brest, Christian Datoc, Kaelan Deese,
knows their replacements will do just the same. And he cannot do
Gabrielle Etzel, Luke Gentile, Anna Giaritelli, Jenny Goldsberry,
without lawyers because of the danger of exposure to liability. Zachary Halaschak, Emily Hallas, Gabe Kaminsky, Brady Knox,
All of which means he is stuck in the same predicament as so Naomi Lim, Elaine Mallon, Maydeen Merino, Cami Mondeaux, Asher
many businesses and public services across America, which are con- Notheis, Timothy Nerozzi, Ross O’Keefe, Ashley Oliver, Callie Patteson,
Annabella Rosciglione, Samantha-Jo Roth, Rachel Schilke, Robert
strained, in some cases even crippled, by the two mutually reinforcing Schmad, Ramsey Touchberry, Haisten Willis
encumbrances of litigation threat and learned risk aversion. Commentary Writers: Zachary Faria, Tiana Lowe Doescher, Jeremiah
This nation, at least as much as any other, is like an airplane. It Poff, Christopher Tremoglie
needs to be moving forward because, without that momentum, it will Contributors: Daniel Ross Goodman, Dominic Green, Daniel J.
Hannan, Graham Hillard, Rob Long, Jeremy Lott,
fall. Pentagon Man was right when he concluded that we have a prob- John O’Sullivan, Philip Terzian, Peter Tonguette, Tevi Troy,
lem with our national culture, which has shriveled from one in which Robert Woodson
people took risk because it promised rewards, but now instead reflex-
Design, Video & Web
ively chooses safety first. Senior Designer: Amanda Boston Trypanis
A society as risk averse as ours has become is doomed to slow de- Production Designer: Tatiana Lozano
cline, at best. If you expend your energies protecting what you have Designers: Barbara Kyttle, Julia Terbrock
rather than creating new opportunities, products, and methods and Web Producers: Robert Blankenship, Emma Johnson, Zach LaChance,
Alexis Leonard, Kate Murphy, Chris Slater, Robert Stewart
building wealth, you are bound to lose. Director of Video: Amy DeLaura
It’s like what used to be said about the “war against terror,” that Videographers: Justin Craig, Arik Dashevsky, Atlantis Ford,
the terrorists had to succeed only once to cause catastrophe, but se- Shaan Memon, Natasha Sweatte, Stefan Suh, and Timothy Wolff
Photographer Graeme Jennings
curity forces had to succeed every time to avoid such disaster.
If America makes risk avoidance its mission to protect what it has, MediaDC
it must succeed every time or else, bit by bit, with one loss here and Chairman Ryan McKibben
Chief Executive Officer Christopher P. Reen
another there, its capital, leadership, military capabilities, and wealth
President & Chief Operating Officer Mark Walters
will decline. Conversely, accepting risk creates circumstances in Audience Development Officer Jennifer Yingling
which new ideas can germinate and flourish, in which wealth can be Chief Digital Officer Tony Shkurtaj
created, political and military leaders can inspire, and new technolo- IT Director Mark Rendle
Director of Strategic Communications and Publicity Carly Hagan Brogan
gies and methods can ensure America stays ahead of all its rivals and
inspire admiration and fear as appropriate around the world. Advertising
We need litigation reform, we need fewer regulations and more Vice President, Advertising Nick Swezey
Digital Director Jason Roberts
freedom — we can reasonably hope for those with the new adminis-
Advertising Operations Manager Andrew Kaumeier
tration arriving on Jan. 20 — and we need a shift in our culture to one Advertising Sales Inquiries: 202-293-4900
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 CNN Is About to Pay for Its Bias P. 8 
Columbia: A Wretched Hive of Scum and
Villainy P. 9  Not So Glory Days P. 10

Free food is distributed to

residents in need at a weekly
food bank at Our Lady of Refuge
Church in Brooklyn, New York.

‘Feed My Sheep’
neighborhood playground gets govern-
ment-funded mulch because the owner
is a Lutheran church. They are furious
about school choice programs that al-
low parents to spend their vouchers

S
at religious schools. What they object
omehow, even after the past en hold, which prescribes that anything to is the government treating religious
SPENCER PL AT T/GET T Y IMAGES

few decades of secularization, touched by the government must never institutions the same as nonreligious
a significant portion of the mention God. This radical institutions.
country still believes we would separationism has a hold on The oddest thing about
all be better off if Americans the news media and is dom- those making this demand —
were even less religious. inant in the leftward provinces of social explicit discrimination against religion
A new and extreme understanding of media. — is that many of them see themselves
“separation of church and state” has tak- The separationists are angry that a as the champions of the needy and pow-

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 7

YOUR LAND

erless. Meanwhile, the church in Amer-

ica is responsible for a massive share of
material aid to the downtrodden.
Scholars at Arizona State University
surveyed thousands of religious congre-
gations from dozens of denominations
in four cities: Detroit, Philadelphia,
Phoenix, and Miami. The researchers
also pored over annual reports from
churches and synagogues. They found
that nearly every religious congregation,
from Catholic parishes to Latter-day
Saints wards to Jewish synagogues to
Methodist churches, provided material
support to the needy: Feeding the hun-
gry, teaching English to immigrants,
helping the poor pay their bills, support-
ing pregnant women and their babies,
and so on.
The study found that almost all food Afghanistan. claiming his company was demanding
pantries (86%) in Detroit were faith- Zachary Young was running a secu- $75,000 to transport groups of passen-
based, with many housed in church and rity consulting company in 2021 when gers to Pakistan and $14,500 per person
mosque houses. Four of the seven high- CNN ran a story on The Lead with Jake for passage to the United Arab Emirates.
est-ranked addiction recovery programs Tapper implying that Young was illegally Marquardt then reported that Afghans
in Detroit are faith-based. About half of profiting from Afghan refugees trying to were being exploited by exorbitant fees.
all the charities helping the homeless or flee the incoming Taliban forces. Marquardt reached out to Young
those at risk of homelessness are ground- “Afghans trying to get out of the before the story aired and Young re-
ed in a church, synagogue, or mosque. country face a black market full of prom- sponded, pointing out several factual
The ASU study was commissioned ises, demands of exorbitant fees, and no inaccuracies in the story. But CNN aired
by three religious leaders — Rabbi Pin- guarantee of safety or success,” CNN it anyway.
chas Allouche of Scottsdale, Arizona, correspondent Alex Marquardt reported. Fast-forward to last week and a Flor-
Cardinal Raymond Burke, and Southern Young was then singled out for par- ida judge held that CNN’s subsequent
Baptist Theological Seminary President ticipating in this illegal trade, with CNN retraction of the story did not go far
Albert Mohler — and so they had a bias. putting his picture on the screen and enough in undoing the damage caused by
However, their findings echo the results the original story and that Young was not
found by the likes of Robert Putnam, considered a “political figure” under Flor-
whose Bowling Alone found that half ida libel law. Libel plaintiffs must show a
of all civic activity begins in the church: defendant acted with “actual malice” to
“Half of all personal philanthropy is re- MADE BY JIMBOB. harm someone if they are considered a
ligious in character, and half of all vol- “political figure” and not just a private
unteering occurs in a religious context.” individual. “Actual malice” is a difficult
The secularists are getting their way, standard for any plaintiff to prove.
unfortunately, as more Americans are Originally, in addition to the segment
irreligious and fewer go to church. This that aired on Tapper’s show, CNN also
is bad news if you care about the least published an online article and promot-
among us. ed both the video segment and article
—By Timothy P. Carney on social media through its X account.
Under Florida libel law, a retraction must
be issued in a manner as close as possi-
CNN Is About to Pay ble to the original dissemination of false
information. In this case, CNN only had
for Its Bias Tapper issue a “correction,” not a “re-
traction,” and did not publish a written

C
NN suffered a huge setback in a retraction or promote it on social media
Florida court on Dec. 9 when a as it had done with the original story.
state judge denied the network’s Young has not won his case yet. The
CNN/SCREENSHOT

efforts to dismiss a case against a Navy judge’s ruling held only that Young’s
veteran who helped civilians flee the claims were not deficient as a matter of
country in the final days of President law. It will now be up to a jury to decide
Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from on the facts whether CNN acted negli-

8 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

 YOUR LAND

gently in running the story. If so, the jury as the students who publish a newspa-
will decide what the damages should be. per called the Columbia Intifada. It’s not
It appears Young has a strong case. a great sign when the people who run a
His lawyers have uncovered messages university think Jews not wanting to be
showing CNN’s own editorial staff said assaulted on campus “comes from such
the story was “a mess,” “not fleshed out a place of privilege.”
for digital,” and “full of holes like Swiss Genocide-apologia is apparently not
cheese.” the extent of Columbia University staff
“Once Young stopped cooperating being a little too comfortable with the
with the investigative reporters, Mar- murder of civilians. After UnitedHealth-
quardt had his fall guy,” the judge wrote. care CEO Brian Thompson was gunned
“And collectively they put together a nar- down in cold blood on the streets of New
rative that despite having holes, would York City, several edgy leftwing social
paint Young in the worst possible light media users channeled their commu-
knowingly using false information or at nist fantasies and celebrated. Nothing
least in a reckless manner.” says the “right side of history” quite like
CNN is getting its fingers burnt in cheering the killing of your political op-
this case. Perhaps it will be more careful ponents in the streets.
before again favoring its narrative over However, it was not just random
the facts. lowlifes on social media taking the
—By Conn Carroll pro-murder side. Tim Wu, a law pro-
fessor at Columbia, hit everyone with
the classic “I do not condone violence.
Columbia: A Wretched behalf of Palestinian terrorists, from the But ... ” genre of posts, using that ex-
“Intifada” name to the caption calling for act quote to say Thompson’s murder
Hive of Scum and the elimination of Israel “from the river was his own fault. Anthony Zenkus,
Villainy to the sea” to even an article complaining a “senior lecturer” at Columbia and
about the “Two-State Solution” or, more self-described communist, celebrated
accurately, the Jewish part of that two- Thompson’s death and blamed him for

E
very society has a place that is state solution. “the deaths of 68,000 Americans who
viewed as a toxic haven of immo- That antisemitism extends to Colum- needlessly die each year.” Ever the com-
rality. Many in the United States bia faculty, including multiple universi- munist, Zenkus also said he, a professor
try to point to combat sports, rap music, ty deans who mocked Jewish students at an Ivy League university, is “working
or video games as the biggest culprit, and community members for feeling class,” which gives him the right to cel-
when in fact, America’s wretched hive of unsafe in the presence of people such ebrate murder.
scum and villainy is actually Columbia
University.
Nestled in the bastion of morality and
humanity that is New York City, Colum-
bia has rapidly risen the ranks to become
the most despicable of the Ivy League
universities, an impressive feat consid-
ering the arrogance of the plagiarizing
elitists at Harvard. Columbia became
the hottest of hotbeds for antisemit-
ic rioters after Palestinians murdered
1,200 Jewish civilians in Israel. Colum-
bia students took to university property
to form antisemitic encampments and
even took over a building, being left off
the hook because pro-criminal Manhat-
tan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said
law enforcement couldn’t identify them
@COLUMBIASJP/COURTESY OF X

after police arrested them in the middle

of their crime.
Columbia’s antisemitic students are
back and bolder than ever in the fall 2024
semester, featuring a new school news-
paper named the Columbia Intifada. The
paper does a little genocide-apologia on

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 9

YOUR LAND

If you are looking for a sliver of mo- list from The Boss.
rality, you are not going to find it at Co- But there was one
lumbia. Maybe you could excuse one problem. It wasn’t ac-
pro-murder professor here or an antise- tually Gottheimer’s
mitic student there (maybe), but Colum- Spotify Wrapped. It
bia has managed to collect swarms of was a photoshopped
people with some of the most despicable version of it that put
beliefs you will find in the country. You the five Springsteen
can only wonder how bad the applicants songs as his most lis-
who get rejected by the university every tened to songs. En-
year are. terprising reporters
—By Zachary Faria noted that the spacing
between the songs on
the list was unusual,
Not So Glory Days and the font used in
the congressman’s
list was also different

L
ying or making erroneous state- from the one used by
ments is a time honored tradition Spotify.
for politicians on the campaign Confronted with
trail, but a member of Congress who the evidence, Got-
happens to be a candidate for the New theimer came clean.
Jersey governorship is taking his tall According to NJ
tales a step further and taking his mis- Advance Media, the
representations to photoshop. wannabe governor confirmed that his get me wrong, I still love listening
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is such a photoshopped list was not a genuine to Taylor Swift!”
fan of Bruce Springsteen, that he walked screenshot of his Spotify Wrapped be- As one of New Jersey’s favorite native
out to his campaign announcement to cause he shares his account with his sons, Springsteen enjoys a unique place
“Glory Days.” But to prove himself a true children, who muddied what would of honor in Garden State culture. So it is
super-fan of The Boss, the aspiring gov- have been a clean sweep for The Boss not hard to see why Gottheimer sought
ernor had to go a step further: share his with Taylor Swift. to identify himself as a fan. But seriously,
Spotify Wrapped for 2024, which listed “This would be my Spotify Wrapped how many people was he going to con-
his most listened-to songs for the year. if I didn’t share my account with my 12 vince to vote for him simply by sharing
And it was a clean sweep for Spring- and 15-year-old kids,” he said. “While that Springsteen is his favorite artist?
steen, with all five songs at the top of the it’s Springsteen all day for me — don’t The congressman is hardly the first
politician to pull a stunt like this, and he
won’t be the last, but honestly, the risks
of being exposed as a phony for what
was a pretty obvious photoshop job were
much higher than any benefit that would
be gained from convincing working
class New Jerseyans that, despite his Ivy
League education and years in politics,
he is still in touch with his roots.
One of the many diagnosed reasons
for the Democratic Party’s failure to con-
nect with voters in this recent election is
the fact that they do not act like normal
people. Normal people don’t photoshop
fake Spotify lists to share on social me-
dia, even if their Spotify Wrapped is
dominated by their child’s obsession
with Taylor Swift. After all, Swift is the
@MAT THEWARCO/COURTESY OF X

most popular pop singer in the world,

and by quite a long shot.
If Gottheimer was really riding down
Thunder Road to live his Glory Days, he
wouldn’t have had to convince people
with a Spotify Wrapped screenshot.
—By Jeremiah Poff

10 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 11
The Swift
Sword
of DOGE
Trump’s spending cutters draw the toughest,
yet most important, assignment
By W. James Antle III

I
t’s not often that champions of ministration to dismantle Government
a smaller federal government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations,
cheer the creation of a new de- cut wasteful expenditures, and restruc-
partment. But the Department ture Federal Agencies,” President-elect
of Government Efficiency isn’t Donald Trump said in a statement. The
like the Department of Motor announcement also quoted Musk as say-
Vehicles. It will be run by two ing, “This will send shockwaves through
businessmen who have made the system, and anyone involved in Gov-
billions of dollars in the pri- ernment waste, which is a lot of people!”
vate sector, Elon Musk and Vivek Ra- It took until 1987 for the federal bud-
maswamy. It is not really a new federal get to reach $1 trillion. The federal gov-
agency but a task force that has been ernment has already spent more than
ordered to wring waste out of old ones. $1.25 trillion in fiscal 2025, which began
Put another way, Musk and Ra- in October. In the previous fiscal year,
maswamy are not tasked with spending Washington spent $6.75 trillion. The
PHOTO BY BRANDON BELL / GET T Y IMAGES

Elon Musk and Donald Trump before a

taxpayer money. They have been charged SpaceX launch in Brownsville, Texas, budget deficit was $1.8 trillion in a time
with saving it. Their goal is to recom- Nov. 19, 2024. of relative peace and prosperity, with
mend $2 trillion in spending cuts, or the pandemic receding into memory, up
nearly 30% of the federal budget. That’s 8% from the previous year. The national
more ambitious than some of DOGE’s Simpson-Bowles commission under debt now exceeds $36 trillion.
predecessors, such as the Grace Com- Barack Obama dabbled in entitlement To put this in perspective, all these
mission under Ronald Reagan or the spending cuts). figures are much higher than they were
Al Gore-led Reinventing Government “Together, these two wonderful during the anti-deficit third-party candi-
initiative under Bill Clinton (though the Americans will pave the way for my Ad- dacies of Ross Perot in the 1990s or what

12 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025 Illustrations by Thomas Fluharty

gave rise to the Tea Party movement in the first year and $5 trillion over five years. The two entrepreneurs have solicit-
2010s. And yet deficits, debt, and the over- At the same time, a focus on “waste, ed the input of outside advisers. One is
all size of the federal government were a fraud, and abuse” can often be a sign of former Texas congressman Ron Paul, a
trivial part of the 2024 campaign at best. unseriousness when it comes to fiscal strikingly libertarian Republican who
Swimming in this vast ocean of discipline. Of the $6.1 trillion the feder- served 12 terms in the House, twice
red ink and massive spending, there al government spent in fiscal 2023, $3.8 sought the GOP presidential nomination
is certainly plenty of waste: pork bar- trillion went toward mandatory spend- and won millions of primary votes, and
rel projects, procurement nightmares, ing programs such as the big entitle- was the 1988 Libertarian Party nomi-
earmarks, and dubious construction ments Social Security and Medicare. All nee for president. Paul would drastically
projects. Citizens Against Government this spending grows on autopilot outside shrink the size and scope of the federal
Waste, a venerable conservative group, the standard congressional budgetary government. Paul, who is also the father
published in October recommended process, making it exceedingly difficult of the senior senator from Kentucky,
cuts it said would save $377 billion in the to cut. A large pork barrel project might kept a sign on his desk in his Capitol Hill
cost $10 million. office: “Don’t steal — the government
Yet, there are plenty of signs hates competition!”
that Trump’s DOGE pointmen are Though widely seen as a Trump im-
eyeing bigger changes than termi- itator, Ramaswamy arguably ran the
nating the occasional federal study most libertarian campaign for the 2024
on the effects of cow flatulence. “A Republican presidential nomination. He
band of small-government revo- proposed “deleting” entire federal agen-
lutionaries will save our nation,” cies and subjecting federal workers to
Ramaswamy vowed. Musk has mass layoffs.
similarly said he is dedicated to “The reality is the adviser class from
“ensuring that maniacally dedicat- the D.C. swamp has convinced Repub-
ed small-government revolution- lican presidents from Reagan to Trump
aries join this administration.” that they can’t reorganize the federal
government or lay off large numbers of
federal employees without congressio-
nal permission or within federal regu-
lations,” Ramaswamy told NBC News
ahead of a speech to the Trump-aligned
America First Policy Institute in Wash-
ington, D.C., last year. He said the swamp
adviser class’s view of what a Republican
president can do to cut the federal work-
force is “wrong.”
Musk, a former Democrat, is a more
recent convert to techno-libertarianism.
He has been sharing videos of the leg-
endary free-market economist Milton
Friedman calling for the abolition of
multiple Cabinet-level federal agencies.
“Milton Friedman was the best,” Musk
posted on X, the social media website
known as Twitter until he bought it.
While most Democrats want nothing
to do with DOGE, pointing to Musk’s
lucrative government contracts, some
Musk, a former progressives have tried to turn Trump’s
Democrat, is a recent team on to defense budget cuts. It’s the
convert to techno- biggest slice of discretionary spending.
The Pentagon has failed seven straight
libertarianism. Lately, audits. But this will divide congressio-
he has been sharing nal Republicans, many of whom believe
videos of the legendary the country’s existing defense spending
commitments are insufficient to deter
free-market economist China and other global threats.
Milton Friedman calling This has been the dilemma faced by
for the abolition of every Republican president since Rea-
gan: There is limited appetite for cutting
multiple Cabinet-level the biggest domestic spending programs
federal agencies. while rebuilding the military and cutting

December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 13

taxes. Starting with George W. Bush, it based tax increase and are much harder of its old ideas about limited govern-
became easier to simply boost defense to bring down. It was under these eco- ment, making DOGE something of a
spending and cut taxes without worrying nomic conditions that support for the throwback. But no less than Reagan in
about the red ink. But Bush inherited a Democrats declined and Trump pulled 1981, this time, inflationary spending
budget surplus. Trump, who previously off what is arguably the greatest political made it possible for him to wield political
governed during a pandemic, will return comeback in U.S. history. power in the first place. Musk and Ra-
to the White House in a time when the Trump signed into law stimulus maswamy have as important a mission
federal government runs $1 trillion annu- spending bills that were also inflation- as any Trump appointee next year. +
al deficits when there is no crisis, other ary. (Biden lamented that he should have
than perhaps a debt crisis, at all. followed Trump in putting his name on W. James Antle III is executive editor of
At some point, however, it will be- the checks.) But Biden’s American Res- the Washington Examiner magazine.
come difficult to keep cutting taxes and cue Plan was enacted as the lockdowns
investing in national defense as interest were coming to an end and after trillions
payments on the debt become a progres- of dollars had already been spent. Bide-
sively larger slice of the federal budget. nomics proved too costly.
Trump has proposed ideas such as no Biden still defends his approach
taxes on tips that will possibly grow the as growing the economy from the
electoral constituency for lower tax- bottom up and the middle out, car-
es, but these tax cuts will have no real icaturing his opponents’ econom-
Laffer curve effect. Even under dynamic ic policies as “trickle-down.” Yet
scoring, they will be projected to be big Biden is old enough to remember
revenue losers. that it was inflation that broke the
These are the obstacles ahead of New Deal-Great Society consen-
Musk and Ramaswamy. DOGE can’t cut sus 40 years ago, ushering in 12
any spending by itself. It needs Congress years of Republican presidents.
to act on its recommendations. Republi- Democrats have won the White
cans have slim majorities, especially in House multiple times since then but
the House. Only a subset of GOP law- never fully recovered.
makers have proven especially interest- Trump may be leading
ed in significant spending cuts. Trump the GOP toward re-
has never been a big government cutter thinking some
himself, though he told some Republi-
cans on Capitol Hill during his first term
he would look more closely at the budget
once safely reelected.
Trump courted the Libertarian Par-
ty during the 2024 campaign, helping to
hold its presidential nominee to fewer
than 1 million votes for the first time in
16 years. But he also promised federal
coverage for fertility treatments, ex-
pressed openness to an increase in the
federal minimum wage, and swore off
cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Trump has distanced the GOP from
Paul Ryan-style entitlement reforms and
brought more downscale voters into the There are plenty of
party’s electoral coalition. signs that Trump’s
That raises the question of wheth-
er Trump has any real mandate to cut DOGE pointmen are
spending, as opposed to securing the eyeing bigger changes
border. But the consequences of feder-
al overspending contributed to Trump’s
than terminating the
election in one important, if indirect, occasional federal
way: inflation. study on the effects of
Inflation hitting a 41-year high during
President Joe Biden’s term was a power-
cow flatulence. ‘A band
ful reminder that there are real conse- of small-government
quences to federal spending exceeding revolutionaries will
our desire to pay for it with direct tax-
ation. High consumer prices hurt the save our nation,’
working class as surely as any broad- Ramaswamy vowed.
14 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025
December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 15
 Conservatives
We Lost in 2024
We should acknowledge the deaths of those who,
in living, made the world a better place
By Tevi Troy

I
t’s a bit of a strange year for hear you. The rest of the world hears you,
lamentations. Conservatives and the people who knocked down these
are generally bullish over buildings will hear all of us soon.”
the election results, and the Another post-9/11 inspiration came
most prominent deaths of from country music legend Toby Keith.
the year are ones that are His hit song, “Courtesy of the Red,
perhaps more causes of cel- White, and Blue,” written in just 20 min-
ebration than anything else. I utes, had similar sentiments to those
am thinking here of Hamas’s expressed by Bush on the firetruck,
Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, Hez- including the line, “And you’ll be sorry
bollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and that you messed with/ The U.S. of A./
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. These ‘Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass/ It’s
evil Islamists all sought the destruction the American way.” The song shaped his
of Israel, America, and the West and are reputation, and he knew it. As Keith re-
responsible for the deaths of hundreds of called, “Most people think I’m a redneck
Americans and thousands of innocents. patriot. I’m OK with that.”
The world is better off without them. Ted Olson was also personally affect-
While we are glad to see the end of ed by 9/11. Olson was sitting in his office
those who sought to destroy our way at the Department of Justice when his
of life, we should also acknowledge the Bob Beckwith wife Barbara called him from one of the
deaths of those who, in living, made the hijacked planes to say farewell. Olson
world a better place. Bob Beckwith notified other top officials of what was
was never a household name, but for a Beckwith had been asked by someone he happening. It may have been the most fa-
brief moment in 2001, he was the face of thought was a member of the Secret Ser- mous moment in a long and distinguished
America’s resilience in the face of Islamist vice, but later identified as White House career that also included service in for-
terrorism, an evil we are still fighting to aide Karl Rove, to assess whether the mer President Ronald Reagan’s Justice
this day. On Sept. 14, 2001, truck was stable. He did so Department and successfully arguing the
Beckwith, a New York City and then sought to get down. Bush v. Gore case in the Supreme Court.
firefighter who spent three Bush, now on the truck, said, Olson’s support of some liberal causes
decades serving the people of “Where are you going? You’re late in life did not signal a departure from
New York, joined then-President George going to be right here with me.” Bush then the conservative movement. He remained
W. Bush on top of a firetruck at the site put his arm around Beckwith and said a member of the Federalist Society’s
of the destroyed World Trade Center. those iconic and inspiring words, “I can Board of Visitors to the end of his life.

16 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025 Illustrations by Dean MacAdam

 with and keen understanding of Capitol
Hill, Korologos would wisely tell nomi-
nees, “What is your nightmare question
you don’t want them to ask? You better
have an answer for it, because they’re
going to ask it.”
Ironically, Korologos was best known
for the confirmation that he did not se-
cure, that of Robert H. Bork to the Su-
preme Court in 1987. After that bitter and
high-profile failure, Nixon called Korolo-
gos and asked him for a list of senators
who had opposed Bork. Korologos asked
why he wanted it, and Nixon replied,
“I’m busy making my annual Christmas
contributions, and I want to make sure
none of those bastards who opposed him
are on my list.”
Despite Korologos’s “101st Senator”
Toby Keith nickname, he was never elected to any- Richard Allen
thing. But a number of people who died
this year were. One was Joe Lieberman.
Also important in the Reagan admin- Lieberman was a Democrat, but he was Congress, but he did defeat Democratic
istration was Richard Allen, who served supported by none other than William F. Speaker of the House Tom Foley in win-
as Reagan’s first national security adviser. Buckley in his race to defeat the extremely ning his seat in 1994. That successful race
Allen had been expected to be national liberal Republican Lowell Weicker in 1988. was the cherry on top of the Newt Ging-
security adviser under former President (Weicker died in 2023 but most decided- rich-led revolution, in which Republicans
Richard Nixon but lost out to Henry ly did not make the cut for this lookback won control of the House for the first time
Kissinger. Allen got the job under Rea- when he did.) While Lieberman was liberal in four decades. Jim Inhofe was a reliable
gan but resigned because of allegations on domestic policy, he was willing to ques- conservative and longtime senator from
of bribery, of which he was fully cleared. tion some of the Left’s sacred cows, such Oklahoma who was treated incredibly un-
It turned out he was also a victim of inter- as racial quotas. He was allied with con- fairly by his MSM obituaries. The Wash-
nal White House machinations directed servatives on foreign policy, though: He ington Post headline read, “James Inhofe,
against Ed Meese. Despite Allen’s short was a staunch anti-communist and strong Oklahoma senator and climate-change
White House tenure, he was involved in supporter of Israel. George Nethercutt denier, dies at 89.” I don’t recall Ted Ken-
a lot of great Reagan moments: He coined was not that well known as a member of nedy’s obituary headline focusing on the
the term “Reaganauts” to describe the tragedy of Chappaquiddick or Robert
Reagan team; he was the one who asked Byrd’s obituary headlines mentioning his
Reagan in 1977 about his Cold War strat- onetime membership in the Ku Klux Klan.
egy, to which Reagan said, “We win and Of course, conservative politicians
they lose”; and he suggested and pushed can only get elected if there are conser-
for George H.W. Bush to join the Reagan
Richard Allen coined vative activists who push them forward
team after the misbegotten idea of having the term ‘Reaganauts’ and also help motivate voters to support
Reagan run with former President Gerald and was the one who their ideas. We had some real losses in
Ford thankfully fizzled. this area in 2024. Rich Galen, a political
Allen also, to his credit, hated leaks. asked Reagan in 1977 strategist who worked for Dan Quayle,
He called the notoriously press-friend- about his Cold War Newt Gingrich, Lee Atwater, H. Ross
ly David Gergen “Professor Leaky,” and strategy, to which Perot, and T. Boone Pickens, among oth-
he also refused to leak himself, call- ers, believed in the promise of America.
ing leaking “nonsense.” As he told the Reagan said, ‘We win According to Galen, “In America, it just
Washington Post’s Elisabeth Bumiller in and they lose’; and he doesn’t matter from whence you come. It
1981, “I don’t do it. It’s so tacky and stu- only matters how hard you have worked
pid because it’ll always come back to the
suggested and pushed to get where you are now.” Owen Fris-
leaker.” for George H.W. Bush by was a longtime lobbyist for Chase
Tom Korologos also became famous to join the Reagan team Manhattan who, according to my friend
in the Reagan administration, although Tim Goeglein, “never missed a Grover
he had a long career advising multiple
after the misbegotten [Norquist] or [Paul] Weyrich meeting.”
Republican administrations. Korologos idea of having Reagan CNN political commentator Alice Stew-
was known as a Senate confirmation run with former art was a skilled communicator who
guru, advising more than 300 nominees worked for four Republican presidential
to top administration positions. Known President Gerald Ford campaigns but never had the fortune to
as the “101st Senator” for his familiarity thankfully fizzled. work for a winning one.

December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 17

 Home Depot co-founder Bernie Mar- being violated by government,” in con- hosting Wheel of Fortune, Scrabble, Love
cus did not work for political candidates, trast to “most public-interest legal shops Connection, and others, he eventually
but he helped fund many Republican whose goal is to expand government went public with his conservative views
ones. His store captured the American power over individuals and business.” and even hosted a conservative podcast,
can-do spirit by encouraging people to Longtime CATO Institute official David Blunt Force Truth.
do their own home improvement. Mar- Boaz was a stalwart proponent of liber- While most of these people died of
cus also feared that future entrepreneurs tarian ideas and author of the 1997 book natural causes, it is fitting to conclude
might
ht not be able to replicate his succe
success Libertarianism: A Primer. He woke up to with one person who was murdered for
NPR every morning despite the fact that
it infuriated him. As Boaz explained his
motivation, “I need to know what’s going
on in the world, and in the second place,
dammit, I want to know what these peo-
ple are up to! It’s an outrage what they’re
up to, and I don’t want them to get away
with it. I want to fight.” Another fighter
was the Competitive Enterprise Institute
co-founder Fred Smith. Originally a lib-
eral who worked at the Environmental
Protection Agency, he learned to see the
folly of overregulation and the benefits
of innovation and entrepreneurship to
solve social problems. While commit-
ted in his beliefs, Smith engaged his
opponents with a smile. As CEI’s Ryan
Young wrote of him, “Even people who
disagreed with everything he stood for
couldn’t help but like him.”
Entertainment is not usually consid-
Chuck
ck Woolery ered a conservative field, but some enter- Alexei Navalny
tainers who died in the last year should be
noted here. Comedian Bob Newhart was
not a conservative, but he wasn’t a liberal,
because of what he called “regulations either, keeping his act blessedly apoliti- the sin of fighting for freedom. Russian
and all this woke crap.” Marcus thought cal. After Clint Eastwood spoke to a chair President Vladimir Putin’s increasingly
businesses should stick to their knitting. at the 2012 Republican convention, in a autocratic regime killed the Russian po-
As he told Fox Business’s and the New poor imitation of Newhart’s legendary litical reformer Alexei Navalny. Navalny
York Post’s Charles Gasparino, “I ran a one-way conversation bit, Newhart wryly could have chosen more years of life had
business for 60 years. I would never get observed, “I kept watching it and watch- he remained in exile in Germany, but he
involved with a social issue outside of ing it. I want to say to Clint — it’s not as courageously returned to Russia to try to
business. That was not my business.” easy as it looks, is it?” Another comedy fight for a free Russia. This is the differ-
Concerned Women for America’s Bever- legend was Jim Abrahams of Airplane ence between the people celebrated here
ly LaHaye was a longtime activist for so- fame. As the Hollywood Reporter wrote and the unlamented foursome of Sinwar,
cially conservative causes. As president, of that legendary comedy, “The jokes are Haniyeh, Nasrallah, and Raisi. Those cel-
Reagan praised her efforts, calling her directed at sex, politics, religion, and al- ebrated here wanted to build upon, and
“one of the powerhouses on the political most everything else.” The willingness of to conserve, humanity’s highest ideals of
scene today.” Abrahams and his co-authors, the Zuck- human worth and dignity and its great
Once elected, conservative politicians er brothers, to laugh at, and make fun of, achievements. Those who war on the
are only as good as their ideas. Unfortu- everything stands in stark contrast to West opposed those ideals and wanted
nately, we lost a lot of important idea gen- the way “woke” Hollywood approaches to destroy those achievements. In the
erators in 2024. Health economist Gail comedy today. I have no idea if James long run, it’s the builders who will win
Wilensky headed HCFA, the precursor B. Sikking was a conservative, but his — and to whom we direct our undying
to the Centers for Medicare and Med- Hill Street Blues character, Lt. Howard respect and gratitude. +
icaid Services, under former President Hunter, certainly was. Hunter’s patriotic
George H.W. Bush. She was one of the response to voting in person — “I always Washington Examiner contributing
center-Right’s leading healthcare voic- get a kick in the old adrenals every time I writer Tevi Troy is a senior fellow at the
es for decades afterward. William H. give that lever a yank” — comes back to Ronald Reagan Institute and a former
“Chip” Mellor co-founded the Institute me every time I cast my vote, even to this senior White House aide. He is the author
for Justice and was one of the Right’s top day. Unlike these other three, game show of five books on the presidency, including
legal theorists. As the Wall Street Journal host Chuck Woolery was an avowed The Power and the Money: The Epic
wrote of him in an editorial, “IJ’s mission conservative. After a career of keep- Clashes Between Commanders in Chief
is to help Americans whose rights are ing his politics mostly to himself while and Titans of Industry.

18 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025

 Pam Bondi President-elect Donald Trump Kash Patel

Todd Blanche Emil Bove John Sauer

TRUMP
AND THE LAW
The president-elect’s relationship with the legal system
will play a decisive role in his second term
By Varad Mehta

P
r esident-elect Donald found his way to the White House in the Supreme Court justices, over 50 appellate
Trump’s fraught, tem- first place due in no small part to the jurists, and more than 230 federal judges.
pestuous, yet ultimately courts and the law. Now, in many ways, it The first way he could do so, of course,
empowering relationship is thanks to them that he finds himself on is with more additions to the Supreme
with the legal system has his way back to it. Court. The likeliest retirees are Justices
defined his political career. Neither the stakes nor the opportuni- Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Both
It dominated his first term, ty are quite so high as they were in 2016, men are in their mid-70s and the subject
continued to play a critical role during his when the winner of the election would fill of considerable speculation about if and
antipresidency, and is now poised to exert the open seat held by the late when they might retire. While
a decisive influence on his second admin- Antonin Scalia (and perhaps some figures in the conserva-
istration. It will do so in the same forms a vacancy or two more), de- tive legal movement scoff at
it has already taken: his judicial appoint- termining which party con- the idea that either will step
ments, his use of executive power to im- trolled the high court for the next few down anytime soon, the consensus is that
plement his agenda, and legal challenges decades. But Trump will still be able to neither wants to follow in the footsteps of
by his administration and its opponents cement his legacy further on the federal Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Moreover, a GOP
to enforce or defeat that agenda. Trump bench, one that already includes three majority in the Senate is only guaranteed

Photographs from the Associated Press December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 19
for the next two years, an extra induce- favored by MAGA’s legal wing, the Wash- from schools that promote gender iden-
ment to depart sooner rather than later. ington Post reported just before the elec- tity and coddle antisemitic protesters,
Should both men leave, Trump would tion. But they don’t just want “bold and roll back environmental regulations and
become the first president to appoint fearless judges,” as one of those advisers undo Biden’s climate change initiatives,
a majority of the court since Dwight characterized the kind of jurists they’re and get tougher on crime. He has mulled
Eisenhower. looking for. They want bold and fearless refusing to spend money appropriated
Though Trump didn’t release a list of attorneys, too, ones who won’t thwart by Congress, something the president is
possible Supreme Court justices this time or stymie more hard-line policies, which barred from doing by law. He is certain
as he did in 2016 and 2020, many of the they believe happened during Trump’s to use the Federal Vacancies Reform Act
names on those earlier rosters are likely first term. Hence, over a year ago, per to install loyalists at various agencies if
to be in play for any forthcoming vacan- the New York Times, Trump’s allies were Congress rejects his nominees, though
cies. Contenders include Amul Thapar “building new recruiting pipelines sep- this would be a tamer alternative than
of the 6th Circuit, Andrew Oldham, Kyle arate from the Federalist Society” that his apparently abandoned demand that
Duncan, and James Ho of the 5th Circuit, could provide “a more aggressive breed congressional Republicans allow him to
Neomi Rao of the District of Columbia of right-wing lawyer” to staff a second make recess appointments of his Cabi-
Circuit, Patrick Bumatay and Lawrence Trump administration. net picks. Trump has also mused about
VanDyke of the 9th Circuit, and Barba- Bold, fearless, and aggressive is what ending birthright citizenship by fiat, in
ra Lagoa (the runner-up to Justice Amy his opponents will be. Just as in his first seeming violation of the 14th Amend-
Coney Barrett) of the 11th Circuit. One term, they are sure to sue over anything ment. He has stated his intent to fire and
thing seems certain: Unless he becomes and everything he does. As soon as reclassify thousands of civil servants and
the first president in ages to pluck some- Trump was declared the victor of this may even try to force federal employ-
one from elected office, whoever he picks year’s election, blue states, as Politico ees who have been working from home
for the Supreme Court is almost certain described it, began “plotting to thwart since COVID-19 to return to the office.
to be, as Barrett, someone Trump himself Trump.” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), for He could also fire Biden appointees to
appointed to the circuit courts. example, called a special session of his the boards of independent agencies such
Trump returns to the Oval Office state’s legislature to allocate funding for as the National Labor Relations Board,
with possibly four openings on the cir- lawsuits and take other steps to bolster whose members the president generally
cuit courts, fewer than in 2017. Accord- the state’s impending anti-Trump efforts. cannot terminate because of a 1935 Su-
ing to data compiled by National Review’s If Newsom sounds confident, even ar- preme Court decision. Last but hardly
Ed Whelan, he could replace around 30 rogant, about his chances of frustrating least, as president, he has vast authority
judges appointed by Republican presi- Trump, it’s not without justification. The to declare national emergencies. Just as in
dents and two dozen appointed by Dem- Golden State sued Trump over a hundred his first term, therefore, many of the legal
ocrats if they all take senior status by times and won most of the disputes. For battles Trump faces will concern his use
the end of his term. But the total is like- all his vaunted success on the courts, of executive power.
ly to be smaller than that, especially on Trump wasn’t nearly as successful in “Courts restrained Trump in his 1st
the Democratic side. As a result, Trump court. Not least because of the shoddy, term. Will they ‘check’ his power again?”
won’t come close to matching the 54 corner-cutting procedures his adminis- ABC News wondered shortly after the
circuit judges he appointed in his initial tration engaged in early on, particularly election. Perhaps. But there is reason to
term, let alone the 19 seats he was able on environmental issues, which made it believe he will have a stronger hand this
to flip, which will prevent him from flip- easy for judges to spurn him. time around. Trump won the popular
ping any courts, either (he flipped three The courts dealt Trump numerous vote, which gives him the semblance of a
circuits last time). Several judges Trump setbacks while he was president. The mandate and might afford him a bit more
appointed to federal district courts Supreme Court blocked his attempts to leeway with skeptical judges. For another
could be in line for promotion, including rescind Deferred Action for Childhood thing, the Resistance’s favorite venue for
the ones who overturned the Food and Arrivals, the program allowing illegal im- filing challenges to Trump is no longer so
Drug Administration’s authorization of migrants brought to the United States as favorable. The 10 judges he added to the
the abortion pill, rejected President Joe children to stay in the country, and add a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which cov-
Biden’s COVID-19 transportation mask citizenship question to the 2020 census. ers California and other Western states,
mandate, and threw out the classified While it eventually allowed his so-called mean there is a far stronger chance than
documents case against him. Muslim ban to go into effect, it did so only before that the panels reviewing any neg-
Something that might change is who after forcing him to water it down by re- ative rulings have Republican majorities.
selects and vets prospective judges. jecting one of its earlier iterations. The The courts generally should be less hos-
While the Federalist Society played a justices also allowed House Democrats tile, not only because of Trump’s myriad
leading role in Trump’s first term, that to subpoena his tax records and blocked appointments but also because they’ll
august organization has seen its star other attempts by Trump to prevent in- have less to work with. Having one stint
dim lately, part of the overall reckoning vestigators from accessing his personal under its belt and spent the last four years
on the Right unleashed by Trump. In- and business records. planning for the next one, Team Trump
stead of Leonard Leo, longtime head of Trump has vowed to deploy the mil- comes back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
conservatism’s preeminent legal group, itary to the border and begin mass de- better prepared and more aware of the
Trump’s advisers on judicial nominees portations of illegal immigrants, which pitfalls and roadblocks in its way. Its ini-
will be figures who espouse the more multiple blue jurisdictions have prom- tiatives, therefore, are much less likely to
confrontational, combative approach ised to stand in the way of, pull funding be the hasty, slapdash affairs that were so

20 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

easy for judges to shoot down. Attorney General Pam Bondi, a longtime Merchan, the judge overseeing Trump’s
Not that all of his executive actions loyalist, to replace him. He also tapped New York hush money trial, has post-
were shot down. The courts did sign off on Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, two of his poned sentencing several times while
some of them. And because many Biden defense attorneys, for the second and third deciding whether to dismiss the indict-
administration policies Trump is likely to positions at the Department of Justice, ment, with no opposition from Man-
reverse remain in limbo because of litiga- and John Sauer, who argued the presiden- hattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. If
tion, he could repeal them simply by refus- tial immunity case at the Supreme Court, sentencing ever does occur, it won’t be
ing to appeal an adverse judgment, which as solicitor general. Trump has also chosen until after Trump’s second term ends.
would let him kill them without having to Kash Patel, one of his fiercest defenders, As for the Georgia election interference
go through a court battle first. Among the to be FBI director. These selections are case, the appellate court deciding wheth-
policies in the first category are the “Mus- in keeping with Trump’s oft-stated desire er Fulton County District Attorney Fani
lim ban” and expedited removal of illegal to overhaul the DOJ, an agency that has Willis should be removed has placed it
immigrants. The appeals courts divided long infuriated him and that he has exco- in an obscure purgatory no one quite
on Trump’s rule expanding which immi- riated as “corrupt and discredited.” Patel, understands. Trump still faces a barrage
grants count as a “public charge” because like Trump, has vowed retribution against of civil litigation relating to the events of
they might require welfare and can thus be Trump’s enemies, such as special counsel Jan. 6 and continuing appeals in E. Jean
denied entry, his efforts to deny funding to Jack Smith and members of the House Carroll’s defamation suit and his New
“sanctuary cities,” and his rule denying Ti- Jan. 6 committee such as former Rep. Liz York business fraud case. But civil suits
tle X family planning funding to abortion Cheney. The Washington Post claimed simply don’t carry the weight of crimi-
providers. But these splits just mean the Trump intends to fire Smith’s entire team, nal indictments. The goal of this lawfare
Supreme Court can intervene as soon as including nonpolitical DOJ employees. So was to put Trump in prison or, failing
Trump reimplements them, without wait- fearful are some of Trump’s critics about that, at least keep him out of the White
ing for further action by the lower courts. what he could do that they are urging ca- House. Instead, thanks at least in part to
Net neutrality, the rewriting of Title IX to reer DOJ staff to stay and not bolt for the the indispensable assistance of the “legal
include sexual orientation and gender iden- exits. resistance,” in less than two months, he
tity, DACA, new water pollution limits, an With the DOJ at his disposal, Trump will return to it in triumph, more power-
expansion of the definition of a “seller” of would be able to affect the law in ways ful and popular than ever.
firearms, and the Federal Trade Commis- large and small. A Trump DOJ is expected Donald Trump left the presidency in
sion’s ban on noncompete clauses are just to lessen oversight considerably of police 2021 after four years during which he
a few of the Biden regulations in abeyance departments found to have violated civil wielded a potent, nearly unyielding influ-
while judges decide their fates. Normally, rights. Unlike his predecessor, Trump is ence on the courts that reshaped the fed-
a new rule would have to be promulgated unlikely to investigate parents who pro- eral judiciary. The subsequent four years,
to repeal and/or replace an old one, a la- test school boards for including gender when he was out of office and thus the
borious, time-consuming process. Yet with identity and critical race theory in their subject, not the shaper, of the law, had no
these regulations, all the Trump adminis- children’s curricula or arrest physicians less a profound impact on the legal and
tration would have to do to make them for exposing hospitals for dubious prac- political systems of the U.S. This inter-
disappear is accept decisions striking them tices in treating transgender youth. When regnum saw the Supreme Court majority
down. The courts would be ruling against the party occupying the White House he forged overturn Roe v. Wade, expand
Biden, but it’s Trump who would benefit. changes, so does the government’s po- gun rights, strike a decisive blow to the
Given this possible outcome, perhaps sition in some cases before the Supreme administrative state, and outlaw affirma-
the Left will evince a newfound appreci- Court. Trump is anticipated to continue tive action, while Trump himself became
ation for Loper Bright Enterprises v. Rai- that pattern in two of the biggest cas- the first president to face criminal charges
mondo, the Supreme Court opinion from es the justices have heard this term, the as well as the first to have his eligibility
June that sharply limited the ability of challenges to Biden’s rule outlawing contested under Section 3 of the 14th
government agencies to take steps that “ghost guns” and to Tennessee’s law ban- Amendment.
aren’t explicitly authorized by statutory ning so-called gender-affirming care for As a result, the Supreme Court deliv-
language, especially on what the justices minors. Maybe most important of all is ered two landmark rulings in 2024, one
have dubbed “major questions.” In a sign that as president, Trump will once again rejecting the effort to disqualify him and
of the first as tragedy, then as farce quali- have the power of the pardon, something setting the parameters for applying Sec-
ty that seems destined to mark the Resis- he reiterated on his Meet the Press appear- tion 3 to federal office, the other estab-
tance 2.0, progressive commentators have ance that he intends to use on behalf of lishing for the first time that a president
begun extolling the virtues of states’ rights many, if not all, the Jan. 6 rioters as early is immune from prosecution for the exer-
and federalism. Just as they did last time. as his first day in office. cise of his constitutional powers, neither
They might even mean it this time. On that note, perhaps the only way of which would have been imaginable five
Trump’s constitutional authority to the past won’t be prologue in Trump’s years ago. Whatever the next four years
execute and enforce federal law is another second term when it comes to his inter- hold, we can be confident that when it
means by which he can influence the legal actions with the law will be in the ab- comes to the law, they shall prove as mo-
system, and one more path to conflict with sence of the lawfare perpetrated by the mentous as the previous eight. 
his foes. Personnel is policy, and though his Resistance that marked his Mar-a-Lag-
nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz as onian exile. The federal Jan. 6 and clas- Varad Mehta is a writer and historian. He
attorney general predictably went down in sified documents cases no longer exist, lives in the Philadelphia area. Find him on
flames, he quickly named former Florida both now having been dismissed. Juan X @varadmehta.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 21

 Is China
Setting the Table
for War?

Washington must act with urgency to deter Beijing

By Sean Durns

C
hina is preparing for war. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. John intentions.
The United States is dis- Aquilino, warned that China would be The Pentagon’s annual China Military
tracted and distant. And ready to invade Taiwan in 2027. Aquilino Power Report notes that Beijing has con-
Beijing seems to have a told the U.S. House Armed Services Com- ducted more than 280 coercive air inter-
strategy — one that will mittee that “all indications point to” the cepts against the U.S. and its allies in the
exploit both Washing- People’s Liberation Army being prepared last two years alone. As China’s power
ton’s inability to focus to carry out Xi’s orders. This isn’t a sur- grows, the Middle Kingdom has become
and its depleted indus- prise. China has been engaged in the larg- more assertive. On its face, this isn’t un-
trial base. America must reckon with both est military buildup in modern history. usual. Many scholars of international re-
China’s ambitions and capabilities while And that buildup signals that China seeks lations theory are quick to note that it is
having an honest accounting of its own. to project power far beyond the Pacific. common for a nation’s military to expand
MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP

Chinese President Xi Jinping has Beijing has the largest fleet in the commensurately with its growing inter-
called for China to be ready to invade Tai- world and is currently the fastest-growing ests. What is unusual, however, is the ex-
wan by 2027. And it looks like Xi might nuclear power on the planet. Its air force tent of China’s power. Napoleon predicted
get his wish. is on track to be the largest in the world. years ago that when China rose, the world
In March 2024, the then-head of the China’s growing military power belies its would quake. Now, as noted American de-

22 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

fense strategist Elbridge Colby observed, no-American war would be cataclysmic. Russia’s February 2022 invasion of
“the world is quaking.” Tremors are being China’s economic and military power Ukraine will go down as a seminal mo-
felt from Taipei to Kyiv and beyond. dwarfs those of previous U.S. opponents, ment in modern history, a sign of how
The era of China “hiding its strength including the Soviet Union, Nazi Germa- far American deterrence has eroded in
and biding its time,” as the late Chinese ny, and Imperial Japan, among others. Europe and beyond. Moscow seeks to
Communist Party head Deng Xiaoping And America is unprepared. remake the map of Europe and reconsti-
famously recommended decades ago, is The U.S. has spent decades fighting tute its old empire. And it believed that it
over. The U.S. has two years to prepare for insurgencies and non-state actors such could do so unimpeded. Ultimately, Pu-
World War III, former Rep. Mike Gallagh- as al Qaeda or third-rate armies such as tin’s goal of seizing Ukraine was thwarted
er recently warned. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. A war with Chi- by the bravery of Ukrainian fighting men
History tells us that China is engaged na, a country with the means to deliver and women and aid from the West. That
in a massive military buildup for a reason. devastating strikes on the American conflict seems to have settled into a war
Dictatorships buy weapons to use them homeland and to leverage supply chain of attrition, with Ukraine unable to expel
or, at the very least, for their coercive vulnerabilities to shut down hospitals Russian forces fully from its land and
power. It would be extremely odd for Chi- and key sectors of the economy, would be Russia unable to conquer Ukraine. This
na, a nation with a long history of internal of a scale and type not seen since World is certainly not the outcome that Putin,
unrest, inequality, and poverty, to choose War II, if ever. The logistics alone of such who audaciously dreamed of being able to
to invest so much in projecting power far a conflict would put tremendous pressure seize Ukraine in a matter of weeks, envi-
from its shores — indeed, far from the re- on U.S. defense planners. Indeed, during sioned. But a war of attrition suits Beijing
gion — without cause. the last World War, the U.S. spent more just fine. It serves to distract American
China has long coveted Taiwan. As than three years in brutal warfare in the policymakers and the public from China’s
Kevin Peraino documented in his 2017 Indo-Pacific fighting Japan, a country growing might while simultaneously de-
book A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, whose economic and military might pale pleting munitions stockpiles that would
and the Birth of Modern China, the Chi- in comparison to present-day China. And prove essential to thwarting a Chinese
nese Communist regime began obsessing that war’s denouement only came thanks invasion of Taiwan.
about Taiwan before they had even con- to the U.S. being the sole possessor of Indeed, in November 2024, the head of
solidated power in the final months of the nuclear weapons — an advantage that the Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Samuel
civil war in 1949. Mere weeks after the fall the U.S. no longer enjoys. Indeed, some Paparo, acknowledged that some of the
of Shanghai, regime founder Mao Zedong analysts fear that China may be eclips- munitions being sent to Ukraine were
ordered PLA commanders to “pay atten- ing the U.S. in the latest revolutionary “eating into stocks ... and to say otherwise
tion to the problem of seizing Taiwan development in military affairs: artificial would be dishonest.” Such weapons are
immediately.” intelligence. crucial, he added, noting that “it imposes
At the time, China hadn’t begun to re- The stakes are even higher now. The costs on the readiness of America to re-
cover from the invasion of the Japanese Indo-Pacific will soon account for the spond in the Indo-Pacific region, which is
empire, let alone the decadeslong civil majority of the world’s GDP. If China the most stressing theater for the quantity
war. China had been in a state of perpetu- successfully seizes Taiwan, it will be on its and quality of munitions, because [China]
al upheaval for nearly four decades, dating way to mastery of that region and, with it, is the most capable potential adversary in
back to the 1911 revolution, if not before. the world. By displacing America and be- the world.” Jake Sullivan, the Biden ad-
It speaks volumes that with millions dead, coming the sole superpower, Xi will fulfill ministration’s national security adviser,
the countryside devastated, and famine a long-standing objective. As Mao pro- recently concurred, admitting that “the
commonplace, Mao set his sights on Tai- claimed in 1956, “To overtake the United American ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ was
wan before the blood had even dried. States is not only possible but absolutely fundamentally underequipped for the
For its part, the U.S. also recognized necessary and obligatory.” task at hand.” Restoring the defense in-
the importance of Taiwan. As early as Beijing also seems to have a plan. Or, dustrial base, Sullivan said, will prove to
December 1949, then-Chairman of the at the very least, it seems intent on ex- be a “generational project.”
Joint Chiefs of Staff Omar Bradley called ploiting American weaknesses. Previously, some analysts had main-
Taiwan strategically critical, and Gen. China has boosted its support for vari- tained that munitions sent to Ukraine
Douglas MacArthur famously called the ous regimes throughout the world. On the were of a different type than those that
island an “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” European landmass, Beijing has played Taiwan would need, that aid to one wasn’t
Yet, for many decades, China remained a key role in fueling Russian President necessarily linked to the other. But this
impoverished, the victim of Mao’s pol- Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In clearly isn’t the case. And it may go far in
icies. Taiwan, now a democracy with a the Middle East, China has become an explaining China’s support for Russia.
vibrant economy, was ruled by a military important ally of the Islamic Republic of In March 2023, Putin and Xi held a
clique until the 1980s. Now, China has the Iran. And closer to home, China has con- meeting in Moscow and hailed a “new
means to make good on its plans. And it’s tinued its close ties with North Korea. All era” in their relationship. By September
clear it is considering doing so. The con- of these countries are ruled by brutal au- 2024, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt
sequences would be tremendous. tocracies, and all have shown themselves Campbell called Chinese aid “very sub-
“We are in the foothills of a great pow- to be capable of sowing chaos. China’s de- stantial,” noting that Beijing’s assistance
er war,” Matt Pottinger, a former deputy cision to deepen relations with all three is is helping Moscow circumvent sanctions
national security adviser in the Trump likely not a coincidence. and that “these are not dual-use capabil-
administration, recently cautioned. Such China, Pottinger warned in May 2024, ities.” Rather, they are “basically being
warnings shouldn’t be taken lightly. A Si- seems to be “setting the table” for war. applied directly to the Russian war ma-

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 23

24 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025
chine.” Campbell and others believe that Tehran is also a kindred spirit. Like change in the social media within Chi-
in exchange for this crucial support, Rus- Beijing and Moscow, the Islamic Repub- na. The antisemitism became more un-
sia is providing China with the latest in lic is both a revisionist and imperialist plugged, more free-flowing.” There was,
military tech, to include submarine, mis- power, seeking to expand its holdings. he observed, a “conscious decision by
sile, and stealth technology. Traditional- Both China and Iran want a diminished the Chinese government to allow that
ly, Russia has a history of both temporary American presence in the region. And kind of rhetoric to be greatly increased.”
alliances and enmity with China, and on both regimes have a shared interest in China has broken with a long-standing
some occasions, Moscow has been re- overturning the U.S.-led international tradition in its foreign policy. And it is
luctant to share its military tech with its order. Indeed, according to a 2021 study revealing that the Middle Kingdom has
neighbor to the east. Russia’s need for by the U.S.-China Economic and Secu- chosen to side with America’s enemies
assistance is obvious, but it’s likely that rity Review Commission, Beijing “views and against Washington’s allies. Such
China’s desire to help is predicated on Tehran’s opposition to the United States breaks with policy don’t happen without
more than a desire for mere technology. as augmenting China’s increasing global an underlying objective.
In fact, by most metrics, China’s military influence.” China also benefits from its support
is both qualitatively and quantitatively The latest Israel-Iran war offers evi- for the Kim regime in North Korea.
superior to that of Putin’s Russia. That dence of Beijing’s decision to choose a Pyongyang is the ultimate wild card: a
China benefits in other respects, namely side in the decadeslong conflict between nuclear power with a history of volatil-
by keeping the U.S. and its allies distract- the Islamic Republic and the Jewish ity and an ambition to unify the Korean
ed and depleting munitions, is a fact that state it has sworn to destroy. According Peninsula under its rule. For decades,
American policymakers must consider. to Israel’s Channel 12 news, Israeli forces North Korea has been a growing threat
It is in the Middle East, however, have found “vast quantities of weapons to the U.S. and its allies in the region.
where Beijing’s shift is most glaring. For manufactured by China being used in The country doesn’t lack conventional
decades, China had a very specific Mid- Gaza.” The number of weapons involved strength. By some estimates, its special
dle East policy: be “friends to all” and indicates that they have been brought to forces are larger than the entire U.S. Ma-
avoid taking sides in the strife-prone re- Gaza in an organized supply process, rine Corps. Chinese aid and assistance
gion. Beijing merely sought to secure its the report noted. The weapons include have been essential to keeping the Kim
energy needs and avoid making enemies. rifles, grenade launchers, ammunition, regime in power. One can easily imagine
To a great extent, China’s involvement in radios, and advanced communications a scenario in which North Korea is used
the region has largely been focused on platforms. An Israeli intelligence source to tie down and distract the U.S. while
shoring up its trade and commercial ven- told the Telegraph, a newspaper based in China eyes Taiwan.
tures. But this is changing — and fast. the United Kingdom, “This is top-grade The U.S. can’t get inside the head
China has deepened and expanded weaponry and communications technol- of Xi Jinping. It can’t know for certain
ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the ogy, stuff that Hamas didn’t have before, when or if he plans to invade Taiwan or
top state sponsor of terrorism. In recent with very sophisticated explosives which what his strategy might be. But there is
years, Beijing and Tehran signed a series have never been found before and espe- no denying that recent events serve to
of agreements, with China promising to cially on such a large scale.” stretch and distract further an America
invest hundreds of billions of dollars in The CCP has also used state media to with a depleted defense industrial base.
exchange for heavily discounted oil. Chi- push anti-Israel propaganda. The State Xi does seem to be “setting the table”
na’s energy needs are vast. Beijing has Department’s deputy envoy for combat- for war, and China seems to be inviting
inked deals with Saudi Arabia, too. But ing antisemitism, Aaron Keyak, noted: Russia, Iran, and North Korea to the ta-
in Iran, China gains something more: a “What we saw after Oct. 7 was a drastic ble for the feast. Taiwan may be the first
regional foil capable of tying down and course, but it certainly won’t be the last.
distracting Washington. As Winston Churchill warned more than
China benefits from Tehran’s terrorist eight decades ago: “Danger gathers upon
network, which controls Lebanon, por- our path.”
tions of Gaza and the West Bank, and The U.S. must act with urgency to
maintains decisive influence in Iraq, Syr- A war with China, a deter Beijing. Policymakers should en-
ia, and Yemen, providing them with the country with the means courage allies to step up their defense
ability to threaten and attack U.S. forces spending and to work together to count-
in the region as well as traditional Ameri- to deliver devastating er shared threats. More burden-sharing
can allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. strikes on the American is essential. America must rebuild its de-
And with the U.S. bogged down in fense industrial base, which has become
the Middle East, America is less able
homeland and to a shadow of its former self.
to deter and confront a rising China. leverage supply chain An invasion of Taiwan would herald a
Indeed, Tehran has used the Houthis, vulnerabilities to shut more dangerous age. The hour is late, but
its Yemen-based proxy, to threaten key there is still time. The choices made now
shipping lanes — lines of commerce that
down hospitals and key are likely to echo for ages. As the late his-
are essential in the global competition sectors of the economy, torian Paul Johnson observed, “There
between the U.S. and China. This has the would be of a scale and are no inevitabilities in history.” +
advantage of weakening U.S. power both
in fact and in perception, further eroding type not seen since Sean Durns is a Washington, D.C.-based
American deterrence. World War II, if ever. foreign affairs analyst. His views are his own.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 25

 Trump Can’t
Let Ukraine Be
His Afghanistan
Peace through strength is the better model
than Biden’s debacle
By Michael Lucchese

P
resident-elect Don- could end a war, but his choices, in fact, time soon. In late November, for instance,
ald Tr ump has consistently signaled weakness. America’s he launched a new type of ballistic mis-
vowed to bring a enemies understood that the Democrat sile on Dnipro — a clear step up the esca-
swift end to the Rus- was unwilling to deter their aggression lation ladder and an implied threat to go
sia-Ukraine conflict — and they declared open season on the further. Putin’s deployment of thousands
in his second term, U.S.-led global order. The chaos stretching of North Korean soldiers on the front
but it remains un- from Kharkiv to the Red Sea can be traced lines and use of Iranian weapons technol-
clear what exactly directly back to Biden’s decision to surren- ogy also demonstrate his willingness to
he means to do. His der Afghanistan to the Taliban. expand the war from a regional conflict
Cabinet appointees are an eclectic mix of If Trump reduces American support to a truly global affair. This aggression
national security hawks and skeptics, and for Ukraine or cuts it off completely, he is not a problem that can be isolated if
Trump himself seems far more focused on would be sending the exact same mes- Trump gives Putin an easy victory.
competition with the Chinese Commu- sage to America’s enemies that Biden sent If anyone can end the war, then, it
nist Party than European affairs. At this in 2021. Simply giving up on allies should must be the Ukrainians themselves.
point, practically anything could be on not be a live option. Instead, the new Totally forcing Russian troops off every
the table for the incoming administration. administration needs to put the “peace inch of their soil is likely impossible at
One thing that Trump should abso- through strength” principle it avows into this point, but the Ukrainian army needs
lutely do, though, is avoid the mistakes of action. Trump’s top priority here should to achieve a position of genuine battle-
his immediate predecessor. President Joe be showing the world that America will field superiority if negotiations to end
Biden’s hasty retreat from Afghanistan no longer cut and run from its allies. the war will benefit the West and secure
was probably the greatest geopolitical Any strategy for ending the war must Ukrainian independence. As helpful as
catastrophe of a presidency marked by begin from the unfortunate truth that American aid has been to that effort,
countless mistakes. Biden was motivated Russian President Vladimir Putin has many of Biden’s policies have hindered
by a desire to be seen as a president who no intention of stopping his invasion any that mission as well.

26 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025

 If the war in Ukraine
has taught American
policymakers anything,
it should be that the
United States is not
investing nearly enough
of its resources in
national security. While
the country continues
to develop impressive
Above, Ukrainian servicemen near Kharkiv prepare to fire at Russian positions with
defense technologies, a U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer, July 14, 2022; below, onlookers surround a captured
overall defense U.S.-made M1A1 Abrams tank, put on display in Moscow, May 1, 2024.

spending has declined

precipitously since
the 1990s.

One excellent road map to Ukrainian

victory from which Trump’s team could
take its cues was recently released by the
Vandenberg Coalition and the McCain
Institute. Bringing together some of the
top conservative foreign policy thinkers
in their fields, the report sketches out
several policies rooted in a truly Reagan-
ite approach rather than the limp-wristed
liberalism of the Biden administration. As
Hudson Institute senior fellow Rebeccah tude to fight to win, not simply to fight that requires long-term solutions. Pu-
Heinrichs put it in her contribution, “Se- as long as it takes.” We cannot ask the tin’s neo-imperial ambitions do not end
curing Ukraine’s sovereignty is the only Ukrainians to fight for Western security at Ukraine’s western border, and he has
way to guarantee that Russia will cease if we will not allow them to win. Defeat already found ways to harm the Ameri-
military expansion into Europe and weak- is more to be feared than the abstraction can homeland directly. He has spent his
en its ability to undermine U.S. commer- of “escalation.” time in the Kremlin, as American Global
cial and national security interests, to say The incoming Trump administra- Strategies Vice President Brian Cavana-
nothing of its impact on [CCP Chairman] tion should also announce that it will ugh points out, “targeting critical civilian
Xi’s calculation vis-à-vis Taiwan.” not reduce the amount of aid being sent and commercial infrastructure” in the
FROM TOP: EVGENIY MALOLETKA / AP; ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / AP

Probably the most important step the to Ukraine. Bipartisan support for the West, as well as military assets both dig-
experts recommend that the Trump ad- Ukrainian cause remains high in Con- itally and kinetically. And even weakened
ministration could immediately take is gress, and the vast majority of the public after three years of warfare, the Russian
lifting the restrictions to which its prede- continues to sympathize with it as well. armed forces continue to pose a major
cessors have unnecessarily tied Ukraine. There is no need to turn off the spigot threat to American interests.
Biden has taken far too long to deliver vi- and give Putin the upper hand, even as If the war in Ukraine has taught
tal weaponry to the Ukrainian army, and the Trump administration prepares for American policymakers anything, it
he waited far too long to lift his prohibi- some kind of negotiations to end the con- should be that the United States is not
tion on strikes on military targets within flict. Getting another supplemental aid investing nearly enough of its resources
Russia. He believed he was preventing package through the legislative branch in national security. From World War
escalation, but in fact, he was choosing would both show support for allies at a II through the Cold War, the U.S. acted
not to reestablish deterrence. Instead, crucial moment in their war effort and as the “Arsenal of Democracy,” supply-
businessman and diplomat Stephen demonstrate resolve to the Kremlin. ing those nations that bravely resisted
Biegun, who served in the first Trump But the Vandenberg Coalition re- the spread of totalitarianism. While the
administration, argues in his essay that port’s experts acknowledge that Rus- country continues to develop impressive
“the Ukrainians must be given the lati- sian aggression is a long-term problem defense technologies, overall defense

December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 27

spending has declined precipitously international efforts will be crucial to
since the 1990s. The result is a weak- ensuring that the sanctions have their
ened military that can barely supply the intended effect.”
Ukrainian army with enough bullets, let Beyond sanctions, though, there are
alone the kind of advanced arms and am- a host of economic policies the Trump
munition needed to win a modern war. administration could implement to iso-
One example of an area in which the late Russia further, strengthen the West’s
Trump administration should invest is alliance system, and benefit working
missile defense. To his credit, Trump has Americans. The Biden administration
always been a vocal supporter of Israel has pursued a protectionist trade policy
and its Iron Dome air defense system — that hurt American workers and relation-
he has even said he wants to find ways ships with global partners at a particularly
to incorporate similar technology in the dangerous moment in world affairs. While
U.S.’s homeland security architecture. Trump has blustered plenty about being
American investments in Israel’s missile a “tariff man,” choosing to reverse these
defense have paid huge dividends in the harmful Biden-era policies would ener-
Middle East, frustrating several Irani- gize the economy, as well as vital alliances.
an attempts to destabilize the region. A Any strategy for reasserting Ameri-
postwar Ukraine will need something can primacy must conceive of its goals
like this if it wants to deter or protect in terms of the entire Western alliance
against future Russian aggression. But system. The free peoples of the world
it will also need other kinds of state-of- are bound together in a struggle against
the-art systems to stay one step ahead of an axis consisting of Russian, Chinese,
the Kremlin, and only American innova- and Iranian tyrants. Trump must un-
tion can provide them. derstand that Ukrainian defeat would
Other policies Trump is considering A baby is lifted over a wall at the Kabul be felt by all the friends of liberty and
could pay for these new investments. airport in Afghanistan by U.S. soldiers strengthen the hand of America’s bit-
Striking a truly Reaganite tone, Trump as Afghans attempt to flee the Taliban terest enemies. The status quo is utterly
takeover of the country, Aug. 19, 2021.
and his team have promised to make unacceptable, and only American lead-
drastic cuts to wasteful domestic spend- ership can turn the tide.
ing and overbearing bureaucracy. The This was the lesson Biden refused to
savings that could be achieved by re- learn from the consequences of his Af-
ducing the size and scope of the federal Ukrainian defeat would ghanistan debacle. He wrongly believed
government ought to be reinvested in its strengthen the hand he could isolate the fallout to just one
most important constitutional responsi- corner of the globe when, in fact, he was
bility: national security. Global primacy of America’s bitterest really giving U.S. rivals a permission slip
and overwhelming strength are expen- enemies. This was the to cause chaos everywhere. But tragic
sive, yes, but entirely worth the invest- as abandoning Afghan allies was for the
ments in a larger defense budget.
lesson Biden refused country itself, and catastrophic as it was
Even with a much larger defense to learn from the on a global scale, the decision also had
budget, though, America cannot defend consequences of his political costs for Biden. His approval
the West alone. Some NATO allies, such ratings began dropping considerably af-
as Poland, responded to the Russian in-
Afghanistan debacle. ter the September 2021 collapse of Kabul
vasion by increasing national security He wrongly believed and never recovered. Biden’s weakness
spending by record numbers. Others, he could isolate the meant he lost the people’s confidence.
such as Germany and France, have been Trump’s stunning victory in 2024
far more sluggish — and Trump has been fallout to just one should be taken as a total rebuke of
rightly critical of their feet-dragging. He corner of the globe. Biden’s disastrous presidency. The vot-
should continue to use the bully pulpit to ers saw for themselves that fecklessness
encourage slower allies to put more skin and extreme liberalism set the world
in the game. At the same time, though, he on fire, and they preferred a candidate
should understand that reducing Ameri- who offered the confidence of American
can commitments to European security greatness. Ukraine policy will be the first
will spur a crisis of confidence rather than could do to slow its war machine and opportunity for Trump to show that this
a renaissance in military investments. strengthen the West’s economic position country still has a fighting spirit — so
Building on this hardheaded realism, overall. Matthew Zweig, executive direc- long as he avoids repeating the worst
the Vandenberg Coalition’s report also tor of FDD Action, offers several innova- mistakes of his predecessor. +
urges the incoming administration to tive solutions to the shortcomings of the
OMAR HAIDARI / AP

consider updates to American geo-eco- current sanctions regime’s enforcement Michael Lucchese is the founder of Pipe
nomic strategy. While the sanctions mechanisms. “As Russia continues to Creek Consulting, an associate editor of
Biden has imposed on Russia have had seek ways to evade sanctions,” he writes, Law & Liberty, and a contributing editor
a real effect, there is much more the U.S. “comprehensive and well-coordinated to Providence.

28 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024–January 1, 2025

 Congress P. 31
World P. 34
Technology P. 36
National Security P. 38

white house

Midterm Math: Congressional GOP

will back Donald Trump or lose
It’s Hill Republicans’ best path to avoiding big 2026 defeats
By Christopher C. Hull

Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee Richard Hudson (R-NC) (center), joined by House Majority
Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), speaks at
a news conference outside of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC on Nov. 12, 2024.
CHIP SOMODEVILL A/GET T Y IMAGES

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 29

WASHINGTON BRIEFING

M
idterm math may mean that
Republicans in Congress
must help President-elect
Donald Trump succeed —
or lose power themselves.
That’s because, if histo-
ry is any guide, the congressional GOP
should expect to lose control of the
House and maybe even the Senate in two
years, unless it boosts the former and fu-
ture president’s popularity and the econ-
omy they will jointly oversee.
The reason is the age-old American
political phenomenon known as “surge
and decline.” President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of
First comes the surge. the White House in Washington on Nov. 13, 2024.
In presidential election years in the
United States, the White House-winning White House. That correction generally dynamic holds true in the Senate.
party benefits in Congress from the ex- results in House and, to a lesser extent, As a result, if history is any guide,
tra turnout for the victorious candidate Senate losses proportional to the size congressional Republicans’ best hope
at the top of the ticket, a phenomenon of the prior election cycle’s presidential to retain control of their respective
known as “coattails.” The term origi- victory. Specifically, for every percentage chambers would be to make Trump as
nated about 400 years ago, referring to point of the margin by which a president successful, and especially well-liked, as
the rear flap of a man’s coat. Then, in an wins in the prior election, his party will possible during the next election season.
1848 speech, a relatively unknown Whig lose about three seats during the mid- Secondarily, the House GOP, in partic-
Illinois congressman named Abraham term elections. ular, can improve its chances by seeing
Lincoln countered Democratic critics At last count, Trump appears to have to it that the U.S. economy is thriving
accusing Whigs of hiding behind the won about 49.9% to Harris’ 48.3%, a 1.6 to the maximum extent possible before
“military coattail” of their White House percentage point margin. On average, that election season arrives — in this
nominee, Gen. Zachary Taylor, charging then, we’d expect the House GOP to lose case, 2025.
that Democrats themselves had spent about five seats in 2026. That would cost Granted, statistically speaking, a third
two decades hiding behind former Pres- it congressional control because, in the factor may affect those losses: the degree
ident Andrew Jackson’s coattails. 119th Congress, House Republicans will to which individual members of Congress
A century later, a landmark book on hold a slim 220-215 majority. The incom- position themselves strategically relative
predicting elections documented an av- ing Senate Republican majority, which to the president. If a president is unpop-
erage 26-30 House seat “coattail effect,” will be 53-47 in the next Congress, also ular, some members of his party might
that is, the impact of winning presiden- could be vulnerable in 2026, based on choose to distance themselves from him.
tial candidates sweeping in same-party the same dynamic. That said, it only works on the margins, as
members of Congress with them. Where might Hill Republicans get Democrats running under retiring Presi-
Around that time, the term began a help to avoid this type of scenario? dent Joe Biden’s yoke can testify — and
meteoric rise in English language books, Historically, a handful of factors seem if Trump is popular and the economy is
though it has since fallen off in usage, statistically to increase or decrease a roaring, GOP members won’t have that
perhaps in part because critics of the presidential party’s midterm losses. problem. So, on average, congressional
theory began to suggest the effect was Those factors include presidential pop- Republicans can either make Trump pop-
not as strong as originally thought. Re- ularity and, to a lesser extent, economic ular and economically successful — or, if
gardless, the winning presidential candi- growth. Specifically, for every percentage the past is prologue, lose power.
date’s party has won 13 House seats and point more favorable the president is in The bottom line: Midterm math may
two Senate seats on average since 1932. the midterm Gallup poll, one can expect mandate that congressional Republicans
Then comes the decline. the president’s party to save about one help Trump succeed or fail themselves. +
Since at least the development of the seat in the House, on average. Similarly,
EVAN VUCCI/AP PHOTO

two-party system in 1860, in midterm each one-percent improvement in eco- Christopher C. Hull, Ph.D. is president of
election years, the lack of the winning nomic conditions in the year before the Issue Management Inc., a public affairs
presidential candidate at the top of the midterm elections saves the president’s firm that does grassroots and advocacy
ticket nearly always results in congres- party about two seats in the House, work. He was previously chief of staff to a
sional-level losses for the party in the though there’s a question of whether that member of the House of Representatives.

30 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

 WASHINGTON BRIEFING

congress will have a narrow edge for Republicans

of 220 seats to 215 for Democrats. That
187 shades of Gray made the loss in California’s 13th Con-
gressional District a particularly agoniz-
California Democrat’s win over freshman ing one for House Republicans.
The district, anchored by the city
Republican Rep. Duarte part of major House of Merced, with a chunk of its nearly
94,000 residents being students at the
turnover. Senate membership will have a 12% University of California, Merced, was
change in the next Congress. always going to be an electoral battle-
ground. The district, located north of
By David Mark Fresno, once was a Democratic strong-
hold. With the region’s economy long
hitched to agribusiness, farm labor
unions, usually backing Democrats, had
significant political sway. But in recent
years, the Central Valley has grown to be
more culturally conservative than other
parts of the state, giving Republicans a
fighting chance to win there.
Gray, in 2024, prevailed over Duarte,
a farmer and agricultural businessman
who rose to prominence tussling with
federal authorities over water rights, by
a 50.04%-49.96% margin. That’s effec-
tively an inverse of the 2022 midterm
election results. That year, Duarte beat
Gray, finishing up a decade representing
the area in the state Assembly, by 564
votes out of nearly 134,000 cast, or a
50.21%-49.79% edge for the Republican
candidate.
Some departing House members are
leaving under more favorable circum-
Rep. John Duarte (R-CA), left, and Democratic challenger Adam Gray square off stances. Several are becoming senators.
during the California Congressional District 13 debate at the State Theatre in Two already have. Sens. Andy Kim (D-
Modesto, California, on Oct. 25, 2024. NJ) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) left their

M
House seats a few weeks early to replace
ANDY ALFARO/ THE MODESTO BEE/ TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE VIA GET T Y IMAGES

ERCED, California — Those involuntarily departing law- short-term appointed incumbents for
Close House races in the makers are among the dozens of rep- the very end of six-year Senate terms.
mid-San Joaquin Valley resentatives leaving at the end of the The pair will be sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025,
13th Congressional Dis- 118th Congress, on Jan. 3, 2025. So, to begin full six-year terms.
trict are part of the cen- new member churn in the 435-member Including Kim and Schiff, each party
tral California landscape House will be significant. has six new senators. For the first time,
on par with the agricultural region’s Some House members, more than a two black women will serve simultane-
sprawling farmland. year and a half ago, announced retire- ously in the chamber. Sen.-elect Angela
In the final House race of 2024 to be ments, or plans to run for office. And a Alsobrooks (D-MD) was formerly the
called, on Dec. 3, Rep.-elect Adam Gray bit over a year ago, the House also ex- county executive in Prince George’s
(D-CA) beat freshman Rep. John Duar- pelled a member for only the sixth time County, Maryland, a quick car ride from
te (R-CA) by 187 votes out of more than in history — former Rep. George Santos, the Capitol, and Rep. Lisa Blunt Roch-
210,000 cast. That brought the number a New York Republican, who got the boot ester (D-DE) will move up to the Senate
of 2024 House member losses to 11, out from colleagues after the chamber’s Eth- after eight years in the House. +
of about 375 representatives who sought ics Committee cited him for fraud and
reelection. Four more lost renomination misuse of campaign funds. David Mark is managing editor of the
bids earlier in the year. The House in the incoming Congress Washington Examiner magazine.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 31

WASHINGTON BRIEFING

congress

‘Farewell’ or ‘good riddance’

depending on your viewpoint
These members of Congress are about to
depart their jobs or already have
By David Mark

SENATE — RAN FOR OTHER OFFICE FIRST ELECTED OFFICE SEEKING ELECTORAL OUTCOME TO DATE
R Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) 2018 Governor Won General Election

SENATE — RETIRING FIRST ELECTED HOUSE — DEFEATED FIRST ELECTED

D Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) 2006 D Rep. Yadira Caraveo (D-CO) 2022 ILLUSTRATION BY JULIA TERBROCK/WASHINGTON EXAMINER; AP PHOTOS
D Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) 2000 D Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) 2012
I Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) November 2010 special election R Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) 2022
R Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) 2018 R Rep. John Duarte (R-CA) 2022
I Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) 2018 R Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) 2022
D Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) 2000 R Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) May 2020 special election
R Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) 2022
D Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) August 2022 special election
SENATE — DEFEATED FIRST ELECTED R Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA) 2020
D Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) 2006 D Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) November 2018 special election
D Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) 2006 R Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY) 2022
D Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) 2006

SENATE — RESIGNED FIRST ELECTED

SENATE — DIED FIRST ELECTED D Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) Appointed January 2006
D Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) November 1992 special election R Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) 2014

32 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

HOUSE — RAN FOR OTHER OFFICE FIRST ELECTED OFFICE SEEKING ELECTORAL OUTCOME
D Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) 2018 Senate Lost General Election
R Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) 2018 Governor Won General Election
R Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) 2016 Senate Won General Election
R Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) September 2019 special election Attorney General Lost General Election
R Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) November 2017 special election Senate Won General Election
D Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) 2014 Senate Won General Election
D Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC) 2022 Attorney General Won General Election
D Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) 2018 Senate Won General Election
R Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) May 2018 special election Maricopa County Won General Election
Board of Supervisors
D Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) April 1998 special election Senate Lost All-Party Primary
R Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) 2014 Senate Lost Republican Nomination
D Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) 2018 Senate Lost All-Party Primary
D Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) 2016 Senate Won General Election
D Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) 2000 Senate Won General Election
D Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) 2018 Senate Won General Election
D Rep. David Trone (D-MD) 2018 Senate Lost Democratic Nomination

HOUSE — RESIGNED FIRST ELECTED HOUSE — DEFEATED IN PRIMARY FIRST ELECTED

R Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) 2014 D Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) 2020
D Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) 2010 D Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) 2020
R Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) 2016 R Rep. Jerry Carl (R-AL) 2020
R Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) 2016 R Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) 2020
D Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY) 2004
R Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) 2010
D Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) 2018
HOUSE — RETIRING FIRST ELECTED
R Former House Speaker/Rep. 2006 D Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) May 1996
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) special election
D Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) 2000 R Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN) 2010
R Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) 2012 R Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) 2002
D Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) 2012
R Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) 2010
HOUSE — DIED FIRST ELECTED D Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) 1992
D Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) 1994 R Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA) 2016
D Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) 1996 R Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) 1996
D Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-NJ) November 2012 special election R Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) 2014
D Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) 2012
HOUSE — EXPELLED FIRST ELECTED Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) 2012
D

D Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH) 2012

I Rep. George Santos (I-NY) 2022 R Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) 2006
R Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-KS) 2020
FORMER HOUSE MEMBER ELECTORAL OUTCOME Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) 2008
R

COMEBACK ATTEMPTS Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) 2020

D

R Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) 2004

D Former Rep. Peter Barca (D-WI) Lost General Election D Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) 1998
D Former Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS) Lost General Election D Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC) 2022
D Former Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA) Won General Election R Rep. Greg Pence (R-IN) 2018
D Former Rep. Cleo Fields (D-LA) Won General Election D Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) 2018
R Former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX) Lost General Election R Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) 2008
R Former Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) Lost Republican Primary D Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) 2002
R Former Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-NM) Lost General Election R Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) 2004
R Former Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) Lost Republican Primary R Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) 2020
D Former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) Lost General Election D Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) 2006
I Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D/I-OH) Lost General Election D Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) 2018
R Former Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) Lost Republican Primary R Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) 2012
R Former Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) Won General Election D Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) 2018
D Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) Won Feb. 13, 2024
special election

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 33

WASHINGTON BRIEFING

world

Why Israelis are fed up with the

UN Palestinian ‘refugee’ agency
Though a law targeting UNRWA could cause more problems than
it solves, no matter how legitimate (and myriad) the concerns
By Michele Chabin

I
srael’s Parliament recently passed
a law that bans the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency from op-
erating inside the country, includ-
ing East Jerusalem. A second law,
also passed in October, categorizes
the aid organization as a “terror group,”
which would make it illegal for Israeli of-
ficials and state agencies to interact with
UNRWA officials.
That’s assuming the government im-
plements the law at the end of January
2025. Without Israeli entry permits and
coordination with the Israeli military,
UNRWA cannot work effectively in Gaza Demonstrators in Jerusalem hold a protest against UNRWA on Feb. 5, 2024.
or the West Bank.
UNRWA, which was created in 1949 to New York Times published on Dec. 8 monitors all activities at the United Na-
care for Palestinians displaced during the found that “at least 24” people employed tions, has been reporting for years, based
1948 Middle East war, called the legisla- by UNRWA in 24 schools were members on what UNRWA employees publish on
tion “outrageous and reprehensible.” If of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or another mili- social media, in chat groups, and on the
implemented, “the ban will sever essen- tant group. The majority were principals internet. It shares its findings with the
tial lifelines — healthcare, mental health or deputy principals, and the rest were U.N., Israel, and other nations.
counseling, food assistance, water, edu- school counselors, according to records In a video interview obtained by UN
cation, and more,” the aid organization discovered by the Israel Defense Forces Watch, a boy named Muhanad says he
said. The governments of several nations in Gaza and reviewed by the outlet. learned about the Palestinian Right of
warned of “devastating consequences” “The seized records – coupled with Return in school and “that we need to
and urged Israel to abide by its interna- interviews of current and former UN- return to our land, that the occupation
tional obligations and “keep the reserve RWA employees, residents, and former needs to leave our land.” When asked
privileges and immunities of UNRWA students in Gaza – offer the most detailed whether his teachers taught him about
untouched.” evidence yet of the extent of Hamas’s the Israeli occupation, Muhanad replies,
The Knesset vote followed a year of presence inside UNRWA schools. In sev- “Yes, that they occupied us in 1948.” The
deliberations and mounting evidence eral cases, educators remained employed solution for Jerusalem “is to liberate it
that UNRWA ignored Hamas’s con- by UNRWA even after Israel provided and expel the Jews from it,” he says.
struction of a tunnel right under UNR- written warnings that they were mili- Aya, another UNRWA student, says
WA’s Gaza headquarters and knowingly tants,” the outlet said. she was taught “that we don’t like Isra-
employed terrorists, often in UNRWA’s The fact that the head of Hamas in el,” that Palestinians will “shoot” Israe-
MAHMOUD ILLEAN/AP PHOTO

school system. Lebanon was a school principal and a lis, and that the martyrs are “big heroes.”
Two recent independent investiga- former head of UNRWA’s teachers’ union She hopes to become a martyr one day.
tions appear to bolster Israel’s claims in Lebanon only reinforces Israel’s con- “We’ve been documenting UNRWA
about UNRWA schools and their role in tentions, the outlet noted. teachers routinely celebrating bloody ter-
indoctrinating impressionable students. The outlet’s findings reinforced much rorist attacks and glorifying Hitler. They
An investigation conducted by the of what UN Watch, a watchdog NGO that do this on Facebook,” UN Watch Director

34 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

Hillel Neuer told the Washington Exam- from Gaza to the U.S. many years ago. thing, it is that UNRWA perpetuates Pal-
iner. “If your school principal is a Hamas “UNRWA allowed Hamas to abdicate its estinians’ status as refugees.
leader, that’s what you’re going to learn.” responsibility for caring for the people of “I think that in the minds of Palestin-
Like Hamas, Neuer said, “The goal of Gaza. UNRWA got comfortable coordi- ians, UNRWA is a kind of guarantor of
UNRWA is to dismantle Israel. UNRWA nating with Hamas, they talked through the Right of Return to what today is Isra-
must be replaced.” He rejected claims by Hamas, they didn’t build up firewalls. el, which the organization deems sacred
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Hamas used and exploited UNRWA.” and necessary,” Alkhatib said.
that the organization is irreplaceable. Even so, Alkhatib said, Israel must not In Jordan, where 2 million people of
“Whenever there is a crisis anywhere prevent UNRWA from operating without Palestinian descent have been grant-
else in the world, UNHCR, the U.N. Ref- a viable backup plan. Even if Israel were ed citizenship, “why does UNRWA call
ugee Agency assisting all non-Palestin- to somehow secure the cooperation of them refugees?” Neuer asked. “Why does
ian refugees goes in, the World Health other large aid organizations by the end UNRWA call Palestinians who live in the
Organization or UNICEF go in, and care of January, he said, much of the burden West Bank and Gaza, which it says is Pal-
for millions of refugees. The notion that once shouldered by UNRWA would fall estinian land, refugees?
international agencies cannot go in and on Israel, especially the IDF. While UNHCR’s role is to resettle ref-
help in a very small piece of land like “I am all for ending UNRWA’s monop- ugees, “the point of UNRWA is to perpet-
Gaza is absurd,” Neuer maintained. oly over humanitarian aid and service de- uate war,” Neuer said. +
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a resident se- liveries and preventing it from having an
nior fellow at the Atlantic Council, does oversized role. The goal must be to breed Michele Chabin is an Israel-based
not deny UNRWA’s flaws but believes it Palestinian self-sufficiency,” he said, add- journalist. Her work has appeared in,
cannot be replaced immediately. ing that as soon as there is a capable non- among other outlets, Cosmopolitan, the
“I recognize entirely that there are a Hamas government in Gaza, “it should Forward, Religion News Service, Sci-
variety of problems with UNRWA,” said provide these services.” ence, USA Today, U.S. News & World
Alkhatib, a Palestinian who emigrated If Alkhatib and Neuer agree on one Report, and the Washington Post.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 35

WASHINGTON BRIEFING

technology

Incoming Trump administration regulators

face challenges reining in Big Tech
Supreme Court rulings
on freedom of speech,
and scope of federal
agency powers, could
limit FCC ability
to confront content
moderation practices
By Jessica Melugin

T
he fight to regulate online con-
tent moderation looks like it
will get a friendly reception at
the Federal Communications President-elect Donald Trump speaks with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr before
Commission in President-elect the launch of the test flight of the SpaceX rocket in Texas on Nov. 19, 2024.
Donald Trump’s incoming ad-
ministration. However, matters could be activities as well as efforts by third-party At the end of the first Trump administra-
complicated by recent court rulings on organizations and groups that have acted tion, the White House asked the FCC to re-
freedom of speech and the limits of the to curtail those rights.” consider the interpretation of Section 230,
administrative agencies to crack down on The substance of those actions like- the provision of a 1996 communications
social media. ly comes down to NewsGuard making law that shields platforms from lawsuits
Trump, who will be in office on voluntary recommendations for con- for posts made by users. Some Republicans,
Jan. 20, 2025, for his second, nonconsec- tent moderation decisions by the plat- angered by their belief that right-leaning
utive White House term, will nominate forms. However, that may run into a content is being treated unfairly in content
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to lead recent Supreme Court decision, last moderation decisions by big tech platforms,
the agency. Even before his Senate con- year’s Moody v. NetChoice ruling, in hoped the agency might use the opportuni-
firmation hearings, Carr has put the tech which justices upheld the First Amend- ty to attack the perceived bias.
industry on notice. ment rights of companies to take down Those hopes intensified in October
In a letter last month to Google’s par- user content they find objectionable. 2020 when then-FCC General Counsel
ent company, Alphabet, along with Mic- “True concern for the First Amend- Thomas Johnson produced a memoran-
rosoft, Meta, and Apple, Carr demanded ment rights of Americans requires dum arguing that the agency had the au-
details of their relationship with News- leaving subjective judgments on the thority to regulate content moderation. His
Guard, which provides credibility ratings credibility and publication-worthiness of argument was largely based on Congress
of news outlets and does fact-checking. speech to private parties, not a govern- placing Section 230 in Title II of the Com-
In the letter, Carr labeled a “censorship ment agency that would determine for munications Act, an area that grants the
cartel” the private firm’s contracts within us which of those assessments we ought FCC broad regulatory powers. Johnson
the online advertising industry and with to see,” Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech argued that court precedent was to defer
BRANDON BELL/POOL VIA AP

browser manufacturers, in addition to so- policy at the Foundation for Individual to agencies’ interpretation of ambiguities
cial media platforms, artificial intelligence Rights and Expression, wrote in response in statutes, which was true at the time.
systems, and app stores. Carr wrote that to Carr’s letter. However, since the memorandum was
he was “confident” the new administra- Yet First Amendment hurdles are not penned, much has changed in administra-
tion would take action and, “Those actions the only legal troubles ahead for the FCC in tive law. The high court, in late June 2024,
can include a review of your companies’ pursuing content moderation regulation. turned that long-standing deference

36 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

to agencies on its head with the ruling Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy tections may fall exclusively to Congress
in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, Studies, writing for the conservative Fed- to do so explicitly.
ending what in legal circles had long been eralist Society, argued, “While conserva- Those efforts have been unsuccessful
known as “Chevron deference” for a land- tives praise these cases for curtailing the so far. Bills have been introduced, among
mark 1984 ruling that shifted responsibil- regulatory excesses of the Biden Adminis- many other specific carveouts, to repeal
ity for determining congressional intent tration, these same cases apply with equal Section 230, sunset the law, deny its pro-
from the courts to executive-branch force to any Republican administration.” tections if AI was being used, and others.
agencies. The current court ruled that it In this new legal environment, any None have been enacted, except a 2018
is the judiciary, not federal agencies, that curtailing of Section 230’s liability pro- measure involving content related to sex
are empowered to interpret statutes. trafficking.
This came after another major post- Last month, Carr posted on X, “The
2020 development in administrative law: censorship cartel must be smashed into
the Supreme Court’s revival of the so- a billion pieces.”
called “major questions” doctrine two Whether the bully pulpit of the FCC
years ago in West Virginia v. EPA. In that
All of those rulings generates enough political heat to spur
decision, the court barred agencies from will make asserting Congress to act remains to be seen.
making decisions of “vast economic and the FCC’s authority Whatever the agency does will find a
political significance” without clear stat- very different legal environment than the
utory authorization.
to regulate content one tech foes found in the first Trump
All of those rulings will make assert- moderation decisions administration. +
ing the FCC’s authority to regulate content on private platforms
moderation decisions on private platforms Jessica Melugin is director of the Center
much more difficult, if not impossible. much more difficult, for Technology & Innovation at the Com-
The president of the Phoenix Center for if not impossible. petitive Enterprise Institute.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 37

WASHINGTON BRIEFING

national security

Trump to inherit a Pentagon

budget Republicans worry is not
up to the task of deterring China
Ukraine war depleting stocks of US weapons, degrading
readiness in the Indo-Pacific, top commander says
By Jamie McIntyre

and engage a target missile in flight, in-

creasing our readiness to defend against
evolving adversary threats.”
The rush to test and deploy mis-
sile defenses to Guam, which would be
squarely in the crosshairs in the event of
war, comes as, over the past year, China
has engaged in a series of increasingly
brazen and provocative acts that appear
to be a rehearsal for a military blockade
of Taiwan. Beijing considers the island a
rogue province, which Chinese President
Xi Jinping has vowed to take by force if
necessary.
In the latest apparent attempt to in-
timidate Taiwan, China deployed 90
ships along what’s known as the first
island chain — waters off the coast of
China that stretches from Japan in the
north, to the west of Taiwan, and south
A Standard Missile-3 Block IIA interceptor successfully intercepts a medium-range to the Philippines — as if to show they
ballistic missile target from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on Dec.10, 2024. could wall off Taiwan from its allies.

O
“Over the summer, I saw the most
n Dec. 10, a medium-range three times the size of Washington, D.C., rehearsal and the most joint exercises
ballistic missile was tracked with a population of 170,000 Americans from the People’s Republic of China that
by a new U.S. radar as it and foreign workers. I’d ever seen,” Adm. Samuel Paparo, the
U.S. MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY; OPPOSITE PAGE: ANDY WONG/AP

streaked toward the Pacif- The island also holds the dubious top U.S. commander in the Indo-Pacific
ic island of Guam, home to distinction of being the only sovereign said at a Brookings Institution event last
America’s Andersen Air Force U.S. territory in range of China’s DF- month. “With the widest geography, the
Base and 26,000 U.S. troops. 26 intermediate-range ballistic missile, jointest operations for air, missile, mar-
The island’s Aegis missile defense nicknamed the “Guam Express,” which itime power that I’d seen over an entire
system was immediately trained on the can carry both nuclear and conventional career of being an observer.”
target, and a Standard Missile-3 inter- warheads. The Defense Department has iden-
ceptor blasted the incoming threat out “Today’s flight test is a critical mile- tified China as its “pacing challenge,”
of the sky high above the Earth. stone in the defense of Guam and the meaning it’s the country the United
It was only a test, in fact, the first such region,” Rear Adm. Greg Huffman, com- States must keep pace with or preferably
test of the ability of a land-based version mander of Joint Task Force-Micronesia, surpass in military capability if it wants
of the Aegis system, originally designed was quoted as saying in a statement from to deter Xi.
for ships, to shoot down missiles from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. “It The U.S. is in a “long-term stra-
Guam, a 30-mile-long island roughly confirmed our ability to detect, track, tegic competition with the People’s

38 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

Republic of China,” Deputy Defense fire anybody who’s unwilling or unable
Secretary Kathleen Hicks said in a recent to work at a wartime pace.”
speech before the Royal United Services Time is growing short, but how short
Institute in London. is unclear.
“Competition does not mean conflict, “There’s a lot of speculation about
because no one should desire the glob- when Mr. Xi will decide to do one thing
al devastation that such a war would or another,” Defense Secretary Lloyd
bring,” she said. “That’s why we seek Austin said during a visit to Japan this
to prevent conflict by deterring PRC ag- month. “I would just say, from my van-
gression … and key to deterrence is being tage point, at this point in time, I don’t
able to win if called to fight.” ‘Guam Express,’ China’s DF-26 ballistic think an attack is either imminent or
But defense hawks in Congress say missiles. unavoidable.”
those are empty words, considering Xi has ordered his military to be ready
the Pentagon budget is capped at $850 ment. “Many senior flag officers, defense to launch an operation to subjugate Tai-
billion by a debt ceiling deal negotiated strategists, and other experts continue to wan by 2027, but the date, publicly an-
in summer 2023 between President Joe note that this is the most dangerous mo- nounced a few years ago, is increasingly
Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin ment since World War II. Not only does irrelevant, says Paparo, the U.S. com-
McCarthy, a California Republican oust- this NDAA thwart the bipartisan will of mander who would be in charge of fight-
ed from that top role after nine months. the Senate, but it signifies a profound ing a war with China.
Citing the threat from China, North missed opportunity to strengthen Pres- “You know, it was never a sell-by
Korea, and other possible U.S. adversar- ident-elect Trump’s hand when he takes date,” Paparo said. “It was never a date
ies, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who is office.” where the PRC had declared, ‘We’re go-
expected to take over as chairman of the While $850 billion is a hefty sum to ing on this date.’ I am responsible for be-
Armed Services Committee in January spend on defense, it fails to send the ing ready every single day, but as you can
2025, led a successful effort during the message to China’s president that the see, the closer we get to it, the less rele-
panel’s work to bust the cap by adding U.S. is serious about pursuing peace vant that date is and the more we must
$25 billion to the Pentagon’s top line. through strength, former Rep. Mike Gal- be ready today, tomorrow, next month,
Wicker’s amendment cleared the Sen- lagher argues. Before he left Congress, next year, and onward.”
ate committee but was dropped from the the Wisconsin Republican chaired the In the meantime, the U.S. military
final compromise version of the National bipartisan House Select Committee on needs more ships, more drones, more
Defense Authorization Act negotiated in the Chinese Communist Party. munitions, and more missile defenses,
December, while Biden is set to cede the “The fundamental geopolitical prob- especially for Guam, which could be
White House to President-elect Donald lem in the world today is that Xi Jinping Beijing’s first target if war were to come.
Trump on Jan. 20, 2025. does not fear us, thus he continues to At the Brookings event, Paparo ex-
“The failure to include a top-line ratchet up the pressure on Taiwan, do pressed concern that, as a result of the
increase is a tremendous loss for our brazen things like compromising our U.S. shipping more sophisticated arma-
national defense,” Wicker said in a state- telecom infrastructure,” Gallagher said ments to Ukraine, the weapons he needs,
in an interview on Fox News conducted such as the finite number of Patriot mis-
from the Reagan Defense Forum earlier sile defense systems, may soon be in
this month. “Because he does not fear us, short supply.
he believes his path to immortality is by “Inherently, it imposes costs on the
In order to prevent taking Taiwan. We must convince him of readiness of America to respond in the
World War III, we need the opposite — that the easiest way for Indo-Pacific region, which is the most
his regime to join the ash heap of history stressing theater for the quantity and
to put the Pentagon on is if he attempts something that stupid.” quality of munitions, because the PRC is
a war footing and the Gallagher is counting on to Trump re- the most capable potential adversary in
secretary of defense build the military in the same way Presi- the world,” Paparo said. “With some of
dent Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s. the Patriots that have employed, some of
needs to fire anybody “I think we need to restore a culture the air-to-air missiles that have been em-
who’s unwilling or that’s ruthlessly focused on warfighting ployed, it’s now eating into [U.S.] stocks,
unable to work at a excellence and lethality in our own mili- you know, and to say otherwise would be
tary,” Gallagher said. “Put differently, in dishonest.” +
wartime pace. order to prevent World War III, we need
–Former Rep. Mike Gallagher, to put the Pentagon on a war footing Jamie McIntyre is the Washington Exam-
a Wisconsin Republican and the secretary of defense needs to iner’s senior writer on national security.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 39

6 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025
December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 7
 fort to extend expiring provisions of
the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, better
known as the Trump tax cuts. Many
key portions of Trump’s signature do-
mestic legislation are set to expire at
the start of 2026, so Republicans have
made the matter a major priority.
Republicans are expected to pass
tax legislation with TCJA extenders
— and likely add new ones — through
a budgetary process called reconcilia-
tion, which only requires a bare major-
ity of support or 51 votes, avoiding the
60-vote filibuster rule.
There are some major limitations to
using reconciliation because of some-
thing known as the Byrd Rule. For in-
stance, the provisions in the legislation
must be budget-related and cannot in-
clude nonbudgetary items. So, moving
tax rates up or down can be done, but
adding in other policy changes would
finance & economy be outside the remit and could be shot

Tariffs, crypto, and interest

down by the Senate parliamentarian.
The big question on Capitol Hill now,
though, is whether Republicans try to

rates set to dominate push through one huge reconciliation

bill that includes things such as border

2025 economic agenda provisions and tax policy or if they break

their priorities down into two bills.
Incoming Sen. Majority Leader John
The second Trump administration, Thune (R-SD) has signaled he wants
one initial bill focused on the border
taking office Jan. 20, will be a that would be pushed through during
marked shift from the Biden years the first month of Trump’s presidency.
Though across the Capitol, Ways and
By Zach Halaschak Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO)
— the House’s top tax writer — would

T
prefer one big reconciliation package.
his new year will be a big one months of raising and holding interest Bill Hoagland, senior vice president
in the world of economic pol- rates high, finally conducted its rate cut at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the
icy. Here is what to expect as since the start of the COVID-19 pandem- big question with the tax policy legisla-
the calendar turns to 2025 — ic. Still, the Fed will have to contend with tion is how it will be paid for, consider-
and likely supercharged once sticky inflation in some sectors, such as ing the country’s growing deficits and
President-elect Donald Trump groceries and much more. national debt, which recently surpassed
takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, for a sec- As for the incoming Trump adminis- $36 trillion.
ond, nonconsecutive term. tration, expect big changes in a bunch of If the reconciliation process is split
Inflation will top the list, consider- economic realms. Trump is pushing for in two, Hoagland predicts the first
ing it played an outsize role in Trump’s major tax legislation. He’s also calling for package will likely include some tax
ALEX BRANDON/AP PHOTO

2024 defeat of Vice President Kamala sweeping tariffs. While the cryptocurrency provisions that would generate reve-
Harris, once she became the Democrat- industry is gearing up for major changes. nue, for instance, repealing some of
ic nominee due to President Joe Biden’s the energy tax credits that were in the
White House departure after one term. TAXES Democrat-backed Inflation Reduction
Too-high inflation continued its grad- The biggest legislative story of the new Act. Those could be used to pay for
ual descent. The Federal Reserve, after year is slated to be the Republican ef- things such as increasing spending on

42 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

the border wall or detention centers, Washington Examiner that a big determi- tion, even raise rates again.
for example. nant in how U.S. tariff policy will affect The big question is what effect
Republicans want to extend existing the economy comes down to the extent Trump’s policies might have on infla-
provisions in the TCJA, but on the cam- these tariffs actually happen versus how tion, particularly on the tariff front.
paign trail, Trump pitched further tax many are more of a threat. North said Fed economists are likely
cuts such as exempting taxes on Social “He imposed the 25% tariffs on Can- working behind the scenes to game
Security and tipped wages. He also advo- ada and Mexico, that was kind of a shock out different scenarios for what might
cated lowering the corporate tax rate to to everybody, but it sure worked in terms happen, something that every bank and
15% and lifting the cap on state and local of suddenly [Canadian Prime Minister] brokerage is also doing.
tax deductions — all things that would Justin Trudeau is showing up at Mar-a- North’s firm is predicting the Fed
add to the deficit. Lago and [Mexican President] Claudia will cut rates again in December but is
In addition to all of the tax matters, Sheinbaum is talking,” North said. only predicting perhaps two downward
the debt limit has been raised enough to However, North said tariffs, in gener- rate revisions in 2025, far fewer than
last until January 2025. After that, the al, are “economic losers.” economists were expecting just a few
Treasury Department will begin to take Several groups have attempted to months ago.
“extraordinary measures” once again. quantify what Trump’s tariffs — if im- “Trump 2.0 tariffs are likely to dis-
Those could only be used so long until posed as they were discussed on the rupt, not upend, the U.S. economy,”
the “X-date,” which is when the Treasury campaign trail — would cost consumers. Wells Fargo economists said in a recent
would no longer be able to guarantee The left-of-center think tank Cen- report. “Economic expansion is still like-
that it can pay its incoming obligations. ter for American Progress found that ly, albeit at a slower pace, while inflation
The confluence of all of these factors Trump’s 10% tariffs would squeeze could remain above the Fed’s target as
and agenda items will mean Congress consumers because companies would consumers at least partly bear the cost
will be very busy with tax and fiscal pol- pass the costs on to them, costing them of tariffs.”
icy this coming year. $1,500 more annually. The Peterson
“I don’t know what to say other than, Institute for International Econom- CRYPTO
‘Boy, there is going to be a lot going on ics found that 20% tariffs would cost a The cryptocurrency industry is likely to
in the budget and fiscal area next year,” typical U.S. household more than $2,600 get a shot in the arm next year as Trump,
Hoagland, a Senate Republican budget a year. who has presented himself as a champi-
staffer for more than two decades, told “So we put a tariff on goods from any on of the industry, enters office.
the Washington Examiner. other country, it becomes more expen- Trump, who once called bitcoin a
sive here, so consumers suffer, and then “scam,” has done an about-face on Bit-
TARIFFS the other country has a counter tariff so coin and crypto this election cycle. For
Another big economic story heading into consumers there suffer, and we lose jobs instance, Trump selected venture capi-
2025 will be tariffs. Trump has promised because there’s less demand for whatev- talist David Sacks as the first-ever “cryp-
10% to 20% across-the-board tariffs, er products would be produced,” North to czar.”
something that would be a major in- said. “And it goes back and forth.” Crypto advocates anticipate a much
crease from his first term in office. However, tariff proponents such as more friendly environment for Bitcoin
Trump has already announced Trump and some of his allies argue that under Trump and for the cryptocurren-
some new tariffs. On social media, the tariffs are necessary to reverse trade cy to become even more institutionally
president-elect said he would put tar- imbalances and reshore manufacturing accepted. That would be a big departure
iffs against Mexico and Canada right in the U.S. from Biden, whose administration was
after he entered office. He said the seen as hostile to the industry.
25% tariffs are designed to coerce the INTEREST RATES AND THE FED In response to the Trump win and
two countries into stopping the flow of The Federal Reserve has finally begun subsequent developments, the price of
narcotics and illegal immigrants into the cutting interest rates, with the most re- Bitcoin even crossed the historically
United States. cent rate revision coming in November. symbolic mark of $100,000 for the first
Additionally, Trump wants Con- However, recent inflation reports have time. Bitcoin has vaulted up 124% in val-
gress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Act, a shown that inflation is still a bit sticky, ue since the start of the year and 165%
change that would give him the power to so there is an open question about the from this time last year.
unilaterally impose tariffs of equal size pace of interest rate changes in 2025. Proponents of digital assets hope
placed by other countries on the U.S. The If inflation stays stubbornly above that the industry will keep expanding
idea is that U.S. tariffs should be aligned the Fed’s preferred 2% goal or starts in 2025. +
with those of its trading partners. to trend back up, it could force the Fed
Dan North, a senior economist to hold rates higher for longer or, in a Zach Halaschak is an economics reporter
with Allianz Trade Americas, told the worst-case scenario of growing infla- for the Washington Examiner.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 43

 BUSINESS

TIANA’S TAKE
Then there are the global benefits of
the U.S. health system. The hefty price
tag of our health insurance is effectively
socialized medical progress for the rest
The whole world loves of the world.

the US health system even Despite comprising just 4% of the

world’s population, the U.S. government
if they don’t know it contributed two-thirds of the $69 billion
budgeted by OECD states to health-relat-
ed research and development. The U.S.
pharmaceutical industry spent a stagger-
ing 71% of the $129 billion spent by the
global private industry on pharmaceuti-
bill for medical progress, even if they cal R&D. The U.S. produces about half of
don’t admit it. the world’s medical R&D and between
More than seven in 10 people polled two-thirds and three-quarters of the
by Gallup rate their healthcare quality world’s pharmaceutical profits.

W
as either excellent or good, and the ma- As recently as the 1950s, cervical can-
hen police arrested Luigi jority report satisfaction with the cost. cer was the second leading cause of can-
Mangione, the Ivy-edu- And contrary to Warren and her ilk who cer deaths among U.S. women. However,
cated scion of a Baltimore believe only the government can provide researchers at Cornell University devel-
country club empire, quality care, the vast majority of private oped the Pap test, which discovered HPV,
for allegedly murdering health insurance consumers like their the virus responsible for virtually all cer-
UnitedHealthcare CEO healthcare. According to KFF, 80% of vical cancer cases. By the 1970s, the U.S.
Brian Thompson, the Senate’s populist adults with employer-sponsored health government had spent tens of millions
standard-bearer did not choose to side insurance consider their insurance ex- of dollars mainstreaming the Pap test
with the slain father of two. A man had cellent or good. Of the patients with across the planet, contributing around
parlayed his working-class employer-sponsored health 80% of global funding for the now rou-
upbringing and public ed- insurance who have had a tine screening capable of stopping cervi-
ucation into the American problem with their plan in cal cancers before they even start.
dream. Rather, Sen. Eliza- the past year, the majority At the start of the 21st century, U.S.
beth Warren (D-MA) seemed to sympa- say such matters were resolved to their pharmaceutical company Merck invested
thize with the accused murderer. satisfaction. more than $1 billion in a vaccine to pre-
Warren championed Mangione as an Contrary to Mangione’s claim that vent the transmission of the highest-risk
avatar of those “who feel cheated, ripped “parasites” of UnitedHealthcare “abuse variants of HPV entirely. Even with only
off, and threatened by the vile practices of our country for immense profit,” the 60% of U.S. teenagers up-to-date on the
their insurance companies.” company posted a net profit margin last HPV vaccine, cases of the highest-risk
“Violence is never the answer, but quarter of only 6%. That’s half the aver- HPV strains are down 88%, and cervical
people can only be pushed so far,” Warren age profit margin among the rest of the cancer deaths among young women are
said in a Huffington Post interview. “This S&P 500 and a fraction of the 30% profit down 62% over the last decade. Among
is a warning that if you push people hard margin enjoyed by the banking industry. all U.S. women, cervical cancer is now
enough, they lose faith in the ability of Another Mangione claim, that the only the 14th-leading cause of cancer
their government to make change, lose most expensive healthcare in the world is deaths. Australia, where more than 80%
faith in the ability of the people who are responsible for us ranking “roughly #42 of the country’s teenagers are vaccinated
providing the healthcare to make change, in life expectancy,” is easily debunked. for HPV, is on track to eliminate cervical
and start to take matters into their own Data analyst Cremieux Recueil has cancer cases within the decade.
hands.” found that compared to the nominal- None of this is to say the U.S. health-
Warren soon walked back this tacit ly longer lifespans of other rich coun- care system is perfect. Because most em-
admission that the murder of a 50-year- tries, 90% of the gap for American men ployer-sponsored health insurance plans
old father in Midtown Manhattan was and two-thirds of the gap for American cannot move with a patient to a new job,
somehow a moral inevitability. women is attributable to exogenous bad insurers may gamble on kicking chronic
“Violence is never the answer. Peri- behavior, such as our anomalous and health problems or likely health conse-
od. I should have been much clearer that abhorrent levels of gun violence, drug quences down the road for another com-
there is never a justification for murder,” abuse, and reckless driving. So, when you pany to cover.
she said in a statement. But her stinging estimate life expectancy for the average But the U.S. healthcare system’s broad
critique of the U.S. healthcare system was 65-year-old American who hasn’t active- success shows Warren’s initial seeming
on the record — a view at odds with pub- ly killed himself with booze and brawls, justification for Thompson’s murder to
lic opinion. the CDC ascertains that average life ex- be morbidly hollow and empty. +
GET T Y IMAGES

People adore our healthcare system, pectancy is near 85 years old. That’s on
even though we don’t know it. And the par with that of the United Kingdom, Tiana Lowe Doescher is an economics
rest of the world relies on us to foot the Germany, and the Netherlands. columnist for the Washington Examiner.

44 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

Christmas
Books

Illustration: Jason Seiler

November 24-December 1, 2020 Washington Examiner 45

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

The Numinous and

the Sentimental
Season
By Joseph Bottum

T
he snow came late the year I was it does, and Christmas is the season of
12. At least, that’s how I remem- metaphors — similes, analogies, and
ber it. A few early winter flurries increasingly mad metonymies. They
— more gestures at snow than actual hang on the holiday like ornaments on
precipitation, like the casual handwav- an overloaded tree, the branches creak-
ing, the quick prestidigitations that ing under the weight of bells and tinsel
magicians do to get the audience in the and glass doodads and bulbs, Santas
mood for the bigger tricks to come — and snowmen and stars, sprayed with
were followed by a pair of November extra flocking. The Christmas season is
storms soon cleared away in the scrape a fruitcake so overstuffed that it crum-
and rumble of the snowplows. bles when we try to cut it. Citron and
Well into Advent, well into the run- raisins and candied cherries. Currants
up to Christmas, the lawns in town and and chopped walnuts. Figs and prunes
the ranchers’ pastures that stretched and dried apricots. The wonder is that it
across the prairie to the east were bare, held together in the first place.
uncovered in their winter poverty. Naked Partly that derives from the way
in their frozen ground, with a few ugly Christmas preserves language. Think
tufts of dead grass and the stubble of of that word citron, and ask yourself
unharvested stems. The river hills were when was the last time you saw it out- The Nativity and the attending Christian
yellow-gray. side a Christmas recipe. Sleigh bells and accounts have long drawn the artistic
But then, 10 or 12 days before Christ- crèches. Magi and mangers. Ha’penny — imagination. “A cold coming they had
mas, the overcast sky finally gave way. a word Americans know only because it of it, the worst time of the year to take a
The clouds sprang a leak out on the comes in a jingle about how the Christ- long journey. The ways deep, the weath-
plains. Just a few flakes, blowing to- mas goose is getting fat. These words er sharp, the days short, the sun farthest
ward town. Then, a few more. Then, a have dictionary definitions, of course, off: in solsitio brumali, the very dead of
thickening wall of whiteness, as though but their now almost-exclusive associa- winter,” Lancelot Andrewes preached
those first flurries had topped a dam and tion with Christmas gives them a shine, on Christmas Day 1622 — taking the
were tearing an ever-widening channel a richness, that makes them tokens of struggles of winter in his own time and
down which the stream of snow could memory and the season. They denote English place and building a metaphor
pour. The blizzard lasted all day and all something, but they mean something about the journey of the Magi to see the
night, and by dawn, the altered land was more. A ha’penny is worth half a penny newborn Christ.
a world unknown. A universe of sky and — and also half the world: an emblem of From 2nd-century sketches in the
snow in that cold, bright morning sun, charity, and goodwill, and God’s love of catacombs to frescos in 9th-century
with strange domes and towers of snow the poor. churches and down to something like
blanketing the familiar. Pines crusted But even more, things such as a child- Giotto’s 1306 work in the Lower Church
with snow, junipers shagged with ice, hood memory of snow become a com- of San Francesco d’Assisi, art about the
glittering spruces. Cars, perhaps, be- mentary on Christmas, an insight like a birth of Jesus grew to portray more and
neath the undulating slalom slopes that window into the season, because Christ- more, sucking in the whole of creation
ran down what had been driveways. mas is hungry. It would devour the world and cosmological history. Just look at
Hedges and mailboxes draped in white if it could, the way what started as the Botticelli’s 1501 Mystical Nativity. And
overcoats and gnomish hats, while long Twelve Days of Christmas, meaning the think of the explosion of Nativity paint-
drifts repaved the road and made it seem days after Christmas, is now a commer- ing in the 17th century from the likes
a glide path to somewhere altogether cialized extravaganza that fills the year of El Greco (1605), Caravaggio (1609),
elsewhere. The charge of winter had from Thanksgiving, or maybe even Hal- Rembrandt (1646), and Poussin (1653):
brought alive the fantastical. loween, to December 25. Everything is a rich with new ways to paint light and
GET T Y IMAGES

There’s a metaphor in all that, of Christmas figure, a chance to explain or show the intersection of the human and
course, if only because Christmas has gesture at the holiday. divine in the Christ child and the Blessed
come around again this year, the way In a sense, we’ve always known this. Virgin.

46 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

 CHRISTMAS BOOKS

“The Cherry Tree Carol.” But the Victo-

rians were the ones who systematized it
all. The canon they established did con-
tain such genuinely older songs as “The
First Nowell” and the Wesleyan “Hark!
The Herald Angels Sing.” But much of
what the Victorians did (thereby creating
what we think of now as standard carols)
was write new songs they tried to make
sound old.
Each of these art forms — the paint-
ings, the books, the movies, and the
music — consists of attempts to offer a
picture of Christmas, like a snapshot that
tries to capture the meaning of a thing so
large that it will not be grasped by any
one metaphor. Any one simile, analogy,
allegory, or metonymy. Even when suc-
cessful, they’re merely add-ons. They
join the thousand other ornaments jos-
tling on the Christmas tree.
For me, this year, with Christmas
upon us again, I think about the snow
when I was 12. The world for us these
days is mostly flat and bare. Disconnect-
ed from the numinous. Unclothed with
cosmic meaning — which is to say, actu-
al meaning that makes our lives and our
deaths matter. We have so little decent
drapery, so little with which to cover the
By the time we reach the 19th centu- Sentimentality about Christmas sur- naked shingles of a world of material na-
ry, what remains to say of the Christmas vived longer than most other forms of ture and commercial exchange. Physical
story itself? Writers began to construct Victorian mushiness. Think how senti- reality in itself seems to have no joy or
their own mythologies, their own tales, mental, in a careful 20th-century literary love or light or certitude or peace or help
as metaphors for the spirit and mean- way, are such books as J.R.R. Tolkien’s for pain. Except maybe at Christmas.
ing of the season. And so we get E.T.A. Father Christmas Letters, written from Christmas is a thin place, a weak-
Hoffmann’s 1816 The Nutcracker and 1920 to 1943, and even Truman Capote’s ness in the dam that keeps divinity from
the Mouse King. And Hans Christian 1956 A Christmas Memory. Cynical mod- flooding us. Our cultural and personal
Andersen’s sappy 1845 The Little Match ern pushback can be found from David memories of the history of sermonizing,
Girl. And O. Henry’s even sappier 1905 Sedaris’s 1997 Holidays on Ice to Au- the long years of art, the liturgies, and
The Gift of the Magi. These stories often gusten Burroughs’s 2009 You Better Not even the material objects put to Christ-
dodge theology and even the Bible as Cry, but even in ostensible comedies, mas use, from the flicker of Advent
much as they can. Dickens seems to have at least a little sentimentality always candles to the wonderful absurdity of
an allergy to anything resembling the manages to creep in, and often it takes inflatable reindeer out on the lawn: They
theological, with his 1843 A Christmas over the story, from John Grisham’s all help the brief change appear, pouring
Carol, the dominant modern Christmas 2001 Skipping Christmas to Christopher down on us for a moment. Christmas,
story, fundamentally about the emotion Moore’s 2004 The Stupidest Angel: A like the blizzard when I was 12, renders
of the season. And the rest of 19th-cen- Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. the world rich and strange and meaning-
tury writers, trudging down the path that We could take a similar look at holi- ful. I watched as the river hills pulled the
the titanic Dickens had carved through day movies, although in their sentimen- snow like a blanket over their heads and
the snow drifts, took sentimentality itself tality and sense that the true meaning of went to sleep for the winter. And I knew
as the meaning of Christmas, awakening Christmas is the emotion of the season, at last that it was Christmas.
us from a drab commercial existence: they tend to follow in the wake of litera-
Henry van Dyke’s 1895 The Other Wise ture. Or we could look at carols, which Joseph Bottum is a poet and essayist in the
Man, for example, or Kate Douglas Wig- typically keep more theological content Black Hills. His most recent book is the new
gin’s 1886 The Birds’ Christmas Carol, than Christmas fiction, for all that carols collection of fiction and essays, Frankin-
or (a personal favorite of maudlinity) are essentially Victorian. Oh, ever since cense, Gold, and Myrrh: A Christmas
Sophia Swett’s 1885 story, “How Santa St. Augustine first came to Canterbury Chrestomathy, and he is a founder of the
Claus Found the Poor-House,” from the to convert the nation, England has had daily poetry Substack newsletter, Poems
pages of St. Nicholas Magazine. local songs, from “Christus Est Natus” to Ancient and Modern.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 47

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

Johnny Carson at home on

July 5, 1956, in Los Angeles.

The Ubiquitous Nobody

By Art Tavana

D
avid Letterman compared John- Tynan, who profiled Carson in 1978. with his hands in his pockets, teetering
ny Carson to a “public utility.” “He’s great by omission,” said Art Stark, like a tipsy orchestra director waiting
Walter Cronkite anointed him the Carson’s producer from 1962 to 1967, his for his cue: “Heeeeeeere’s Johnny!” We
“most durable performer in the whole “television dad.” Zehme don’t know him, but we
history of television.” An “OK” hand describes him as some- also don’t know anyone
signal from behind Carson’s desk (“a how being both a “security like him: the cool TV dad
gesture from God,” according to Richard blanket” and “a flawlessly (not to be confused with
Belzer) could make or break a comic’s ca- designed winking per- the square and scripted
reer. I’ve been told by comedy podcasts formance hologram,” the “sitcom dad”) who told
that Carson had great timing, like a jazz upgraded version of what bedtime stories that crack-
drummer, which was part of his “central Orson Welles described led with one-liners he’d
circuitry” and “calibrated instrument of as an “invisible talk host” deliver with what Zehme
stage precision,” as Bill Zehme puts it in who was paradoxically describes as a “scotch-
his new biography of the great TV host, as ubiquitous as Mickey and-soda wit.” The drama
Carson the Magnificent. Mouse. is charged by our desire to
Johnny Carson was omnipresent on The drama in Carson see the legend metamor-
American television for three decades the Magnificent is, then, phized into a man.
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GET T Y IMAGES

(1962 to 1992), flickering in the dark as that nobody really knew Carson the Magnificent If there was someone
people went to sleep, tucking 15 mil- Johnny Carson, the big- By Bill Zehme and who almost did know Car-
lion-17 million of them in at night, in- gest TV star in history. We Mike Thomas son, it was Bill Zehme. His
Simon & Schuster
cluding Arsenio Hall, who compared his know the caricature. We new book blends tight-
336 pp., $30.00
soothing ubiquity to a “bedtime story.” know the Dana Carvey im- ly knotted myth-making
Nonetheless, this most televised of men personation: the comical that untangles itself tem-
is an enigma. “You get the impression rasp and exaggerated hand movements. porally, shifting wildly between To-
that you are addressing an elaborately We know the Simpsons cartoon of a night Show transcripts, vignettes, long
wired security system,” said Kenneth late-night host in a single-breasted suit parentheticals, hundreds of interviews,

48 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

 CHRISTMAS BOOKS

Smiley the Second

clipped magazine articles, and Zehme’s
personal interactions with Carson — the
“ultimate Interior Man,” he wrote in an
email sent to former Tonight Show writ- By Will Collins
er Michael Barrie, describing Carson as
“the inscrutable national monument on

D
constant full view.” eath hasn’t diminished Tom Paul Atreides. Clancy was a proficient
But here’s a plot twist: Zehme, who Clancy’s output. Since the spy thriller writer, and Herbert was a talented
wrote for Esquire and Rolling Stone, ele- novelist’s death in 2013, a team of mythmaker, but there is a reason Philip
vating “celebrity profiles to an art form,” writers has churned out Clancy-brand- Roth called le Carre’s A Perfect Spy “the
according to the Washington Post, died ed thrillers at regular intervals. The best English novel since the war.” Le
of cancer on March 26, 2023. He never new Dune television series is based not Carre is one of a few authors who bridged
finished the book, whose genesis can be on Frank Herbert’s original novel but on the gap between genre fiction and capi-
found in the last major interview John- a series of spinoffs written by Herbert’s tal-L Literature. Not many writers can de-
ny Carson ever gave: “The Man Who son, Brian Herbert. The implacable logic scribe spycraft in painstaking but thrilling
Retired” by Zehme for Esquire (June of the Hollywood franchise, which prizes detail while delivering forlorn meditations
2002), where Zehme described Carson’s intellectual property over individual au- on the state of Cold War Britain.
final Tonight Show appearance in messi- thorship, has lately been adopted by the Harkaway’s new novel, Karla’s Choice,
anic terms: “He left the air and climbed publishing industry. Given the decline in takes its title from Smiley’s Moscow
into the clouds.” Zehme spent the next reading, it’s hard to blame writers and Centre nemesis, and it is a testament to
two decades chipping away at the na- editors for leaning on their most popu- le Carre that an otherwise unremarkable
tional monument, getting closer to what lar characters. code name can be imbued with such
he described as the flesh and blood of the Now, the franchise builders have set menace. Harkaway situated the action
“great American Sphinx.” He got close. their sights on a more prestigious target. in the early 1960s between The Spy Who
When Zehme died, his research as- The latest character to be revived after Came in From the Cold, in which Smiley
sistant and friend (Mike Thomas) fin- the author’s death is George Smiley, the oversees a successful but brutally cost-
ished the book. With a more restrained unprepossessing British agent first intro- ly mission in East Germany, and Tinker
and straightforward style, Thomas com- duced by John le Carre in The Spy Who Tailor Soldier Spy, which follows Smi-
pleted Carson the Magnificent, which is Came in From the Cold and subsequently ley’s efforts to track down a mole Kar-
complete in terms of capturing what immortalized in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. la has recruited at the heart of British
Zehme called the “Carsonian Essence”: Smiley has been delicately handed over to intelligence.
a magic trick drawn out over 90 minutes le Carre’s son, Nick Harkaway, who has Karla’s Choice finds Smiley coming
of “carefully coordinated ubiquity” that made all the right noises about protecting out of retirement to help the Circus, a
produced an “orchestrated happy calm” his late father’s most memorable literary lightly fictionalized version of MI6, lo-
that was always restrained, reminding creation. The good news is that Harkaway cate a Hungarian living in London who
people its composer was from the Mid- is a talented writer who does a fair imper- has been marked for death by Moscow
west, like Zehme. sonation of his father. The bad news is Centre. With its obvious parallels to ear-
I’m not old enough to know what the that his talents would almost certainly be lier Smiley books, the novel sometimes
“Carsonian Essence” was like when it better served elsewhere. feels like a talented cover band playing
suffused the airwaves and the TV dens Reviving Smiley is fundamentally dif- a medley of the original act’s greatest
of America, but I imagine it made people ferent from bringing back Jack Ryan or hits. Smiley, getting dragged back to the
feel like they had a third parent, partial-
ly because Carson never punctured the
illusion of balmy patriarch. Preserving
that illusion is probably Carson’s great-
est contribution to American culture.
(Reminding America that “there will be a
tomorrow” is how Carson described his
“job” to Tonight Show regular Tony Ran-
dall.) It also made him a cipher. Zehme’s
COLIN MCPHERSON/CORBIS VIA GET T Y IMAGES

book gets us close, but still it keeps John-

ny in the annals of myth. And frankly, it’s
better that way. We don’t need to know
Johnny Carson. He’s gone. And so is late-
night television.

Art Tavana is an award-winning journalist

and author of Goodbye, Guns N’ Roses British novelist
and former columnist at L.A. Weekly and Nick Harkaway
Playboy.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 49

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

The Birth
Circus, immediately recalls Tinker Tailor, character. It is presumptuous, perhaps,
as does a sad pilgrimage to consult with to lecture le Carre’s son on how best to
a retired spymaster. A cast of displaced carry on his father’s legacy. However,

of the
foreigners adrift in the gray world of when we meet Smiley, he is comfortable
1960s London also brings to mind other enough to have stopped practicing basic
Smiley adventures. spycraft, a choice that seems utterly at

Library
At times, the melody kicks in at just odds with his meticulous, often paranoid
the right register, and you really feel that disposition.
Harkaway is channeling the old master These objections are the cost of do-
through some arcane literary ritual. The ing someone else’s business. Either the By Micah Mattix
descriptions of Circus protocol would new author is trying too hard to ape the
fit seamlessly into any of the old Smiley original, or he’s taking liberties with the
novels. Even the most dedicated student source material that some readers will I rise in the middle of the night,
of le Carre would struggle to distinguish inevitably object to. It would be easier to go outdoors at sunrise, but both
Harkaway’s version of Toby Esterhase, dismiss the entire enterprise if Harkaway in the fields and at home I study,
a Circus operative of Hungarian origin were a bad writer, but that’s not the think, read, and write ... Every day
whose English is perfectly comprehen- problem. He’s a good writer trapped in I wander over the rocky mountains,
sible but slightly awkward, from the someone else’s world. through the dewy valleys and cav-
original. Returning to Smiley in 2024 feels like erns ... Meanwhile here I have es-
At other times, however, Harkaway’s mining the last bit of ore from an already tablished my Rome, my Athens, and
le Carre impression is a bit like Ester- exhausted vein. Le Carre, in his prime, my spiritual fatherland; here I gath-
hase’s grammar: fluent but just a bit off. was preoccupied with the post-World er all the friends I now have or did
It starts with the book’s first 50 pages, War II decline of Britain, which had, in have ... I marvel at their accomplish-
which bring in familiar faces from Smi- the words of Dean Acheson, “lost an em- ments and their spirits ... conversing
ley’s world at a fast and furious pace. It’s pire but not yet found a role.” The dour with them more willingly than with
as if Harkaway, or perhaps his editor, landscape of 1960s London, the decay- those who think they are alive ... I
felt the need to reassure nervous read- ing country houses of British grandees, thus wander free and unconcerned,
ers by rapidly name-dropping as many and the bureaucratic squabbling over a alone with such companions, I am
old characters as possible. Look, there’s rapidly shrinking pie were as integral to where I wish to be.
Roddy Martindale, a gossipy bureau- the Smiley novels as the old spy’s expen-

T
crat who appears as a minor figure in sive but ill-fitting clothes. his passage comes from a 1353
several Smiley books. Over there, you’ll Now, these preoccupations seem as letter to a friend by the poet Fran-
notice General Vladimir, out-of-date as Smiley’s cesco Petrarch explaining why he
a Soviet defector whose tailoring. At one point, a has remained in his small house near
murder brings about Kar- Soviet defector in Lon- Avignon rather than make a planned
la’s eventual downfall in don incredulously notes trip to Italy and describing the plea-
Smiley’s People. Smiley the absence “of a state sures of daily life in the countryside.
quickly runs into Bill Hay- mechanism of coercive His “friends” are his books; Rome and
don, the dashing British control.” In the modern Athens are his private library. Petrarch
agent-turned-traitor who United Kingdom, the told another friend that “I am unable to
will go on to seduce Smi- prime minister is forced satisfy my thirst for books.” He amassed
ley’s wife. To borrow the to publicly comment on a sizable library and sought to donate it
language of the age, these home visits by police over to the Basilica of San Marco in Venice
stray references are Easter offensive social media toward the end of his life in exchange for
eggs for le Carre devotees. posts. Fears of Britain’s a house. This proved unsuccessful, and
Their inclusion conforms waning influence east of his collection was split up and sold after
to the remorseless logic Karla’s Choice: Suez feel quaint in an era his death.
of the franchise, which A John le Carré Novel when the Royal Navy can Petrarch was not alone in his obses-
seeks to reassure readers By Nick Harkaway barely defend its home sion of collecting books. Bookmaking
Viking
(or viewers) that they’re in waters. was a booming industry in the late Mid-
320 pp., $30.00
the comforting environs of The advance of the dle Ages and early Renaissance. What is
a familiar story. franchises is relentless, but new with Petrarch, Andrew Hui argues in
Le Carre usually waits until the final Smiley belongs to another age. I hope The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance
act to have his characters ruminate on Harkaway makes a lot of money from Libraries, is his creation of a personal li-
Cold War morality, but Harkaway wastes this book. Enough to resist the siren brary in his home for the purpose of con-
no time in having Smiley deliver a speech song of writing more lucrative but un- templation and “care of the self.” While
about the ambiguities of his profession. satisfying Smiley novels. most books were held by religious and
These are familiar notes, but they feel civil institutions, Petrarch, Hui argues, is
rushed, forced, and slightly out of place. Will Collins is a lecturer at Eotvos Lorand one of the first to create a personal library
Other episodes seem frankly out of University in Budapest, Hungary. that was the site of “secular ... self-care”

50 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

 CHRISTMAS BOOKS

The Duke Humphrey’s Library at the

Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, England.

rather than an “ecclesiastical site of spir- of Building (1485), for example, Leon Bat- floor of his house in Gubbio next to his
itual devotion.” Petrarch, thus, “inaugu- tista Alberti remarks that private librar- bedroom and his private chapel. (The
rates a new tradition of the ies should be built in the study is now in the Metropolitan Mu-
humanist studiolo.” east or south side of the seum of Art.) Da Montefeltro amassed
The book is in two house to prevent “mold” one of the largest private libraries of the
parts. In the first part, Hui or “rust” and be filled Renaissance — the man who procured
traces the rise of the pri- with “a large collection of his books claimed it was larger than the
vate library from Petrarch rare books, drawn, prefer- Vatican’s — and employed as many as 40
to Montaigne and explains ably, from the learning of scribes for copying.
how a “well-stocked library ancients.” They should be Hui notes how this obsession with
and well-furnished study decorated with maps and books can be seen in the art of the time.
became must-have for any various “mathematical in- Paintings of the aristocracy regularly
self-respecting, high-net- struments.” Paolo Cortesi, show them reading in their private stud-
worth individuals.” In The the bishop of Ubrino, ar- ies or holding books. While depictions
Book of the Art of Trade gued in 1510 that a cardi- of the Annunciation of the Incarnation
(1458), the merchant Ben- nal’s palazzo should have of Christ to the Virgin Mary previously
edetto Cotrugli writes that both a library and a private depicted her spinning wool, paintings in
CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GET T Y IMAGES

every good house should The Study: The Inner study. The study should the 14th and 15th centuries began depict-
have both an office (a scrit- Life of Renaissance be close to the bedroom, ing her holding a book.
toio) for welcoming visitors Libraries “safe from intrusion,” and The private study was both a place
and a private study (a studi- By Andrew Hui have “a spiral staircase” to of privacy and community. For Pe-
Princeton University Press
olo) for reading great works provide “an inside passage trarch, it is a place to be “alone with
303 pp., $29.95
of literature. down into the library.” ... companions.” For Machiavelli, it is a
How a private study Federico da Montefeltro court away from court. “When evening
should be built and furnished became created one of the most elegant studies comes,” he writes in a famous letter to
topics of much discussion. In On the Art of the early Renaissance on the upper his friend Francesco Vettori, describ-

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 51

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

ing his life in exile, “I return home and

enter my study; on the threshold I take
off my workday clothes, covered in
mud and dirt, and put on the garments
of court and palace.” For Montaigne,
it is a private kingdom. In his Essays,
he describes it as a throne room and a
court where he withdraws from “conju-
gal, filial, and civil” society and instead
pays court “privately to himself.” “Sor-
ry is the man,” he writes, “who has not
in his own home a place to be all by
himself.”
Hui repeats the claim that a private
library was a locus of “self-care” doz-
ens of times without unpacking what
the Renaissance view of “self-care”
might be — and how it might differ
from contemporary notions. Yet, he
notes how the private study, for Pe-

British Inversion?
trarch and others, was not an escape
from the world but a way to prepare to
face it. The contemplative and active
life are connected, and the person who By Michael M. Rosen
lived a well-ordered life moved back
and forth between them. Many of the

G
descriptions of private studies that Hui eorge Bernard Shaw once wrote, United States after decades of American
highlights (both in the West and the “England and America are two cultural colonialism in the British Isles.
East) note the importance of having a countries separated by a com- Yagoda attributes the explosion of
view of the outside world — gardens mon language.” This isn’t true of my NOOBs over the last 30 years principally
and fields — reminding the scholar of own household, though. I married an to how “media and technology have dra-
this connection. unapologetic Brit, and our common lan- matically sped up linguistic cross-pollina-
The second part of the book is a guage doesn’t separate us. It just makes tion among national or regional forms of
disappointment. Hui riffs on various things interesting. For instance, around English.” He also contends, reasonably,
depictions of readers and libraries in lit- my house, I hear British terms such as that Britishisms catch on when they “of-
erature from Cervantes’s Don Quixote to “have a go” (“go for it” or “take a turn,” fer value,” either by “describing a thing
Christopher Marlowe’s Faustus. It is all in American English), “your room is a for which there’s no precise American
surface, no depth, spruced up with cloy- tip!” (“clean up that pigsty!”), “stop piss- equivalent” or by offering a posher (case
ing metaphors or disguised with jargon. ing and moaning” (“quit your complain- in point) and, therefore, more appealing
All “knowledge is situated knowledge, ing”), “go on!” (“no way!”), “peckish” version of an existing American phrase.
as gender studies has taught us,” he (“hungry”), “don’t get your knickers in a Take, for instance, “go missing,” a
writes in one instance. We “have to ac- twist” (“chill”), and, perhaps my all-time Britishism generally rendered in Amer-
knowledge,” he writes in another, “that favorite, “Bob’s your uncle!” (“And there ican English as “disappear.” Yagoda
literature from its origins also consists of you have it!”). traces its emergence in the U.S. to the
entire ecosystems of content engineered If Ben Yagoda is to be believed, it’s early 2000s, around the time that con-
to influence.” not just my family that has absorbed gressional intern Chandra Levy fell off
Far too frequently, Hui provides numerous Britishisms in recent years, the radar (tragically, she was murdered,
the source language of translated text, but American society as a whole. In her body found in Rock Creek Park).
sometimes running to three paragraphs, Gobsmacked!, Yagoda’s entertaining and The term “go missing” conveys a certain
for no apparent reason and regularly carefully researched chronicle of the passive subtlety not entirely present in
provides the uncomplicated original for British invasion of American English, “disappear,” a sense that a human being
banal expressions like “The shape of my the reader is treated to the who, what, simply dissolved into mystery. Other ex-
library is round” or “in the archives of when, where, why, and even whilst of amples include “dodgy,” a British version
La Mancha.” It seems Hui may have run this phenomenon. A onetime English of the casual American “sketchy” that’s
out of things to say, hence the padding, professor and the current steward of less critical and more playful; “taking
which is too bad for a book on such a fas- the immensely popular blog Not One- the piss,” Leeds’s slightly edgier way of
cinating topic. Off Britishisms (or NOOBs), Yagoda saying “teasing”; and “book,” a sturdi-
GET T Y IMAGES

plumbs etymological origins and Google er-sounding version of “reserve.”

Micah Mattix is a professor of English at Ngram analysis alike to explain exactly Then there are the British phrases
Regent University. how British English has penetrated the that simply sound better (more dramat-

52 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

 CHRISTMAS BOOKS

The Two
ic, elegant, or sophisticated) than their adoption by the U.S. military and Cus-
exact American counterparts, such as toms and Border Protection of the day-
“full stop” for “period,” “spot on” for month-year convention of recording

Tuccis
“exactly right,” “whinge” for “whine,” or, dates prevalent pretty much everywhere
well, “gobsmacked” for “shocked.” Pro- in the world besides the U.S.
nunciations trace a similar trajectory: You may find yourself surprised and
“eye-ther” and “neye-ther” are horning even delighted by some entries, such as By Will Simpson
in on “nee-ther” and “ee-ther,” “sce-nah- “smog” (which originated in early 20th
rio” may be replacing “sce-nare-io,” and century London), “gadget” (19th-cen-

T
“ahnt” is starting to outpace “ant” (for tury British sailors), “over the top” (the hough Stanley Tucci is a Holly-
“aunt”). As Yagoda notes, “Most NOOBs Royal Army during World War I), “bon- wood A-lister, starring alongside
become NOOBs in part because they kers” (the World War II-era Royal Navy), Ralph Fiennes in this year’s Os-
have no precise American equivalent and even “dicey” and “a piece of cake” car-contending Conclave, for instance,
and therefore provide valuable nuance.” (Royal Air Force slang). The “long game” and in crowd pleasers such as the Hunger
However, with these terms, “Americans owes its existence to whist-players in Games films, he has cooked up a public
presumably use the variant because they 1850s Britain. persona somehow more associated with
want to sound British — or they’ve heard Equally intriguing is “easy peasy,” food than film. Few of Tucci’s 5 million
others say it and they like the ring of it.” which does not derive from a lem- Instagram followers are invested in his
Yet other British terms, such as “boot” on-scented Sqezy [sic] dishwashing life today because they fondly recall his
for “trunk,” “bonnet” for “hood,” “shag” liquid advert (ahem) but rather from a Golden Globe-winning role in Conspir-
for “have sex,” or “lift” for “elevator,” never 1983 Guardian article. Who would have acy (2001). They want to know what he
caught on because those terms already had thought that Aussies, not California surf is eating.
other established meanings bros, coined “no worries” In 2021, he published Taste, a mem-
in American English. Simi- as an alternative to “no oir that dwelled more on family dinners
larly, “sport” is unlikely to problem”? Thank you, than industry dramas. Now, in What I Ate
replace “sports,” just like Crocodile Dundee. in One Year, Tucci narrows his scope to
“maths” won’t soon sup- Curiously, while Ya- record one year of journal entries. The
plant “math.” goda studiously consults collective product is in equal measures
However, sometimes evolving usage in the New public memoir, personal diary, and casu-
it can be difficult to dis- York Times and NPR as al cookbook — supplemented by some
entangle the two. For indicative of respectable poetry in the margins.
instance, “clever ” in American philological Tucci begins the year in Rome on the
American English usually and literary culture, he set of Conclave. He feels nearly at home
connotes artifice or unex- gives relatively short shrift in Italy, as you would expect for some-
pected ingenuity, while in to the New Yorker, that one whose hit show is titled Stanley
British English, it simply nearly hundred-year-old Tucci: Searching for Italy. With weeks of
means “smart.” “Proper,” magazine whose idiosyn- restaurant recommendations in the Eter-
Gobsmacked: The
similarly, denotes authen- British Invasion of cratic style guide offers fer- nal City, the book could justify its cover
ticity in the United King- American English tile ground for examining price as a travel guide. The intrigue of
dom (“a proper cup of By Ben Yagoda the taking root of NOOBs. many days starts and ends with its diet,
coffee”) and propriety in Princeton University Press (Although Yagoda’s short as Tucci totes his own lunches to a film
288 pp., $24.95 section on the magazine’s
the U.S. (“proper behav- set while shooting in Italy (Italian studio
(or £20, if you fancy)
ior”). “Piss off ” signifies stubborn use of “got” is catering is “dreadful … gross, even”) and
“get out of here” (intransi- rather amusing, especially waxing poetic about the virtue of soup
tive) in Manchester and “enrage” (tran- his admission that he founded a Facebook (“it comforts, it soothes, it refreshes, it
sitive) in Miami, and “holiday” means group titled “Get The New Yorker to Start restores — soup is life in a pot”).
vacation across the pond and festive (or Using ‘Gotten.’”) Perhaps he feels (anoth- As a journal, it ostensibly focuses on
solemn) occasion on American shores. er Britishism) About Town, his (excellent) Tucci’s passion for food and drink. But
Thus, tracking these NOOBs’ prolifera- 2000 history of the magazine, suffices. he is a man of many passions, and he can
tion via Ngram only reveals so much. Ultimately, though, Yagoda shines a scarcely talk about one without trigger-
Some adaptations are context-de- torch (I couldn’t help myself) on a fasci- ing another. Tucci doesn’t just admire
pendent, such as American soccer fans’ nating cross-cultural linguistic phenom- the architecture of Rome, he relates to
selective use of “draw,” “nil,” “support- enon that, while still measured, is — like the young boy who was allegedly brought
ers,” and “side” when discussing what my own marriage — gradually reuniting to tears at the sight of the Pantheon be-
the British call football but never when speakers of a once-divisive common cause it was “so perfect.” Nor does he
discussing properly (ahem) American language. simply enjoy eggs for breakfast — they
sports. (“Soccer” is itself a Britishism, are “always on my mind” and “practi-
originating in the U.K. as “Association Michael M. Rosen is an attorney and writer cally the perfect food” (even more so if
football” before fading out there in the in Israel and a nonresident senior fellow at you follow his advice to watch a video of
1970s.) Others are official, such as the the American Enterprise Institute Jacques Pépin making them).

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 53

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

The results are not uniform, to be

Stanley Tucci in fair. Tucci and his wife seem nearly dis-
London, England. traught when they make scallops with
a skillet too cool to properly sear. He
berates himself for inadequately puree-
ing vegetables in his soup. His reviews
of disappointing restaurants are even
more scathing, dripping with resentment
at money (and, more importantly, time)
wasted. Even then, his sense of propriety
imposes restraint. Restaurants and chefs
he loves are praised, loudly and by name.
Subpar establishments are brutalized,
but without proper nouns and with de-
scriptions too vague to Google or cancel.
Despite the breezy tone of pasta
lunches and celebrity dinner parties,
Tucci’s restless inner monologue nev-
er permits the weeks to turn glib. As
with Marcus Aurelius, a Roman long
before the time of pasta, human mor-
tality weighs heavily on Tucci. Living
in London, he can estimate the number
of times he will see American friends
again before they pass. He is 64 but has
young children. He is building a life in
England with his wife of 12 years, but
he can never fully escape his New York
home where he raised a family and
where cancer claimed the life of his first
wife. He won his own battle with can-
cer, although it left him with deprived
saliva production that limits his ability
to enjoy rich meats.
Lost in his own thoughts, he admits
that he is drawn to the past more than
By spending a year with for dinner occasionally, the future. That seems only fitting for
his reader, Tucci builds a earning the description the man who insists on proper cocktail
personal familiarity that of a fine young man that hours for guests before dinner and who
lets his inner life unfold would make any grand- gripes about T-shirts and streetwear to-
on page over time. As the parent proud. Guy Ritchie day in a tone that feels more familiar to
months pass, food falls sounds like a Bond villain George F. Will than a Hollywood actor.
into its place as a simple redeemed to the culinary Ultimately, one man’s journal is only
pleasure, a recurring base- light side, replete with an as interesting as the man himself. And
line fulfillment, an excuse army of Range Rovers to that interest is fully subjective. Nobody
to reconnect with friends guard his sprawling Brit- can convince me to care what most ran-
and make memories with ish estate. dom celebrities eat or think on a given
family. Using meals as a If the daily cycles of day. But apparently a nontrivial number
narrative device brings a pasta and marinara sauce of people are keen to hear from Stanley
grounded sensibility to What I Ate in One and savory pastries and Tucci. Among them was the Manhattan
celebrity voyeurism that Year (and Related orecchiette with sausage bartender who saw me reading this book
would otherwise be at Thoughts) and broccoli leave a lasting with his face on the cover and found
home on Page Six. Ryan By Stanley Tucci impact on his audience, it herself full of questions. She didn’t care
DAVID LEVENSON/GET T Y IMAGES

Gallery Books about the means of pasta preparation,

Reynolds and Blake Lively might be motivation to ac-
368 pp., $35.00
come over for dinner, but tually cook. And to cook but she cared about peering inside his
the real story is how they often enough to develop an head. “He seems to have a depth to him,”
made chicken cutlets that the children intuition for it. In the Tucci household, she said.
loved. Family holidays would be normal, meals often start with leftover vegeta- Any reader of this book will agree.
except the in-laws are John Krasinski bles or frozen sauces but may evolve into
and Emily Blunt. Harry Styles drops by something beautiful. Will Simpson is a lawyer in New York.

54 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

 CHRISTMAS BOOKS

Telling Stories About Colonialism

By Yuan Yi Zhu

I
n 2022, the government of the In- wardly with the new dominant historical The Truth About Empire: Real Histo-
dian state of Tamil Nadu unveiled a narrative in Britain, according to which ries of British Colonialism is a collection
monument of Col. John Pennycuick the British Empire was an unequivocally of essays edited by Alan Lester, an aca-
in his English hometown of Camberley. evil institution whose lingering miasma demic at the University of Sussex who
The inscription described him in char- still corrupts not only its former territo- has been at the forefront of the cultural
acteristically Indian English flourish as ries but also modern-day Britain. conflict over British imperialism on the
“a noble man of sacrifice,” which sounds When Kipling lamented, “What do “miasma” side — though, like all com-
extravagant until one con- they know of England, batants, he denies being a participant.
siders that, even today, who only England know?” Indeed, one of the book’s declared aims
families in the region hang he was not being elegiac as is to show that its contributors are not
his portrait in their homes much as describing a sta- engaged in cultural warring.
and worship him as a god. tistical fact. Contrary to Their nemesis, whose name appears
Pennycuick, a British modern caricatures, apart 376 times in this book (more often than
Indian Army engineer, from episodic busts of the word “Britain”) is Nigel Biggar, a re-
achieved deification for enthusiasm, Britons were tired theologian and priest at the Uni-
building the Mullaperi- never very interested in versity of Oxford. In 2017, Biggar began
yar Dam, which since its their empire. At its Victo- a project to study the ethics of empire
completion in 1895 has rian peak, the great public alongside John Darwin, a distinguished
provided much-needed controversies were more imperial historian. The now-familiar ac-
water to several parched likely to be liturgical than ademic denunciations then came along,
districts in Tamil Nadu imperial. In 1948, 51% of and Darwin, on the cusp of a quiet retire-
and, according to locals, the British public could ment, withdrew from the project.
ended the famines there. not name a single British Lester was not part of the initial
The Truth About
Local tradition holds that Empire: Real colony; three years later, assault on Biggar but has since then
Pennycuick sold his fami- Stories of British the figure had risen to 59%. emerged as his most voluble critic. He
ly property to help finance Colonialism Admittedly, this was after disclaims any political aims, protesting
the project, though there’s By Alan Lester Indian independence, but it that he and his colleagues are engaged
Hurst
no evidence for it. should not have been that in a purely scholarly enterprise, based on
304 pp., 34.95
The unveiling of this hard. Proponents of the facts and the study of the evidence.
monument to a musta- “imperial miasma” theory Yet some of Lester’s public inter-
chioed military colonialist received are right in saying that British people are ventions — he recently described a poll
almost no coverage in Britain, partly be- woefully ignorant about their imperial showing that British people are less
cause Queen Elizabeth II had died two past; but that was the case even when proud of their history than before as an
days earlier. But the story fitted awk- much of the world was colored red. “encouraging sign” — are hard to square

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 55

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

with this denial. Biggar, by contrast, is re- liberal imperialism. No argument against cording to theirs. She begins her chapter
freshingly honest that his aims are both monument-toppling should hinge on by complaining that the anecdote was
intellectual and political. I must add that proving that their subjects belonged to bad because it threatened extrajudicial
both men are serious scholars, which is the former camp. lynchings for the widow-burners; she
perhaps why neither has been able to de- “What about slavery?” asks Dubow’s ends it by complaining that the Brit-
cisively bloody the other in their jousts. Cambridge colleague Bronwen Everill. ish never hanged anyone for burning
To grossly simplify the debate, Biggar Unfortunately, her four pages, which widows.
thinks that empires are neither inher- read like a last-minute student essay, do Anyhow, says Major, sati only affected
ently good nor bad, but simply a very old not enlighten us. The most she can man- a few women — 0.2% of widows in Ben-
form of government. He thinks that the age is to point to an 18th-century African gal in 1824, which I suppose would have
British Empire has done some bad things monarch abolishing the slave trade as provided some comfort to the 600 or so
but some good things as well. Lester and evidence that the British do not deserve women who were burned that year, had
his collaborators think the British Em- any plaudits for their abolitionist efforts they known of this fact. Major’s underly-
pire was a horrible institution, and Big- across the world, whose cost has been ing point — the British used the anti-sati
gar is a horrible scholar for defending it. estimated at 1.8% of its gross domestic crusade to justify their Indian Empire, is
Their key advantage is that they know product over a period of 60 years. a perfectly good one. It is a shame that
more history than Biggar; their key dis- Meanwhile, Abd al Qadir Kane, Ever- she thought it necessary to preface it
advantage is that Biggar seems to have a ill’s abolitionist monarch, only object- with so much moral throat-clearing.
far better moral compass than some of ed to the enslavement of Muslims but Many of the remaining chapters bor-
them. not to slavery generally, his progressive ingly state the obvious. Robert Bickers
This asymmetry is illustrated by one reputation resting mainly on the misun- informs us that war memorials some-
of the book’s most remarkable chapters, derstandings of Thomas Clarkson, an times celebrate heroism, while Erik Lin-
in which Liam Liburd, a professor of overenthusiastic English abolitionist. strum tells us that colonial authorities
black British history, defends comparing (Either cleverly or lazily, Everill quotes tried to protect their government’s rep-
the British Empire with Nazi Germany Clarkson’s misleading account, thus utation. Big, if true.
through a series of offensive parallels, avoiding the need to engage with the his- In the final chapter, Margot Finn is
thus begging the question of what the toriography on Islamic slavery in Africa.) reduced to complaining that Biggar cites
Tamil Nadu government was thinking Everill’s central argument is that ab- more books published by Oxford Univer-
when it paid for a monument of the mor- olitionism allowed Britain to rove the sity Press than by Cambridge Universi-
al equivalent of an SS officer (or indeed world as a moral policeman and to over- ty Press (if I had to guess, it is because
why the Indian government employed throw rulers who refused to abolish slav- one publishes four times more books
former British colonial officials well un- ery. It is never clear, however, why this than the other) and that his citations are
til the 1970s). was morally bad. If anything, Britain did “overwhelmingly Anglophone.” (I found
At one point, Liburd compares the not go far enough: Well into the 1960s, two non-English sources cited in The
1943 Bengal famine to the Nazi gas British representatives still manumitted Truth About Empire.)
chambers, conveniently overlooking the slaves on an ad hoc basis in its Gulf pro- As I slogged my way toward the last
possibility that the Imperial Japanese tectorates, when the moral thing would page, I could not help but think of the
Army’s invasion of Burma’s rice paddies have been to force their rulers to abolish Indian officials who came to England to
might have had something to do with slavery, at gunpoint if necessary. celebrate their former colonial overlord.
the lack of rice in Bengal and absolving The same stubborn refusal to admit I am sure they do not want the British
Imperial Japan from any blame. This is that imperialists could very occasionally Raj to be revived. People generally pre-
anti-imperial derangement at its peak. do good things pervades Andrea Major’s fer self-government, even when the new
Not all of the book’s chapters are so chapter on sati, the Hindu custom of governors are more venal than the de-
self-discrediting and morally bankrupt. burning widows alive. “It may be worth parting ones.
In his useful contribution, Saul Dubow, stating clearly at the outset that I am cat- But they are capable of celebrating
a South African historian now at Cam- egorically against burning women alive both independent India and Col. Pen-
bridge, reminds us that Cecil Rhodes was under any circumstances,” says Major nycuick because, like most normal hu-
not a very good man — empire-builders before adding that she ascribes to the ex- man beings, they are capable of holding
seldom are — and was controversial even tensive academic literature on “how sati more than one moral idea in their heads
during his lifetime, shunned by many of functioned as a tool of patriarchal op- at the same time. The Truth About Em-
his countrymen. pression of women.” One hopes that she pire promises to be “a shield against the
In his attempt to prevent Rhodes’s would have been able to come to the same assault on historical truth.” Its authors
monument at Oxford from being top- conclusion even in the absence of such an might do well to visit Col. Pennycuick’s
pled in 2020, Biggar fell into the com- impressive body of feminist scholarship. memorial at Camberley before it, too, is
mon trap of portraying Rhodes and his Major’s chapter is framed through toppled.
peers as progressives avant la lettre when a debunking of the apocryphal story
the argument should have been that it is of Gen. Charles Napier telling a depu- Yuan Yi Zhu is a professor at Leiden Uni-
unbecoming for Oxford to keep Rhodes’s tation of Indian grandees that if they versity and a research associate at the
donations whilst trampling on his name. burned widows according to their cus- University of British Columbia’s Centre
Liberal imperialism existed; but so did il- toms the British would hang them ac- for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies.

56 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

 CHRISTMAS BOOKS

someone else’s pain “isn’t determinative

of what’s true or false, right or wrong.”
And in Stuckey’s new book, Toxic Em-
pathy: How Progressives Exploit Chris-
tian Compassion, she drills into the way
talk of empathy has taken over public
discourse even as it has become politi-
cized, often serving as a byword for the
fellow-feeling liberals reserve exclusively
for one another.
Stuckey pinpoints a major source of
our troubled political discourse: We live
in an age of toxic, weaponized empathy.
And this empathy-mongering is particu-
larly directed at women, turning our good
natures against us. We see this in phrases
such as “If you really care about women,
you’ll support their right to choose” and
“If you’re really a Christian, you’ll fight
for social justice.” While her book digs

The Trouble
into arguments about issues on which
most conservatives will agree — oppos-
ing abortion, securing the border, reject-

with Empathy
ing the radical premises buried beneath
the unobjectionable name of Black Lives
Matter activism — it is specifically tar-
By Madeline Fry Schultz geted at evangelical Christians, offering
not just data and anecdotes to back up
its arguments but also Scripture. It’s the

I
n 2020, political writers who favored during campaign seasons aren’t very kind of book you might see in a Christian
Joe Biden seemed to coalesce on the original. You can judge that for yourself, book club or that a mother might give to
same word: empathy. but either way, something was clear- her daughter going off to college.
Time magazine ran a big story about ly going on with left-wingers and the The problem with empathy is that it
“Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Im- term “empathy.” And four years later, it can direct our hearts but not our heads.
portance of Empathy.” still is. “We need a world And as Stuckey shows, there are two
The Atlantic enthused where empathy replaces sides to every story, and the head is best
that “in the entire history fear, where compassion suited for adjudicating between the two.
of American presidential replaces violence, and Abortion-rights activists, for example,
campaigns, there may nev- where no one’s humanity will highlight the most anomalous, trag-
er have been a wider gap is up for debate,” tweet- ic story of a mother whose baby is to be
in empathy than between ed the Black Lives Matter born with fatal abnormalities to justi-
Donald Trump and Joe account on the day Daniel fy abortion. Never will you hear from
Biden.” In the Conversa- Penny was acquitted of the them about babies born alive and left to
tion, readers learned that homicide of Jordan Neely, die after failed abortion procedures or
“Joe Biden’s ‘Empathy’ a homeless man who had the reality of the pain an unborn child
May Boost U.S. Foreign been threatening to kill his feels during a dilation and extraction
Policy.” CNN reported fellow passengers in a New abortion.
on how “nearly every top York City subway car. Toxic Empathy does, however, con-
Democrat says the same Empathy for Neely tain some assertions that will be polar-
thing about former Vice doesn’t paint the whole izing even among its audience. In her
Toxic Empathy:
President Joe Biden when How Progressives picture though. If Penny chapter “Love is Love,” for example,
they make their endorse- Exploit Christian hadn’t acted, there could Stuckey asserts that it is illogical to be
ment: He is a man de- Compassion have been many innocent “privately against, but publicly for”
fined by his decency and By Allie Beth Stuckey victims in that subway car. same-sex marriage. Near the end of
Sentinel
empathy.” The questions the age of her chapter on social justice, Stuckey
224 pp., $27.00
Either Biden was so empathy raises are “Who suggests that opposition to the death
noticeably empathetic do we have empathy for, penalty is a manifestation “of social
that these accounts all arrived at the de- and why?” Empathy can put us in an- justice ideology within evangelicalism.”
scriptor independently or else political other’s shoes, but it can’t tell us where Stuckey writes that not all opponents
writers who heap praise on Democrats to walk. In Allie Beth Stuckey’s words, are motivated by so-called social justice,

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 57

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

“but I do see this as another product of editor’s note

empathy-manipulation.”
Each chapter is set up roughly this
way: Here is the most sympathetic ex-
ample you’ll get from the Left on this
The Book of Christmas
I
issue, whether it’s abortion, transgende- n a typical year, in this space, Washing- The thing about this book that makes
rism, gay marriage, illegal immigration, ton Examiner readers would find a sym- it so good and so worth actually reading
or social justice. Then, here is a story posium from editors and contributors and sharing is it is warm and kind, suf-
you may not have thought about (a to this magazine, recommending some of fused with bonhomie. Well, that’s one of
detransitioner who never found fulfill- the best books of the year or perhaps some the things. The other is the writing itself.
ment in her “male” body, for example) old favorites to pick up for the occasion. It’s downright astonishingly, almost hilar-
and the data to show this issue isn’t as This year, I am exercising a prerogative iously, good. Our narrator thinks out loud
simple as liberals make it seem. Each that a books section editor should only in a voice that so doesn’t sound like writing
chapter typically concludes with a Bib- use a couple of times in a career to do you’ll forget you’re reading, not being talk-
lical argument. something a little different: I am just going ed to by the winning yet troubled voice of
The chapter on transgenderism is one to tell you what book you need to get. It’s a man with both a conscience and some
of the most powerful, as the strongest a short novel called Whole by Derek Up- anxious voices in his head — a guy who
arguments for supporting gender transi- degraff, published by a tiny conservative has to work hard to reason out which of his
tion are always based purely on emotion. press called Slant Books, and it is the most impulses represent his better angels.
But once again, stories of children and astonishingly good piece of new fiction Trying this is a risk. In fact, on virtually
adults happily living as another gender writing I have encountered in years. every page of Whole, Updegraff takes some
are all over the news. Not so the stories I picked it up at random two months sort of formal, writerly risk that, if it didn’t
of detransitioners or the story of how we ago, expecting very little from it. Eleven work, it would have made the reader hate
got here in the first place. “The history of pages in, I started reading paragraphs out the entire book. Each chapter is separat-
transgender treatment isn’t built on sol- loud to my wife, almost alarmed that may- ed by a mock short story by our narrator,
id science and empathy,” Stuckey writes. be my critical faculties had failed me. Uhh, each one gorgeous. However, each one
“It’s built on the eccentric ideas of per- is this as good as I think it is? I kept asking. also serves to explain him. At one point,
verse, powerful men who all had the goal Keep reading, she kept saying. Then I gave we are treated to a self-contained, some-
of deconstructing traditional morals to it to a visiting friend, who meant to read how successful comic short story about a
achieve their sexualized vision of how just a few chapters but stayed up and read mass death among spelunkers. This, again,
the world should be.” it in one night. is the sort of thing writers try to pull off in
But the point of the book is not just to Whole follows the not hugely eventful their novels but fail. It works, though. Boy,
flip empathy on its head. While the book travels of a guy living in California’s Inland it works. Yet unlike so many other literary
is not aimed at everyone, for conservative Empire as he lives his life, drives around, highwire acts that insist upon themselves,
Christian readers looking for a primer works his job making sandwiches, and this book would be easy to comprehend
on how to engage with their progressive desperately hopes things work out with for a child, and it doesn’t show off for one
friends when it comes to some of today’s the girl he’s dating, an adjunct at a local single word. The writer wrote it for you,
most hot-button issues, Toxic Empathy is Christian college. He’s an underemployed not for him.
a good start. Toxic Empathy came out in slacker, in other words, which gives the I have no connection to this book, but I
October, just one month before Donald book its Big Lebowski feel, with maybe a feel strongly that it needs attention. I called
Trump won the popular vote and Republi- dash of Confederacy of Dunces. Only he’s the publisher to ask for some background,
cans swept the House and Senate. If there not a bum, nor is he a grandiloquent nar- and he told me it’s probably currently only
were ever a time to think that the average, cissist. He’s a thoughtful guy, trying to be got a readership of, well, me and him. If
not-very-online liberal could be warming fundamentally decent and ordinary de- that’s it, the readers of the world are doing
to conservative ideals, it is now. And for spite having every reason to dissolve in themselves a disservice, missing out on
those who won’t be swayed by reason, the bitterness and shyness some tough something here. I am telling you, this book
Stuckey is willing to offer some sympa- breaks in childhood seeded in him. Fatally, is better than many classics. Better yet, for
thetic examples of her own, confirming as the story begins, he accidentally strikes the purposes of Christmas gift-giving, it
that when leftists suggest we conform to a homeless man with his car. What hap- is short, funny, emotionally stirring, and
our empathy, so often what they really pens from there has no obvi- would be as interesting to a man
mean is their progressive ideals. ous shape or plot as such, only or woman, a 70- or a 20-year-
Ultimately, what matters is who you the feel of hearing about a few old, liberal or conservative, a
empathize with and who you don’t no- months of someone’s life as he Christian or a nonbeliever. I’m
tice you don’t empathize with. As Allie tells the story of trying not to buying three copies for people
Beth Stuckey shows her readers, that’s fray while he tries to pull him- on my list and keeping my copy
why empathy is a poor guide to being self together. Yet there is a care- for myself in case a first edition
kind, honest, or good. ful, morally thoughtful thrust to is worth something one day.
everything that happens in the
Madeleine Fry Shultz is the contributors book’s 140 pages that pays off —Nicholas Clairmont,
editor of the Washington Examiner. tremendously. Life & Arts editor

58 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

the columnists

GURDON
Trump’s nominees and the fight
against the Blob

I
t has become ever clearer that Liz Truss, “a lot less sackable” than the conservative economic policy. So Truss
President-elect Donald Trump head of the government. capitulated, abandoned her entire
was voicing a key attribute of his Whichever party wins the election, growth agenda, and soon resigned.
next administration when, on the leftward drift of the country The relevance of this story to the
July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, continues. The speed may change, but incoming Trump administration is
he got up from the ground after the direction does not. pointed. Kwasi Kwarteng, former U.K.
being shot, punched his fist in the Truss’s record-short 44-day chancellor of the exchequer and author
air, and shouted, “Fight, fight, fight!” premiership is the subject of a gripping of Truss’s economic agenda, whom the
Pundits looking for what unites his short documentary that debuted PM offered as a sacrifice to the Blob by
nominees for senior positions note, Dec. 10 on the Wall Street Journal sacking him, said of her resignation,
among other things, their loyalty to their website. It was made by Michael Pack, “She felt very uncomfortable in that
boss and their history and who has bitter personal situation. But somebody more bloody-
promise of being disruptors. experience of the deep minded, perhaps Boris Johnson or
These are true. But another state’s bloody opposition to somebody else, would have lasted
crucial characteristic is that they appear conservative administrations. He was longer because they would have refused
to recognize the need, and accept the notoriously defamed and obstructed for longer to resign.”
challenge, to fight, fight, fight. from confirmation for three years after The point is that conservatives who
Fight against what? Fight against the Trump picked him in March 2017 to run wish to govern, whether it is on the
usual way of doing things in Washington. the U.S. Agency for Global Media. other side of the Atlantic or this side,
Fight against acceptance of America’s In extensive interviews, including must be bloody-minded. They must be
managed decline. Fight against corrosive with Truss, Pack documents how prepared to brush off discomfort if they
groupthink and left-liberal assumptions. she was brought down largely by the are to survive and succeed. That is why
Most of all, fight against determined Bank of England, which was made Trump needs nominees who will fight,
and deadly obstruction from what is “independent” of politics during fight, fight.
variously referred to as “the swamp,” the premiership of Tony Blair, and Some, like former Rep. Matt Gaetz,
the “administrative state,” and the “deep the Office for Budget Responsibility, were very poor choices, and his quick
state.” which was set up by reliably Blob-like demise may have put blood in the
Whatever you call this malign object, Prime Minister David Cameron in water, encouraging more attacks by the
which has been immovable for decades, 2010. The bank created a cliff-edge Blob, the deep state.
it is not a uniquely American menace. financial deadline for Truss to abandon I asked Truss how, on a scale of 1 to
It afflicts most nations in the developed her Thatcherite economic policies. 10, she rated the strength of the Blob she
Western world. These are, at least The OBR leaked financial numbers faced compared to what Thatcher faced
notionally, functioning democracies, suggesting her plans would produce a back in the 1980s. The difference is huge.
but in them, government is largely and 72 billion-pound budget deficit. Back then it was a 4, but now it is a 9.
improperly devolved from constitutional The latter projection turned out “We need to change the system,” she
institutions to unelected oligarchs. to be false, but the deliberate OBR laments in Pack’s documentary, “not
In Britain, power is in the hands of leak was an effective shot below the just in the United Kingdom, but right
what under Prime Minister Margaret waterline of HMS Truss. As Jacob across the West, because I see similar
Thatcher was referred to as the Rees-Mogg, a former member of Truss’s tendencies in the United States.”
“permanent civil service,” which she government, noted, “We’d spent 400 American voters also saw it on
fought, for the most part successfully. billion pounds bailing people out of Nov. 5. For their opinion to matter,
It is now known in evocative English COVID, and nobody batted an eyelid. for democracy to prevail, the
demotic as “the Blob.” This is a Suddenly at 72 billion pounds … that’s next administration, subsequent
good name for the shapeless, ever- the end of the world.” administrations, and the people of the
expanding, and all-consuming Some spending, most spending, nation will have to fight, fight, fight. +
collection of agencies, opinion formers, is approved of by the Blob. What it
and manipulative bureaucrats who are, won’t abide, however, is spending Hugo Gurdon is editor-in-chief of the
according to former Prime Minister that reduces pressure to reverse Washington Examiner.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 59

the columnists

HANNAN
Foul-mouthed Milei shows
libertarians the way

L
ast year, the Economist warned and Chinese, who have transitioned where he nonetheless differs from
that “Javier Milei would be from Communism, by 1682 per cent. Trump. Milei is (unusually, if not
a danger for democracy in However, Argentines, incredibly, are 13 uniquely for a libertarian) strongly
Argentina” on the eve of his per cent poorer than they were in 1980. anti-abortion. He is also pro-Ukraine
election. How has Milei turned around this and pro-NATO.
Twelve months on, that generational decline? By applying the Why, then, do the two men
global voice of “Sensible classical liberal principles that made get on so well? Why was Milei
Centrism” has changed its tune: Argentina rich before 1916. He has Trump’s first foreign visitor? Partly
“Javier Milei’s reforms hold lessons shrunk the state payroll, abolished because Trumpery has never been
for the world.” numerous government ministries, wholly synonymous with NatCon
You can see its point. In his first slashed tariffs, cut spending, and protectionism. There are plenty of
year, the Argentine president halved the turned off the central bank’s printing free-marketeers in the incoming
inflation rate, which was running at one presses. Although he disappointingly administration. Elon Musk and Vivek
per cent per day when he took over. He shelved his plan to adopt the U.S. Ramaswamy have been especially
has freed up the rental market, resulting dollar, which would have guaranteed vocal in their praise for Milei, whom
in the number of available apartments that his reforms could not be undone they see as a model when it comes to
rising by 170 per cent, and rents falling by returning Peronist numbskulls, he domestic regulation.
by 40 per cent. He has returned the has done something that libertarians This is mainly because Milei
economy to growth and run the first have long dreamed of, making all understood early on that the way to
default-free budget surplus in 123 years. currencies legal tender in Argentina. sell classical liberalism was in angry,
Business confidence is surging, and the As the Economist put it: crude, Trumpian language. His style
stock exchange is with it. “Argentina’s president is often was what our listless, screen-frazzled
No one can undo a century of wrongly lumped in with populist age demanded.
malinvestment and mismanagement leaders such as Donald Trump, the Here’s an example. In an interview,
without pain. Argentina’s poverty hard right in France and Germany Milei explained why governments
rate has risen, especially among the or Viktor Orban in Hungary. In fact spend resources less carefully than
elderly, whose state pensions have he comes from a different tradition: private individuals. Milton Friedman
seen their value fall in real terms. a true belief in open markets and summarized the argument: “There are
However, sadly, that is the story of individual liberty.” two kinds of money in the world: your
every successful economic reform, Well, quite. Though, once again, money and my money.”
from Margaret Thatcher’s in 1980 to the magazine has radically changed its Milei’s version of the same
the post-Communist governments of tune. Six months ago, it was telling its concept?: “We can all be hookers
Central Europe a decade later. readers about “Latin America’s new when it’s someone else’s ass!”
So far, the voters are backing their hard right: Bukele, Milei, Kast and Such vernacular does not
president, the first free marketeer they Bolsonaro.” come easily to free-marketeers,
have had since 1916. They are painfully Milei’s worldview is very different who are accustomed to defending
aware that Argentina is almost the only from that of former Brazilian counterintuitive ideas against
nation on the planet that has become President Jair Bolsonaro, the populists. However, the evidence
poorer over the past generation. Hungarian prime minister, or the keeps piling up, whether in the United
The surest way to measure people’s U.S. president-elect. He is a down- States, Britain, or Europe. It is not
real wealth is by their time. How many the-line libertarian who loves free so much Trump’s policies that fueled
minutes must the average worker put trade, welcomes immigration, ignores his rise — he has very little interest
in to buy a cup of coffee, a haircut, an culture wars, and has no problem with in policy — as his rough and demotic
hour of reading light, or whatever? transgender people (“provided they manner. Libertarians may need to grit
By that metric, as Marian Tupy at don’t send me the bill”). their teeth and copy it. +
HumanProgress has shown, Americans Indeed, the only two policy areas
have seen their wealth rise by 204 where Milei is not uncomplicatedly Daniel Hannan is a member of the House
per cent, Chileans by 156 per cent, anti-state are, oddly enough, areas of Lords, and a former Conservative MEP.

60 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

GREEN
Time to talk Turkey

T
his is the season of light the public. Abroad, the Democrats used massacre too many Kurds. No one in
and hope. We dared to their power to create a vacuum. The Washington, D.C., or the media admits
dream that we were past worst-educated mandarinate in the the truth. As usual, it falls to Trump to say
the worst. The pardoning history of government believed that the unsayable about the unspeakable. As
of Hunter Biden looked like words alone shape reality, that laws usual, he has it half-right.
the last act of the senile on paper are the same as customs in “Syria is a mess, but is not our
and corrupt President life, and that all national interests are friend,” the president-elect said in
Joe Biden. The peevish race-baiting reducible to material interest and status a Dec. 7 social media post, before
of perma-President Barack Obama games. The world understood that the geopolitical urgency sent him all-caps.
is confounded, the Democrats’ American eagle had turned chicken. “THE UNITED STATES SHOULD
antidemocratic schemes hoist by their Our friends did nothing, our enemies HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH
own petard. President-elect Donald whatever they felt like. IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.
Trump’s Cabinet nominees vary by We nearly got through. Our luck LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET
ideology, but all of them want to fix a might have held, were it not for the INVOLVED!”
broken federal bureaucracy and regain congressionally mandated insanity of The U.S. is already involved,
the trust of the public. an 11-week limbo between elections along with everyone else. American
The “Trump effect” has been at work and Inauguration Day. The fruitiest intervention in Iraq led to the rise
since the night of Nov. 5. In the month banana republic manages a change of of the Islamic State, first in Iraq and
after the November elections, investors incumbent faster. Even the British do it then in Syria. The Obama policy of
pumped more than $140 billion into overnight. Being a world power is not nonintervention in Syria collapsed
U.S. equity funds, the largest inflow in the same as being a federal employee. into bombing campaigns and familiar
any month since 2000. The You cannot work from absurdities such as the Pentagon-
herd of independent-minded home. If you go AWOL for backed Kurds of the Syrian Democratic
commentators has suddenly three months, all hell will Forces fighting CIA-backed al Qaeda
decided it knew all along that the 2016 break loose. Look at Syria. types. This is not our fight, but the
election result was a watershed. You are The Turkish-sponsored campaign realities of geography and politics make
no longer a conspiracist if you say that that began in early December and the it a war whose outcome should favor
COVID-19 was manmade in Wuhan and sudden flight of nepo dictator Bashar us. Letting it “play out” means chaos.
that federal agencies funded much of Assad confirm what has been obvious So let’s talk Turkey.
the research and then hid their tracks. for years. Syria ceased to exist as a state The U.S. should stop indulging
Suddenly, Ukrainian President more than a decade ago. Our diplomats the neo-Ottoman Islamists who run
Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to will continue to talk about “Syria” as Turkey. It should support the Kurds
negotiate with Russia. NATO allies if it were a state, not a void of chaos. who, like the Israelis, are an island of
are talking about spending more on The media will talk about “rebels,” as decency in a sea of murderous stupidity
defense. The duplicitous Qataris have if Ahmed Hussein al Sharaa is Robin and actually like the West. The U.S.
expelled the Hamas leadership. Israel Hood, not a third-generation al Qaeda should also support the Druze and
can defend itself without the White jihadi who killed Americans in Iraq, and Christian minorities in southwestern
House tying one hand behind its back. Hay’at Tahrir al Sham are the Merry Syria, buffer American allies in Israel
Iran is exposed as a hollow bully, the Men on a flatbed Toyota, not rapists and and Jordan, and keep Hezbollah bottled
Obama-Biden policy of indulging a murderers. up in Lebanon. The alternative is that
terrorist empire exposed as the danger “Diversity is our strength,” al Sharaa a Turkish Islamist empire replaces the
to world peace it always was. said after taking Damascus, as if setting Iranian Islamist one. Neither of these is
The “Trump effect” also accelerates up a kinder, softer caliphate on the in the American interest. +
negative factors. Nature abhors a campus lawn. In a reflex like the twitch
vacuum, but power loves one. The of an amputated limb, Biden promises Dominic Green is a Washington Examiner
Biden administration exploited the to send money to the Syrian state that columnist and a fellow of the Royal
vacuum between the presidential ears no longer exists. The wraithlike Antony Historical Society. Find him on Twitter
to impose an imperial power trip on Blinken begs “our ally” Turkey not to @drdominicgreen.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 61

the columnists

BARONE Finally, this month, a detailed report

by the House Oversight Committee not
only endorses the lab leak theory as the
Free speech: most likely explanation of the virus but
also, as Ridley wrote in the Telegraph,
Why a tech titan “lays out in gobsmacking detail just

backed Trump how much senior officials allegedly

have schemed to prevent information
emerging.”
One can argue the attempted cover-up
by Fauci and others ultimately failed. One

W
can argue further that, unlike the Hunter
Biden laptop cover-up, this was not
hy did Marc year, but not forever, as President Joe necessarily a partisan operation: It began
Andreessen, inventor Biden’s pardon of his son showed. during the Trump presidency and was
of the first internet web Andreessen is concerned less about uncovered in part by actions of the Biden
browser, perhaps the transitory partisan finagling and more administration.
prime venture capitalist about possibly permanent suppressions However, one must also add that the
in Silicon Valley today, of truth. An example he cites is the claim, scientists who led the cover-up retained
switch from his long- “The Covid lab leak hypothesis was the capacity to shape pandemic policy,
standing support of the Democratic Party ‘misinformation,’ and broadly censored pressing successfully for measures that
and back President-elect Donald Trump on social media.” proved to be harmful or unnecessary,
this year? I have written often about the lab leak such as school closures, masking for
Because, in his view, the Democrats hypothesis and how denigration of it was children, and vaccine requirements
who claim to be the great scourge of concocted by former National Institute of for those with natural immunity from
“disinformation” are threatening to Allergies and Infectious Diseases Director previous infection.
embed disinformation in the bedrock of Anthony Fauci and former National Another thing one must add: The
society. At least, that’s my interpretation Institutes of Health Director Francis press and social media billionaires who
of Andreessen’s comments in a wide- Collins. went along with the scientists’ speech
ranging interview with the Free Press co- Starting in February 2020, they suppression acted on the assumption
founder Bari Weiss. conspired to get colleagues who that they were frustrating the intentions
“My concern is that the censorship considered the lab leak likely and got of Trump and his supporters, whom they
and political control of AI is a thousand them to write a paper disparaging that continued — and continue — to regard
times more dangerous than censorship theory and endorsing the idea that the as something like Hitler and Nazis. Any
and political control of social media — virus came from a live animal market. evidence in favor of things the Trump
maybe a million times more dangerous,” No evidence of such transmission has side was for, the media outlets felt an
Andreessen, a prime innovator of been found, and presumably, Fauci and obligation to suppress.
artificial intelligence, told Weiss. “The Collins’s control over millions of dollars For Mark Andreessen, the key
thing with AI is I think AI is going to in research funding helped persuade moment came after Jon Stewart went on
be the control layer for everything in the authors to change their minds. After Stephen Colbert’s show, and he did this
the future—how the healthcare system publication, Fauci airily referred the eight-minute segment during which he
works, how the education system article to the press as if he had nothing to pointed out that it “literally cannot be a
works, how the government works. do with it. coincidence that you have the Wuhan
So that if AI is woke, biased, censored, Establishment press outfits were institute of bat viruses,” as he told Weiss.
politically controlled, you are in a hyper- happy to play along, characterizing the After that, “I was in a discussion at
Orweillian, China-style, social credit lab leak theory as “already debunked” one of the big internet companies, where
system nightmare.” (the Washington Post) or a “fringe theory” the discussion was like, ‘Did you see the
Like his fellow tech titan Elon Musk, (the New York Times). The latter outlet’s Jon Stewart thing? Ha ha. That was really
Andreessen has come to see “the lead COVID-19 reporter offhandedly funny. I guess we should stop censoring
Democrats” as “the ones who are trying referred to its “racist roots.” Facebook the lab leak theory now. Ha ha.’ And
to silence free speech.” However, unlike and pre-Musk Twitter, now X, followed literally, they stop censoring it that day.”
many Trump supporters, he does not the cues and suppressed the lab leak It’s better to install a president such as
fasten on the obvious partisan example: theory even as they suppressed criticism Trump, whom the great establishments
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s 2020 of masking protocols and school closures. of government, journalism, and academe
campaign enlistment of 51 current or By March 2023, the Energy will strive to rebut than a Democrat
former intelligence officials to depict Department joined the FBI in concluding whose comforting presence will leave
Hunter Biden’s laptop as bearing “the that the virus likely resulted from a lab them inclined to accept any convenient
hallmarks of Russian disinformation.” leak. They were bolstered by multiple untruth. +
That Democratic disinformation articles by former New York Times science
operation suppressed facts about Biden writer Nicholas Wade and by Matt Ridley Michael Barone is senior political analyst
family corruption during the campaign and Alina Chan’s book, Viral. for the Washington Examiner.

62 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025

 OBITUARY

scenes, though, they quickly relented,

realizing that they had stumbled on
comedic gold. Their bet on ZAZ, and
ZAZ’s bet on themselves, paid off more
spectacularly than any of them could
Jim have imagined. Made for only $3.5
million, Airplane! went on to make
Abrahams, over $171 million, becoming the third

1944-2024
highest-grossing box-office comedy of
all time up to that point.
Abrahams and the Zucker brothers
A pioneering declined to participate in Paramount’s
comedic sequel to Airplane!, turning their
attention instead to TV, where they
filmmaker were developing Police Squad!, a spoof
series of police procedurals. The series,
By Daniel Ross Goodman which featured Leslie Nielsen as the
bumbling, self-serious detective Frank

‘C
Drebin, was critically successful but
an you fly this plane Abrahams, asking him if he could help was canceled after only six episodes,
and land it?” “Surely them write material for their sketches. prompting ZAZ to turn back to film.
you can’t be serious.” “I With Abrahams on board, they founded When their follow-up to Airplane!,
am serious — and don’t the Kentucky Fried Theatre Company in Top Secret! (1984), misfired, and when
call me Shirley.” This 1971, a kind of Second City (the famous their subsequent movie Ruthless People
seriously hilarious line, which is in the Chicago comedy club) for Wisconsin, (1986) proved to be only mildly better,
running for most often-quoted movie where they presented improv skits they realized that they had to rethink
line ever, is from the 1980 disaster as well as parodies of TV shows and their approach to moviemaking.
movie spoof Airplane!, one of the commercials. After experiencing Abrahams discerned that their movies
greatest comedies of the past 50 years. some success in their home state, the needed to be more than just “stringing
Airplane! initiated a run of spoof movies following year they moved the theater a bunch of scenes together” — that
that led to Hot Shots! and The Naked to Los Angeles, hoping to catch the their films needed solid stories and not
Gun and whose comedic DNA can attention of Hollywood directors and only a series of good jokes.
be found in the Scream series, Austin producers. Their plan worked. During The Naked Gun (1988) demonstrated
Powers, and Tropic Thunder. But for one performance, the young director that they had learned their lesson.
many cinephiles, none of those movies John Landis (of future Animal House Returning to the formula that had
can rival Airplane! itself, which contains and Trading Places fame) was in the worked so well in Airplane!, The
so many memorable gags and jokes audience. Impressed with the trio’s Naked Gun gave Nielsen’s Frank
that it seems semi-miraculous that they comedy chops, Landis connected with Drebin character a starring role as
could all be squeezed into an under- Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker — or the inept cop who tries to foil a plot
90-minute movie. If you dare to sit “ZAZ,” as they’d later be known — to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.
through all two hours and 40 minutes and talked them into compiling their With almost as many quotable lines
of Wicked (and that’s only Part 1!), you sketches into a movie that he’d direct. as Airplane! and a cast of respected
may find yourself wanting to go back to The resulting film, Kentucky Fried dramatic actors acting seriously in a
tidier, lighter, and funnier movies like Movie (1977), put ZAZ squarely on the silly comedy, The Naked Gun became
Airplane! and The Naked Gun. And you American comedy map. an instant comedy classic, cementing
may find yourself thinking about Jim Even so, they struggled to find a ZAZ as the Pepsi of spoof movie
Abrahams, one of the three pioneering taker for their next project, a parody comedy next to Mel Brooks’s Coke —
comedic filmmakers who created them. of flight disaster movies in which an or the other way around, depending
James Steven Abrahams, who died angst-ridden former army pilot is called on your taste. Airplane! or Spaceballs?
on Nov. 26 at the age of 80, was born on on to fly and land a plane after the The Naked Gun or Young Frankenstein?
May 10, 1944, in Shorewood, Wisconsin, pilots are knocked out of commission Luckily for movie fans, we don’t have
a suburb of Milwaukee. He and his after having eaten spoiled fish. (Lesson: to choose. As Frank Drebin says in The
future filmmaker collaborators, David Airplane sushi is probably never a good Naked Gun, “You’re both right.” 
and Jerry Zucker, knew each other idea, especially if you happen to be one
from youth; all three had attended the of the plane’s pilots.) When they finally Daniel Ross Goodman is a Washington
MICHEL SPINGLER/AP

same high school and college. After got a studio to sign on to it, Paramount Examiner contributing writer and the
having bonded over their mutual love did so on condition that they could fire author, most recently, of Soloveitchik’s
of humor, when the Zucker brothers ZAZ a week after shooting if they were Children: Irving Greenberg, David
were thinking about starting their own unsatisfied. When the studio executives Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the
comedy troupe, they reached out to saw some of the movie’s first filmed Future of Jewish Theology in America.

December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025 Washington Examiner 63

CROSSWORD

Nicked Up 48 Inquire 34 Crystal gazers

49 Yoga practitioner 39 Valuable deposit
By Brendan Emmett Quigley 52 Swagger 40 Excitement
55 Volcano spew 42 Computer menaces
            
58 Time to remember 43 Makes the first row
   59 Office gift-exchange of stitches in knitting
custom, and hint to 45 Provide support for
  
this puzzle’s theme 46 Emotionally strained
    62 Took charge of 49 Tend cattle
 
63 Amazon’s biz 50 Neighbor of Turkey
64 Musical group 51 Mum’s mum’s nickname
         65 Genetic ID 52 Con man’s trick
   66 Hagar of Van Halen 53 Svelte
67 Builds a little home 54 Count (on)
  
55 Insects
   56 “Don’t change that”
57 They’re sometimes
  
tipped
  DOWN 60 Airport info, initially
1 Equinox mo. 61 Band-Aid rival
        
2 Dunkable cookie
    3 Start to unravel
4 Talking-___ (scoldings)
  
5 Fails miserably
   6 Sky box?
7 Senator Schiff
8 Bistros
9 Electrical unit
10 Economic protest
11 Continuously
ACROSS 26 Negotiating sessions for 12 Fabulist
1 The “s” sound in “cite” Republicans and 13 “Roar” singer Perry SOLUTION TO LAST
6 Skewered fare Democrats 18 Teller’s call WEEK’S CROSSWORD:
11 Lodge member 35 Agenda details 23 It’s a free country FADING POLITICO
14 Baseball miscue 36 Do watercolors 24 Highway access 6 3 $ $ 6 6 ( 7 ' 8 0 $ 6
15 ___ potato 37 Undivided 25 Rural stopovers : $ * & 2 $ 7 , 8 1 $ * ,
( < ( 7 5 8 & . ' 5 , 9 ( 5
16 By way of 38 Boatman’s buy 26 Pernicious pet ( 2 1 ( ( 5 , 5 $ 4
17 Militia of farmers, e.g. 39 Touches down 27 Author Calvino 3 8 & . ' 5 2 3 , * 8 ( 6 6
6 7 < ( 1 ( , 1 ( $ 7 6
19 Munch 40 “Bury My Heart 28 Cause for alarm 3 $ 5 $ 1 . $ 6 $ 1
20 Thing collected in at Wounded ___” 29 Tablets that run 3 2 7 / 8 & . ' , 1 1 ( 5
0 2 7 , 1 7 2 1 1 (
a December drive 41 Wallach of film 25-Across 6 / 2 3 8 5 , 6 ( 5 2 6
21 Abounds 42 Screwdriver liquor 30 Decaf coffee brand 1 2 + ( / 3 / $ 0 ( ' 8 & .
22 Staple of fusion cuisine 43 Havana, e.g. 31 Raiders QB O’Connell 5 2 7 , 1 2 5 6 7 <
) 2 / . 5 2 & . ' 8 2 + $ /
24 Alternative to Rover 44 Tums alternative 32 Vowel sound of “cite” ( $ 6 ( ' % 2 $ 5 ' ( 9 $
25 See 29-Down 47 Indignation 33 Manipulate dough ( 7 8 ' ( 0 , / 1 ( ' ( %

64 Washington Examiner December 18, 2024-January 1, 2025