How do presidential candidacies start? Most begin with the ambitions of one person – one governor or senator or, in Donald Trump's case, one real estate mogul and reality TV star who thinks he should be president of the United States. Perhaps they even have a vision for leadership. The ambitious would-be candidate then sets out to win…

Former President Donald Trump's victory in the Supreme Court 14th Amendment case, together with delay and disorder in the criminal cases against him, has set off panic among Democrats who hoped to use prosecutions and other legal maneuvers to keep Trump from winning a second term. "Supreme Court ruling darkens critics' hopes for a judicial curb…

First El Salvador, and now Ecuador, have slashed their murder rates through strict tough-on-crime measures, providing an instructive lesson for the United States as we buckle under our own rise in crime over the past decade.   The statistics illustrating those nation’s dramatic improvement almost defy belief.   Less than…

Apparently, last year’s “Bidenomics” debacle didn’t sufficiently discourage Joe Biden from attempting to coin new terms in his increasingly desperate reelection effort.   Biden is nothing if not stubborn.   Curiously declining the invitation to a Super Bowl interview before what turned out to be the largest…

By now it’s acknowledged even among increasingly despondent mainstream media that Joe Biden trails Donald Trump in general election polling.   Specifically, Biden hasn’t led Trump in the Real Clear Politics polling average since October 19 of last year, whereas Trump never came within four points in 2020 yet still almost won…

This week, convicted former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contractor Charles Littlejohn received the maximum five-year sentence for leaking the tax returns of Donald Trump and other Americans to The New York Times and far-left activist organization ProPublica.   Littlejohn, who drifted between employment stints at powerful government contractor…

Here's a sad and textbook case of how companies all too often use the strong-arm of government to destroy their competition.  The online gambling industry in America spent years and years fighting against the powerful Las Vegas casinos to make online sports betting legal in the states. They won a historic Supreme Court case in 2018 that struck…

Three years into the Biden presidency, the federal government’s estimated annualized interest payments on the national debt now exceed $1 trillion.   For purposes of comparison, the Biden Administration requested just $773 billion for the Department of Defense for 2023.   That worrisome development isn’t bad luck or…

In a thrilling address at the World Economic Forum, Javier Milei, President of Argentina, presented a robust defense of capitalism and a critical examination of all forms of collectivism. His speech, rich in historical context and economic analysis, offers some vital lessons that are particularly relevant for today's globalized economy. Sadly, these…

For the past 30 years or so, the Left has invented a narrative that there are two Americas: a group of very super-rich people (the one-percenters) who have prospered over the past several decades, and everyone else who has gotten poorer. It's a fairy-tale narrative because almost all Americans have seen financial progress. The median household income…

Remember when Republicans on the campaign trail would talk about how they would make sure to put the U.S. on a fiscally sane path? I miss that time. While a few of the current crop have paid lip service to the idea of constraining spending, no one seems to have a clear plan about how to do it. It's unfortunate. Letting the spending trajectory we're…

Des Moines – Even though it was the first time Republicans had voted in this presidential contest, there was a last-stand mentality here in Iowa among those who hoped to stop former President Donald Trump from reclaiming the Republican nomination. Their goal was to push the candidacy of Nikki Haley hard and hope that Haley, together…

At this stage of things, most of the developments in the criminal cases against former President Trump involve this appeal or that appeal, or this hearing date or that hearing date. But in Fulton County, Georgia, where the elected Democratic district attorney, Fani Willis, has brought a massive RICO case against Trump and 18 other defendants, something…

Jews are feeling increasingly afraid and unwelcome. Last week, girls on the basketball team of a Jewish private school in suburban Hartsdale, New York, were jabbed and hit with antisemitic slurs by players from Yonkers' Roosevelt High School. "I support Hamas, you f---ing Jew," a Roosevelt player snarled. The game had to be called off in…

As a new year dawns, it's customary to reflect on the past and set resolutions for the future. This year, let's resolve to greet three widespread claims with healthy doses of skepticism. The first dubious claim is that income inequality in the United States has inexorably risen since the 1960s. It's a scary narrative heavily bolstered by the work…

How's America doing? Government statisticians provide mounds of data that provide useful clues, and none more so than the Census Bureau's estimates of population, announced in the holiday weeks at the end of each calendar year. The latest numbers measure the estimated population of each state as of last July 1 as compared to the constitutionally required…

The story of the 2024 campaign so far is the effort by Democrats and their appointees to use criminal charges and lawsuits to force former President Donald Trump out of the race for a second term in the White House. The name for such an effort is "lawfare" – that is, "the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate…

As the festive season approaches, with its twinkling lights and merry carols, the item topping my Christmas wish list is fiscal responsibility from Congress and the administration. If this sounds like an economist conflating policy with goodwill, remember this: In a world where holiday wishes usually lean toward "stuff" – …

When James Comer wondered on CNN whether special counsel David Weiss had indicted Hunter Biden on nine tax-related charges to protect him from having to be deposed in the House Oversight Committee, Jake Tapper snarkily responded: "Yes, the classic rubric. He indicted him to protect him. I got it." Well, yes. Indicting a person on lesser…

With U.S. government revenues rising, 2023 might have been a good year to get America's post-COVID-19 finances on track, but the budget deficit is still growing. You can thank overspending for this. It's also the reason we've had to live with inflation, higher interest rates and the threat of massive future tax hikes for another year. That sets up…

Two things are true: One, former President Donald Trump's polling – nationally, in key swing states, and in the first-voting state of Iowa – has never been better. And two, Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by the Biden Justice Department to prosecute Trump, is taking self-described "extraordinary"…

After being asked the other day why he's interacted with "so many" foreign associates of his son Hunter and brother James, President Joe Biden responded by claiming the allegations were "a bunch of lies." This, of course, wasn't the first time the president blatantly lied about his role in the family influence peddling business…

Why would former Rep. Liz Cheney run for president? Is she nuts? Is she trying to sell a book? Why would a Republican whose last election was losing a state primary by 37 points think she should now seek the highest office in the land? Why would a politician hated by most of her own party and used by the other party simply to attack her colleagues…

By now it’s familiar news that Joe Biden’s toxic approval ratings have sown growing panic among Democrats.   Raising particular alarm to Biden supporters less than one year before the 2024 election, The New York Times released a poll earlier this month showing Donald Trump leading Biden in five of the six most pivotal swing states…

Most Americans meticulously plan their Thanksgiving meals and travel, sometimes budgeting months in advance to celebrate at a reasonable price tag. This prudent embodiment of both gratitude and restraint starkly contrasts with the approach of our politicians. It's an inconsistency that, especially this season, merits reflection. The national debt,…

You can see it with your own eyes. But Democrats and their left-wing media allies call it a "fantasy." What is it?  Election fraud. A Lawrence, Massachusetts voter who had been turned away from the polls on Election Day and told he had already voted found out he was the victim of fraud. He checked the footage on the video camera outside…

In the last several months, I have debated some of the intellectual leaders of a group called the "national conservatives." I consider myself a conservative (on most issues, though I lean more libertarian). National conservatives are well meaning and make some very valid points about the things that are going in the wrong direction in America…

Democrats claim election fraud is a myth. But videos don't lie.  Roll the tapes:  On Nov. 1, Connecticut Judge William Clark overturned the results of the Bridgeport mayoral primary, calling video evidence of potential fraud "shocking." Wanda Geter-Pataky, the vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, appears to…

The entire Democratic political establishment freaked out recently when The New York Times published a story headlined, "Trump Leads in 5 Critical States as Voters Blast Biden, Times/Sienna Poll Finds." The story was based on a new Times survey in which voters in six key swing states – Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan…

Some policy experts who, over the last few decades, saw little need for serious fiscal austerity because the government could borrow at low interest rates are now changing their tune. Their argument is that with rates now rising and the government's interest payments set to become extremely expensive, it's time to adjust. While I suppose that's progress…