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New York Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Late Night Is Concerned About (the Truth Behind) Biden's Health
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night's highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. Our Sympathies, but … The news that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer naturally spurred late-night discussion on Monday. On 'The Daily Show,' Jon Stewart mocked those professing sympathy for Biden while at the same time using his condition to score political points. 'They used to say it's not the crime, it's the cover-up, but it's starting to feel like politics is all cover-up,' Stewart said. The Punchiest Punchlines (Games We Play Edition) The Bits Worth Watching John Oliver dissected the ways in which President Trump shapes coverage of his presidency, including using lawsuits and the F.C.C. as leverage, on Sunday's 'Last Week Tonight.' What We're Excited About on Tuesday Night Amid conspiracy theories circling about his photo of seashells appearing to be a threat against the president, the former F.B.I director James Comey will surely set the record straight on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.' Also, Check This Out Now that the 50th season of 'Saturday Night Live' is at an end, here are its most memorable moments, from political satire to straight-up silliness. Domingo!
New York Times
04-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Biden Aides Decided Against a Cognitive Test in Early 2024, Book Says
Months before President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was forced to abandon his re-election campaign, his top White House aides debated having him undergo a cognitive test to prove his fitness for a second term but ultimately decided against the move, according to a forthcoming book. The account illustrates the degree to which Mr. Biden's top aides harbored deep fears about how voters viewed his age and mental acuity. The book, '2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,' by Tyler Pager of The New York Times, Josh Dawsey of The Wall Street Journal and Isaac Arnsdorf of The Washington Post, is set to be released in July. Mr. Biden's aides were confident that he would pass a cognitive test, according to the book, but they worried that the mere fact of his taking one would raise new questions about his mental abilities. At the same time, Mr. Biden's longtime doctor, Kevin O'Connor, had told aides he would not take the 81-year-old president's political standing into consideration when treating him. The discussion took place in February 2024, a few weeks before Mr. Biden's final White House physical exam and a period preceding some of his most damaging public episodes. A representative for Mr. Biden declined to comment. The same month that Biden aides considered the cognitive test, Robert K. Hur, the special counsel who investigated Mr. Biden's handling of classified documents, released a report concluding that the president was 'a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' Mr. Biden held a late-night news conference to deliver an angry response in which he referred to the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico and declared, 'My memory is fine.' By then it was becoming obvious that former President Donald J. Trump would be the Republican nominee. Mr. Trump, three years younger than Mr. Biden, had bragged during his first term about having passed a cognitive test, though details were sketchy. His repetition of a five-word sequence he had been asked to memorize — 'person, woman, man, camera, TV' — became a running joke in Washington political circles in 2020. Throughout Mr. Biden's presidency and especially during his re-election bid, his aides and advisers often argued that the news media was unfair in how it covered his age, fueling voters' negative perception of his vigor. Few influential figures in the White House or on his campaign would entertain the idea that he was struggling to perform his presidential duties. 'On the topic of his age, I thought the best answer was going to be performance,' Mike Donilon, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden who had worked for him since the 1980s, told The Harvard Political Review in March. 'Every day, I kept seeing him do the job. I still think he's the best person to be president today.' But outside Mr. Biden's tight inner circle, many Democratic politicians and strategists began to worry quietly as his re-election bid took shape. By June 2022, Democrats were talking among themselves about his potential to drag down the 2024 ticket, with many suggesting he should not run again. A New York Times article that month included an interview with David Axelrod, the former adviser to President Barack Obama who has become one of the party's elder statesmen. Mr. Axelrod said that Mr. Biden 'looks his age' — then 79 — and that he was feeding a narrative that he was no longer up to the job of being president. 'The stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue,' Mr. Axelrod said. That comment prompted an angry call to Mr. Axelrod from Ron Klain, then Mr. Biden's chief of staff, according to the book. Mr. Klain wanted to know why Mr. Axelrod was fueling doubts about a Democratic president who was on track to begin a re-election campaign. 'There's no Obama out there, Axe,' Mr. Klain told him, the book recounts. 'Who's going to do it if he doesn't do it?'
New York Times
29-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Trump Travels to Michigan to Mark 100 Days in Office
President Trump is planning to travel to Michigan on Tuesday, on the 100th day of his second term, for back-to-back events meant to demonstrate his commitment to the heart of American manufacturing at a time when many people are growing dissatisfied with his economic agenda. Mr. Trump plans to visit Selfridge Air National Guard Base, whose future has been uncertain in recent years. He has said he is working with local officials to keep Selfridge open and vowed an infusion of new resources, such as fighter jets, at the base. After that, the president is expected to travel to Macomb Community College, where he will speak at a rally of supporters, hoping to build momentum around his economic policies. It is no coincidence that Mr. Trump is traveling to the area most associated with the loss of American manufacturing jobs. Detroit, the home of the U.S. auto industry, has lost one-third of its population since 2000. The trip comes at a pivotal time for Mr. Trump's presidency. His expansive tariffs have hurt the stock market and contributed to a drop in his approval rating. A majority of Americans approved of Mr. Trump's performance in office throughout January and February, but he is now struggling with more people disapproving of him. In a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, voters said he had 'gone too far' on issue after issue: his tariffs, his immigration enforcement, his cuts to the federal work force. Against that backdrop, Mr. Trump's trip is meant to send a message that he is committed to working for Americans who have been left behind by globalization. He is expected to make the case that he is working to end decades of unfair trade policies that have cost American jobs, and he plans to highlight the support of the United Auto Workers for his tariff policies. The president is also expected to speak about his crackdown on immigration, which has caused border crossings to drop sharply but also raised concerns about a lack of due process for those accused of violating laws. Mr. Trump plans to cast himself as a man of action, highlighting the rapid pace of his executive orders. He has signed 137 executive orders this year, nearly as many as his predecessor, Joseph R. Biden Jr., did throughout his four years in office. But 50 percent of voters in the Times/Siena poll said the upheaval Mr. Trump had brought to the nation's political and economic systems was a 'bad thing.' Only 36 percent said the changes were good.
New York Times
26-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Officials Weaken Rules Insulating Government Workers From Politics
The Trump administration moved on Friday to weaken federal prohibitions on government employees showing support for President Trump while at work, embracing the notion that they should be allowed to wear campaign paraphernalia and removing an independent review board's role in policing violations. The Office of Special Counsel, an agency involved in enforcing the restrictions, announced the changes to the interpretation of the Hatch Act, a Depression-era law devised to ensure that the federal work force operates free of political influence or coercion. The revisions, a resurrection of rules that Mr. Trump rolled out at the end of his first term but that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. repealed, could allow for the startling sight of government officials sporting Trump-Vance buttons or 'Make America Great Again' hats. Critics have said the law was already largely toothless, and officials in the first Trump administration were routinely accused of violating it, with little punishment meted out. And the changes do not roll back Hatch Act restrictions entirely, but do so in a way that uniquely benefits Mr. Trump: Visible support for candidates and their campaigns in the future is still banned, but support for the current officeholder is not. The move may not violate the law, because it will not influence the outcome of an election, experts say. But it threatens to further politicize the government's professional work force, which Mr. Trump has been seeking to bend to his will as he tests the bounds of executive power. 'This is a really dark day,' Kathleen Clark, a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and a government ethics lawyer, said in an interview on Friday. A president should work to ensure that the public knows the government is for everyone, she said. 'When you go into a Social Security office, if they're still open, you will be treated the same whether you voted for the current president or not,' she said, referring to the government downsizing efforts since Mr. Trump returned to the Oval Office. 'This is another example of Trump grabbing hold, seizing control of the federal government's power, as though it was his own system, instead of acknowledging that he has a role to play as a public servant,' Ms. Clark said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Office of Special Counsel issued other opinions on Friday that will weaken enforcement of the law, by removing an independent review board, the Merit Systems Protection Board, from its role reviewing claims of violations. The office — which historically was independent but is now led by a Trump official after Mr. Trump fired its leader, starting a bitter court fight — will review accusations and send findings to the White House, which is unlikely to take action against its own backers. The Hatch Act has been in effect for more than 80 years. It was intended to prevent presidents from handing out patronage jobs and filling the administration with political cronies. Allowing the workplace display of support comes as Mr. Trump takes steps to drastically increase the number of political appointees in the federal government, which would allow presidents to install more loyalists in senior positions — the very thing the authors of the Hatch Act sought to prevent. Federal employees have been under significant stress, many fearing they may be fired as the administration carries out mass layoffs. Now, Trump-appointed managers could be walking around wearing Trump-Vance gear, said Richard W. Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and the chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House. 'I think it's destructive to allow it,' he said. Hampton Dellinger, the Senate-confirmed head of the Office of Special Counsel until Mr. Trump fired him, said, 'Keeping partisan politics out of government services has benefited all Americans, particularly taxpayers, for generations.' During the first Trump administration, several of his top advisers were accused of violating the law, including Kellyanne Conway, his White House counselor, who was cited as a 'repeat offender.' Mr. Trump refused to fire her.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Asks Supreme Court to Revive Transgender Military Ban
The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to let it start enforcing a ban on transgender troops serving in the military that has been blocked by lower courts. The administration's emergency application was the latest in a series of requests asking the justices to pause decisions by trial judges that prevent it from moving forward with the blitz of executive orders Mr. Trump has signed. The Supreme Court has allowed some initiatives to proceed and temporarily blocked others, issuing orders that have for the most part been technical and tentative. The new case concerns an order issued on the first day of Mr. Trump's second term. It revoked an executive order from President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that had let transgender service members serve openly. A week later, Mr. Trump issued a second order saying that expressing what it called a false 'gender identity' conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an 'honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life,' and that requiring others to recognize a 'falsehood is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.' In February, the Defense Department implemented Mr. Trump's order, issuing a new policy requiring all transgender troops to be forced out of the military. According to the Defense Department, about 4,200 current service members, or about 0.2 percent of the military, are transgender. Service members sued to block the policy, saying it ran afoul of the Constitution's equal protection clause. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
