National Columns

The Washington Post, beginning Nov. 1, 2019, will allow its syndicated columns to appear only in print. The columns will still be available as part of our e-edition newspaper online, but they will not be available as separate pieces on our website, ljworld.com. These columnists include George Will, David Ignatius, Michael Gerson and others. This does not affect other columnists like Leonard Pitts, Mona Charen, Connie Schultz and Mark Shields, who are not affiliated with the Washington Post.

Opinion: Cruelty is key feature of Trump’s political tactics

The rock musical “Hair,” a huge hit in the 1960s, is scarcely remembered today. Still, the first line of the play’s showstopper song, “Easy to Be Hard,” keeps running through my head: “How can people be so heartless?” Each day when I read the news, when I listen to podcasts, ...

Opinion: Prepare now for election interference

Democrats and other democracy well-wishers are spilling gallons of ink and a profusion of pixels on the question of whether ending the government shutdown was a blunder or not. I submit that either way, it won’t matter very much if at all in 12 months — and the 2026 elections are where our ...

Opinion: Can the president disrupt free speech?

While the country’s attention was drawn to the federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, which purports to designate the ideology of antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization” and directs federal law enforcement to disrupt ...

Opinion: After just a year, Trump may have already lost his Latino support

For generations, foreign policy eggheads debated the question, “Who lost China?” I’m wondering if election analysts might soon ask, “Who lost the Latinos?” Almost exactly one year ago, President Trump won an impressive election victory. It wasn’t the landslide his boosters claim, ...

Opinion: Disrupting the peace in the name of preserving it

For decades I have been hearing the old courtroom saying about how a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich if given the chance, but I never expected to see it happen. What the saying conveys is that grand juries, which approve or reject charges to go to trial, only hear from one side, the ...

Opinion: Musk, Mamdani and a softer capitalism

Last week, two things happened that may shed some light on where American capitalism is heading. First, Tesla’s board caved in to Elon Musk’s demand that he get a pay package of $1 trillion (if he meets various goals). Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package is so grotesque as to make a ...