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Jackie Calmes

@jackiecalmes.bsky.social

680 followers 140 following 94 posts

National columnist, LATimes. Ex-NYT & WSJ in DC, covering White House, Congresses & campaigns. Author of "Dissent: The Radicalization of the Republican Party & Its Capture of the Court." Mom....On Threads: jkcalmes

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Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · 5d

America First? Trump cuts money funded by law to blue states & cities amid the govt shutdown while his Treasury extends a $20 BILLION bailout package to Argentina that's only domestic benefit is to rich US holders of Argentinian bonds.

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · 6d

Column: Not since the pro-slavery Taney court before the Civil War has a Supreme Court been so wrong for its moment in history as the Roberts court. Lower courts have stepped up to Trump's anticonstitutional threats, but SCOTUS trumps them. Pun intended.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Today's Supreme Court is exactly the wrong group for this moment

Not since the pro-slavery court before the Civil War has a Supreme Court been as ill-suited as the Roberts court that opens a new term on Monday.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · 13d

I said nothing about "love" in Kirk's message, and I referenced his racist & misogynist statements. You must not have actually read the column.

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · 14d

Column: Trump lately obsesses about getting into heaven. Hint: Stop wishing that so many fellow citizens go to hell.
The disconnect between Trump's dreams of heaven and his earthly avenging was never plainer than in his hateful message at Charlie Kirk's memorial.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Charlie Kirk preached 'Love your enemies,' but Trump spews hate

At the activist's funeral, the president condemned Christian teaching: 'That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent.'

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · 20d

Column: Each day since the Trump-Putin summit shows that worse than nothing came from that failed bro-fest. Putin arrived to a red carpet even as Russian kept bombing Ukraine and left with license for Russians “to do whatever the hell they want,” as Trump once put it.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: What came of Trump's Putin summit? Nothing good

As the president himself put it, the Russians feel free now 'to do whatever the hell they want.'

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · 27d

Column: Democrats’ leverage on spending bills is pointless if senators don’t use it. They were right in March not to force a shutdown but they can no longer help fund a government that's become a plaything for Trump's power lust, enrichment and retribution.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Democrats should force a shutdown to save the government

Shutting down the government hurts Americans. Letting Trump destroy it would hurt more.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Sep 4

Column: Troops patrol the National Mall--"America's Front Yard"--as Trump normalizes a police state in DC. If he sends masked feds & more red-state troops to other blue cities, protests will grow. That's good but probably just what he wants: an excuse for more troops.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Armed troops at the Washington Monument? This is not normal

What you see out in the open is bad enough. It’s what you don’t see, or can’t identify, that’s more disturbing in the land of the free.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Aug 28

“I am not a crook,” Nixon said in 1973.
“I’m not a dictator,” Trump insisted on Monday.
And with that, another famously false presidential proclamation entered the annals of memorable statements no president should ever feel compelled to make.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: When the president has to say 'I'm not a dictator,' we're in trouble

That's the sort of thing rising dictators tend to say, urging the public to ignore the accumulating evidence.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Aug 21

Column: It's time to quit tuning out Trump's Big Lie that he won the 2020 election (validated by Putin!). It's his pretext, along with trying to ban mail ballots & militarize Democratic cities, to disrupt the '26 midterm elections lest he lose control of Congress.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: The Big Lie is back and coming for American elections

President Trump's attack on mail ballots isn't just a rehash of his 2020 claims, it's a pretext for disrupting the 2026 midterms.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Aug 14

Column: Trump's showy obsession with redoing the Oval Office & Rose Garden, his plane & even golf cart (!), and adding a White House ballroom reflects something much bigger--his unchecked makeover of the nation's government & institutions, all in service of his power.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Donald Trump makes America worse than tacky

President Trump’s virtually unchecked makeover of institutions and government creates the appearance of gilded grandeur and raw power: His.

www.latimes.com

Reposted by Jackie Calmes

Lisa Fung @lisafung.bsky.social · Aug 6

'The president’s rigging goes beyond elections, to all aspects of governance, if his cruel, chaotic maladministration can be called that.'

@jackiecalmes.bsky.social on the rigger in chief
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Trump yammers that he's the victim of rigged statistics. But he's the rigger in chief.

Trump complains he's being cheated while he openly works to fix the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Aug 6

Column: After retribution, Trump's guiding principle is projection: Falsely projecting his sins onto enemies. Everything is "rigged" against him, he vents--even as he works to rig the '26 midterms, jobs data, tariff law, DA appointments & more. Even golf!
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Trump yammers that he's the victim of rigging. But he's the rigger in chief.

Trump complains he's being cheated while he openly works to fix the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Jul 31

Israel's heinous policies in Gaza are taking their toll on Israel's own: Haaretz reports today the 7th death by suicide THIS MONTH of an Israeli soldier. The soldier, 24, had just ended a stint in Gaza. Because he died at home, the IDF won't consider him a fallen soldier. Shame.

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Jul 30

Column: By starving Gaza, Netanyahu is hastening a break in bipartisan US backing for Israel that endured for the entire lives of most Americans--until he arrived, denying Palestinians’ humanity and overtly courting US Republicans. It's not only shameful, it's stupid.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Has America's longstanding friendship with Israel reached a breaking point?

It's hard to watch — and even harder to be complicit in — Israel's cruelty, and the loss of support for a nation born of sympathy over the Holocaust.

www.latimes.com

Reposted by Jackie Calmes

Lisa Fung @lisafung.bsky.social · Jul 17

‘In pre-Trump times, Bove’s nomination would be an easy call: No. And if ever there was a time for the Senate to use its power to send a president that message, it’s now.’

Via @jackiecalmes.bsky.social @latimes.com

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Rejecting this federal judge nominee should be easy. Don't hold your breath

The Senate isn't a rubber stamp for the president. Will the Republican majority remember that when it comes to Emil Bove?

www.latimes.com

Reposted by Jackie Calmes

Lisa Fung @lisafung.bsky.social · Jul 24

. @jackiecalmes.bsky.social: ‘For a president… to falsely allege a former president is a traitor, and to suggest that his lickspittles at the Justice Department and FBI should act against that former president, is a distraction that must command Americans’ attention.’
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Trump finds a new way to taint the office of the presidency

All but ordering his Justice Department lackeys to arrest and prosecute President Obama for treason is an unprecedented low for the president.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Jul 24

Column: Trump now has completely sullied the office of president & I'm not referring to the Oval's gilt excess. His latest outrage--lying that a former president is a traitor--is one distraction from his Epstein mess that demands attention, and condemnation.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Trump finds a new way to taint the office of the presidency

All but ordering his Justice Department lackeys to arrest and prosecute President Obama for treason is an unprecedented low for the president.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Jul 17

Column: It’s bad enough that Senate Republicans shirked their advice-&-consent power to confirm Trump’s Cabinet of crackpots, saying he should get to pick his posse. But now they seem poised to okay one of the worst nominees ever for a lifetime court seat: Emil Bove.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Rejecting this federal judge nominee should be easy. Don't hold your breath

The Senate isn't a rubber stamp for the president. Will the Republican majority remember that when it comes to Emil Bove?

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Jul 10

Column: It's no blame game over the Texas tragedy: Trump's sacking of the government, not least agencies for weather warnings & disaster aid, means he's accountable for each tragedy that might've been averted or mitigated by fed action. He can't say HE wasn't warned.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: Thoughts and prayers? Sure, but hold the Trump administration accountable

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says 'blame' is a loser's word, but Americans deserve to know if government failed when the Guadalupe River flooded.

www.latimes.com

Reposted by Jackie Calmes

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · Jul 3

A conservative Arizona Supreme Court justice is warning that the Trump administration is "doing violence" to the Constitution and publicly expressing his concerns about the emerging risk of "authoritarianism." www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...

The Arizona Supreme Court justice and rock star of the political right stood before a crowd of lawyers recently and rebuked "deeply disturbing" attacks on the American justice system coming from senior Trump administration officials.

"It's almost dystopian. And when I think of people wrapping themselves in the Constitution while they are simultaneously doing violence to it ... it is really scary stuff," Bolick told those gathered at the May event hosted by Society for the Rule of Law, a right-of-center legal organization.

Though he didn't name names, the speech showed an extraordinary level of openness for a Supreme Court justice, as justices typically refrain from commenting on public affairs to avoid perceptions of bias.

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Jul 2

Column: The juxtaposition was apt: one big ugly bill in DC & one big garish wedding in Venice. What Trump's bill has in common with Bezos' nuptials: The excess of a new gilded age. More tax cuts, debt, income inequality & preventable deaths among the newly uninsured.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: In the halls of Congress and on the canals of Venice, the new Gilded Age has a moment

Don't let the words 'tax cut' fool you in Donald Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill.' The rich will get richer while economic disparity in America grows.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Jun 26

Column: Federal judges, including Trump picks, have been a bulwark against his lawless reign. They've repeatedly stood up for the law & Constitution to constrain him, at demonstrable danger to themselves.
You’d think the Supreme Court would have their backs. But no.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: The Supreme Court's deference to Trump is astounding

A 'shadow docket' ruling Monday gives a win to an administration whose lawless actions are only matched by its open defiance of the judiciary.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Jun 20

Column: After a lifetime reading about antidemocratic countries abroad—despots, masked agents, disappearances, troops in streets, arrests of opposition figures, military parades, political killings--this month I was abroad & that country was my own.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: How I spent my summer vacation — watching America lean into autocracy

Forget 'city upon a hill.' When you travel outside our borders and look back, you see how tattered America's reputation has become.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · Jun 5

Column: The Trump Doctrine in foreign policy is less "America First" than "Me, Myself & I."
He's making deals alright, but not the ones he's promised in the Mideast, Ukraine & China. There, he's getting played.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: The 'Trump Doctrine' revealed

The president's foreign policy is 'Me, Myself and I' — strictly transactional and motivated less by national interest than what’s in it, personally and politically, for him.

www.latimes.com

Jackie Calmes @jackiecalmes.bsky.social · May 31

Column: Trump began the week with yet another attack on federal judges ("scum," "monsters")--just after a WSJ report that fearful judges talk of forming a security unit & before an NYT story on a spike in threats against judges since Trump took office. He's a danger.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Column: In Trump's version of law and order, judges are demonized, criminals released

The president's attacks are undermining Americans' trust in the justice system and putting hundreds of judges in physical danger.

www.latimes.com