Elon Musk has wasted little time laying the groundwork for his job in the next Trump administration, overseeing the new Department of Government Efficiency. The billionaire entrepreneur says he can cut $2 trillion from the federal budget while holding federal bureaucracies more accountable for underperformance.

On Thursday, he and his co-pilot ...Read more

Once again, the people of Puerto Rico have voted in favor of becoming the nation’s 51st state. Last week’s vote was the fourth time in the past 12 years that the island’s voters have endorsed statehood, and the victory margin was a clear and convincing 56%.

On the same ballot, Puerto Ricans elected a new governor, Jenniffer González-Col�...Read more

After killing millions of birds worldwide, the H5N1 avian flu is creeping like a black fog of death through U.S. dairy farms. Dead cows and calves infected with the virus lie in piles along Californian roadsides, baking under the sun, surrounded by swarms of flies. The outlook is troubling for humans, too: Globally, over 400 people have already ...Read more

Matt Gaetz, the House-wrecking Florida congressman, cannot be U.S. attorney general. No way at all. We know that this isn’t a joke because Donald Trump published the proposed nomination on his Truth Social at 3:24 Wednesday afternoon, surprising flabbergasted Democrats and Republicans.

It must not happen. Gaetz, who had been under a DOJ ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Florida’s U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state on Wednesday will elevate the Miami native and son of Cuban exiles to the post of America’s chief diplomat.

It’s a fitting and clever choice — one that Rubio, 53, meticulously carved out by aligning himself with Trump after they ...Read more

In western North Carolina, the cold is creeping in. Autumn usually gives way to winter early in the mountains, but this year it comes at a precarious time, when many residents are still suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

There is plenty going on in our nation in the aftermath of the recent election, just as families here in Hampton...Read more

Former President Donald Trump has won a convincing Electoral College victory, although the swing states were decided by narrow margins. But when you take the 30,000-foot perspective of the election, it is very illuminating.

Forty percent of registered voters, according to Gallup, do not identify as either the Democrats or Republicans. Moreover,...Read more

After the rhetoric comes the reality. For anyone who thought Donald Trump’s immigration talk was just stirring up fear to get elected, his first appointments should make clear he is going to work to make it happen.

Trump is bringing Stephen Miller in as deputy chief of staff for policy and Tom Homan will have the nebulous overarching role of ...Read more

After months of obsessing over the presidential contest, it was jarring to tune in to the annual Veterans Day commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery and see President Joe Biden center stage. The all-but-forgotten president is too literally a lame duck; his stride has given way to a shuffle. He looks lost. He tried to project force in his ...Read more

Right now, Democrats are asking despairingly what, if anything, can constrain Donald Trump from doing whatever he wants in his second term. And Republicans may be assuming optimistically that, with the Senate and the House in his pocket, there will be little to stand in the president-elect’s way. I have some good news and some bad news for ...Read more

With a newly emboldened Republican Party poised to take over the federal government and much of the nation, the question of what kind of party it will be going forward looms large.

Will it continue down a radical-populist MAGA path that ignores laws it deems inconvenient and attempts to overturn any voting outcome it doesn’t like? Or will it...Read more

Could self-flagellating Democrats and their gleeful critics please calm down for one stinkin' minute?

Before remaking an entire party based on one election loss — albeit a devastating one — let's look at some numbers.

As the final votes are tallied, it appears that President-elect Donald Trump has received 75.1 million votes while Vice ...Read more

News outlets called the last outstanding U.S. Senate race this week for Democrat Ruben Gallego of Arizona. That gives Republicans a 53-47 edge in the chamber after picking up four seats.

And suddenly there’s silence from Democrats on eliminating the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court. Apparently it wasn’t about principle and ...Read more

Donald Trump promised that, once reelected, he would conduct the largest deportation campaign in United States history. That pledge is already taking shape with his appointments. Stephen Miller will be deputy chief of staff and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will head the Department of Homeland Security. Both are infamous anti-immigrant agitators...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump has spent the past few months portraying the U.S. economy as an epic disaster in need of radical action. That turns out to have been good politics. Unfortunately, it also means he’s made a bunch of bold promises to fix the economy when not meddling with a good thing is probably the best course.

Far from being a ...Read more

The week after he won the White House, Donald Trump announced his national security advisor. It was 2016 and the pick was Mike Flynn, a man with an oddly pro-Russian worldview who only would last three weeks in the role, having lied to the vice president about talking to the Russians. Flynn was also under investigation for being an unregistered ...Read more

We’ve been here before. Dwelling in this purgatory inhabited by heartbreak. Only days past hope, we stare ahead at years of despair.

The Champagne my husband and I planned to drink with our daughter is back in the refrigerator. The handkerchief we shared at a Nov. 6 church service is laundered. Our Kamala Harris T-shirts have joined the ...Read more

This election was not about our national identity or a reflection of who we are as a collection of people. Rather, it centered on whether our most essential requirements as citizens were being served by our government.

A resounding number of voters told Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party that the answer to that question was �...Read more

Has your news media moratorium lifted yet? I suppose that's a mute question since you're reading this. Let me take this moment to thank you for venturing back into the fever swamp of news following the second worst election ever.

I know it's not easy. I'm just as sick of the How He Won/Why She Lost analysis as you are. In fact, I'm writing this...Read more

When Missouri voters codified abortion rights in the state’s constitution last week, it was a bright spot in an otherwise dark week for reproductive freedom. The result promises to reconfigure the abortion access map in the U.S. at a critical time.

And while advocates for women’s health should celebrate the win, the uncertainty about what ...Read more