They Saved Taxpayers Billions. Trump Fired Them Anyway.
Inspectors general are our government watchdogs. They root out corruption and check for fraud and inefficiencies — all things President Trump has claimed to want to do. And yet, when he took office, he fired more than a dozen inspectors general witho...
Three Opinion Writers on Trump’s First 50 Days
President Donald Trump is about halfway through his first 100 days in office. In this episode of The Opinions, Patrick Healy talks with the columnist Michelle Goldberg and contributor Frank Bruni about the moments that have defined Trump’s second ter...
I’m a Transgender Colonel. Trump Wants Me Out.
Time is running out for transgender service members in the U.S. military. The Trump administration has put in motion plans to identify and remove transgender troops, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth saying they are unfit to serve.In this episod...
David Brooks on Trump’s Dominance Over the Democrats
The columnist David Brooks joins Patrick Healy to take stock of President Trump’s fifth address to Congress, to analyze the Democrats’ response, and to discuss where Americans who care about moral leadership should put their energies today. For Simpl...
Elon Musk and the Useless Spending-Cut Theater of DOGE
As a fiscal conservative, the columnist David French would normally be excited about a Department of Government Efficiency and the opportunity to rein in spending. But Elon Musk’s approach to cost cutting has left much to be desired. In this conversa...
How Donald Trump Deploys Masculinity To Get What He Wants
President Trump’s outsize performance of masculinity has won him attention, elections and the support of manosphere influencers like Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan. In this episode of “The Opinions,” the deputy editor of Times Opinion, Patrick Healy, spea...
The Most Important Lesson in Sex Ed Isn’t Actually Sex
When Hillary Frank took her middle-school-age daughter to see “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.,” she was surprised to learn that the fictional Margaret had more sex education than her daughter. In this episode, Frank reflects on what she wishes...
What an F.B.I. Under Patel and Bongino Might Mean for America
President Trump has appointed Dan Bongino — a former U.S. Secret Service agent, right-wing podcaster and an outspoken critic of the F.B.I. — as the agency’s deputy director. In this episode, the Opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg examines what Bongi...
Trump’s Bargain With Putin Is ‘Shameful’
Turning our back on Ukraine would only weaken America.The Trump administration may be considering negotiating a peace deal with Russia that would end the war in Ukraine. “No American president in the last 80 years and probably 100 years before that w...
Thomas Friedman Has Given Up on Politics — but Not on the World
President Trump appears ready to cut a deal that could end Russia’s war in Ukraine without ever consulting Ukraine. In this episode, the deputy Opinion editor Patrick Healy talks to the Opinion columnist Thomas L. Friedman about Trump’s unpredictable...