Jackie Calmes
@jackiecalmes.bsky.social
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
Column: Trump wasn't at this week's celebration of Alan Greenspan's life, nor was he ever mentioned. Yet what was mourned was the loss in Trump's Washington of the sense of public service, expertise and willingness to compromise that Greenspan represented.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
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Column: A visit to Greenspan's Washington and the era of getting things done
The former Fed chair, 'a devout Republican,' was famous for consulting smart Democrats and obscure experts. The antithesis of modern policymaking.
www.latimes.com
October 1, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Column: Trump wasn't at this week's celebration of Alan Greenspan's life, nor was he ever mentioned. Yet what was mourned was the loss in Trump's Washington of the sense of public service, expertise and willingness to compromise that Greenspan represented.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump might not look smaller, but he is. To world leaders and more and more Americans (including Republicans), he's shrunk to a cartoon figure, posting his comic-like word balloons on Truth Social at all hours or bloviating for the cameras by day.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump's lost his star power, at home and abroad
His appearance at the U.N. only underscored how far he has retreated from global leadership.
www.latimes.com
September 24, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Column: Trump might not look smaller, but he is. To world leaders and more and more Americans (including Republicans), he's shrunk to a cartoon figure, posting his comic-like word balloons on Truth Social at all hours or bloviating for the cameras by day.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump's promised $5K to each US adult captures just about all that's wrong with this president: Lying. Fiscal irresponsibility. Trashing GOP principles. Seat-of-his-pants policy idiocy. And the bubble of incompetent yay-sayers that enables it.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump loves to throw around taxpayers' money
Even without his reckless promise to buy off every American adult with $5,000, he was on track to break his first-term record for adding to the unsustainable U.S. debt.
www.latimes.com
September 17, 2026 at 2:11 PM
Column: Trump's promised $5K to each US adult captures just about all that's wrong with this president: Lying. Fiscal irresponsibility. Trashing GOP principles. Seat-of-his-pants policy idiocy. And the bubble of incompetent yay-sayers that enables it.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Sadly, 25 years after 9/11, Trump has the US mired again in a Mideast war against a nation—Iran—that was the real winner of the prior needless war in Iraq, Iran's old rival. This after he's purged the US counterterrorism defenses built since 9/11.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Instead of learning, Trump doubles down on Bush's post-9/11 mistakes
Like President George W. Bush did, President Trump wages war ahead of midterm elections and makes false claims of success to win voters. The trouble is, Trump does so against Americans’ memories of Bu...
www.latimes.com
September 10, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Column: Sadly, 25 years after 9/11, Trump has the US mired again in a Mideast war against a nation—Iran—that was the real winner of the prior needless war in Iraq, Iran's old rival. This after he's purged the US counterterrorism defenses built since 9/11.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Reposted by Jackie Calmes
This is truly unhinged.
I don’t want to hear “oh, it’s just Trump being Trump” or he’s “trolling”
Republicans cannot keep shrugging this off. Congress, the Cabinet + everyone around him has a responsibility to stop enabling this dangerous behavior and start asking whether he is fit to hold office.
I don’t want to hear “oh, it’s just Trump being Trump” or he’s “trolling”
Republicans cannot keep shrugging this off. Congress, the Cabinet + everyone around him has a responsibility to stop enabling this dangerous behavior and start asking whether he is fit to hold office.
A string of absolutely bonkers Truth Social posts from Trump in the span of about 10 minutes
September 6, 2026 at 11:06 PM
This is truly unhinged.
I don’t want to hear “oh, it’s just Trump being Trump” or he’s “trolling”
Republicans cannot keep shrugging this off. Congress, the Cabinet + everyone around him has a responsibility to stop enabling this dangerous behavior and start asking whether he is fit to hold office.
I don’t want to hear “oh, it’s just Trump being Trump” or he’s “trolling”
Republicans cannot keep shrugging this off. Congress, the Cabinet + everyone around him has a responsibility to stop enabling this dangerous behavior and start asking whether he is fit to hold office.
Column: This is the oddest midterm elections year of the many I’ve covered. Trump acts as if he were trying to make Republicans lose—and give Democrats control of Congress—even as he works (gerrymandering, curbing mail ballots) to rig the election for the GOP.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump is turning off voters while trying to skew the election for the GOP
Just one thing is certain: chaos on some level. That’s Trump’s trademark and yet another reason voters increasingly dislike him.
www.latimes.com
September 3, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Column: This is the oddest midterm elections year of the many I’ve covered. Trump acts as if he were trying to make Republicans lose—and give Democrats control of Congress—even as he works (gerrymandering, curbing mail ballots) to rig the election for the GOP.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Dolly’s death hits all the harder for coming when that other faux-blond 80-year-old is (mis)leading our country and messing with our minds daily. A colleague's license plate reads "WWDD"—What Would Dolly Do? If only Trump lived by those words.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: What would Dolly do? Trump should learn from her life and legacy
We say “there will never be another Dolly Parton” with regret. To say the same about Trump is, for many Americans, a relief.
www.latimes.com
August 27, 2026 at 1:58 PM
Column: Dolly’s death hits all the harder for coming when that other faux-blond 80-year-old is (mis)leading our country and messing with our minds daily. A colleague's license plate reads "WWDD"—What Would Dolly Do? If only Trump lived by those words.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Better late than never, Democrats are melding the inequitable economy AND Trump's self-dealing corruption into a two-pronged cudgel against him, and by extension Republicans on the midterm ballots. Every week he provides more material for the ads.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump's reputation for corruption is doing Democrats' work for them
The president is campaigning against Republicans by enriching himself while in office.
www.latimes.com
August 20, 2026 at 4:54 PM
Column: Better late than never, Democrats are melding the inequitable economy AND Trump's self-dealing corruption into a two-pronged cudgel against him, and by extension Republicans on the midterm ballots. Every week he provides more material for the ads.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Even as Trump and Hegseth's purges and blocked promotions of senior military officers disproportionately target women and minorities, the faces of the fallen in Trump's war of choice show that the same groups are disproportionately the casualties.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Hegseth is purging people of color. Trump's war is killing them
Suddenly we have a new measure of how much women and minorities (and immigrants) contribute to protecting America: the casualty toll in Trump’s war against Iran.
www.latimes.com
August 13, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Column: Even as Trump and Hegseth's purges and blocked promotions of senior military officers disproportionately target women and minorities, the faces of the fallen in Trump's war of choice show that the same groups are disproportionately the casualties.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Thanks to the Supreme Court, Trump is free as of this week to mount mass deportations in earnest, after ending protections for 1.3m immigrants. These aren't "the worst of the worst." They're essential workers. It's a moral AND economic travesty.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: The nonsense of deporting immigrants who came legally and do much-needed work
The U.S. is losing millions of essential workers as President Trump enacts his campaign's stupidest ideas.
www.latimes.com
August 6, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Column: Thanks to the Supreme Court, Trump is free as of this week to mount mass deportations in earnest, after ending protections for 1.3m immigrants. These aren't "the worst of the worst." They're essential workers. It's a moral AND economic travesty.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump's TV reality shows ended long ago but he's still creating his own false reality as president—denying his 2020 loss, fudging war-casualty numbers, blaming nonexistent vandals for his Reflecting Pool mess and so much more. And his ratings suck.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump is still playing a reality-TV role
Rarely has the president's recasting of reality to fit his chosen narrative been so evident on varied fronts — and so grotesque — as in recent days.
www.latimes.com
July 30, 2026 at 2:22 PM
Column: Trump's TV reality shows ended long ago but he's still creating his own false reality as president—denying his 2020 loss, fudging war-casualty numbers, blaming nonexistent vandals for his Reflecting Pool mess and so much more. And his ratings suck.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: For months, Sen. Mark Warner has been on a tear to warn Americans of Trump's designs to disrupt the midterm elections. If Warner—the self-described "radical centrist" and intel expert—has fears, so should we all.
As he says, "remain vigilant."
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
As he says, "remain vigilant."
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump's undermining of U.S. elections is not a simple partisan issue
The president’s dud of a prime-time speech, during which he baselessly called U.S. elections “catastrophically short” of being safe, only confirmed many people's fears.
www.latimes.com
July 23, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Column: For months, Sen. Mark Warner has been on a tear to warn Americans of Trump's designs to disrupt the midterm elections. If Warner—the self-described "radical centrist" and intel expert—has fears, so should we all.
As he says, "remain vigilant."
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
As he says, "remain vigilant."
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: ICE's death toll under Trump, by shootings and deaths in detention, has mounted without a single agent being held accountable. One way to send him a message: Press the Senate (eyeing you, Susan Collins) to reject Todd Blanche as attorney general.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Send Trump a message that the ICE killings have consequences
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) could block confirmation of the president's personal lawyer to be the next attorney general.
www.latimes.com
July 16, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Column: ICE's death toll under Trump, by shootings and deaths in detention, has mounted without a single agent being held accountable. One way to send him a message: Press the Senate (eyeing you, Susan Collins) to reject Todd Blanche as attorney general.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump, channeling McCarthyite mentor Roy Cohn, now sees commies everywhere among Democrats, and migrants. The irony: his actions—billions for government stakes in private companies and veto power over their actions—makes him look like the commie.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump decries 'communism' while his government takes ownership of companies
As former Republicans recently said, 'Trump is the closest we’ve ever come to communism.'
www.latimes.com
July 9, 2026 at 1:25 PM
Column: Trump, channeling McCarthyite mentor Roy Cohn, now sees commies everywhere among Democrats, and migrants. The irony: his actions—billions for government stakes in private companies and veto power over their actions—makes him look like the commie.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: The Supreme Court's complicity with Trump, with few exceptions, in further empowering him and future presidents should trigger a countermovement from voters and Congress (one not under Trump's thumb) to rebalance the balance of powers. Start now.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: The Supreme Court failed the test posed by Trump
The conservative justices seem willfully obtuse about this executive's autocratic impulses.
www.latimes.com
July 2, 2026 at 1:31 PM
Column: The Supreme Court's complicity with Trump, with few exceptions, in further empowering him and future presidents should trigger a countermovement from voters and Congress (one not under Trump's thumb) to rebalance the balance of powers. Start now.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: In AG nominee Todd Blanche, Trump's found his Roy Cohn. The Epstein coverup, prosecuting Trump enemies, Jan. 6 thugs fund, Trump tax immunity, scores of judges calling out government lawyers for misconduct.
To "liberated" GOP senators: Bust Blanche.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
To "liberated" GOP senators: Bust Blanche.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Don't let Trump empower Todd Blanche, his modern-day Roy Cohn
Trump has created a small caucus of Republicans who feel they no longer owe him anything. Those lawmakers could block the president's attorney general nominee.
www.latimes.com
June 25, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Column: In AG nominee Todd Blanche, Trump's found his Roy Cohn. The Epstein coverup, prosecuting Trump enemies, Jan. 6 thugs fund, Trump tax immunity, scores of judges calling out government lawyers for misconduct.
To "liberated" GOP senators: Bust Blanche.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
To "liberated" GOP senators: Bust Blanche.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: For Saturday's World Refugee Day, Trump weighed having to the White House white South Africans—virtually the only people he allows into the US as refugees. That he'd fete such a racist policy says it all about his shameless normalization of racism.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: In the land of immigrants, Trump's refugee policy is overt racism
The administration has ushered in an overtly racist refugee policy. Our country should be better than this.
www.latimes.com
June 18, 2026 at 1:14 PM
Column: For Saturday's World Refugee Day, Trump weighed having to the White House white South Africans—virtually the only people he allows into the US as refugees. That he'd fete such a racist policy says it all about his shameless normalization of racism.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: The noxious irony of Trump’s imperial D.C. building spree is that it’s underway even as he continues a decade-plus teardown of the metaphorical foundations of democracy: trust in free and fair elections.
Irony #2: He's the real danger to elections.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Irony #2: He's the real danger to elections.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump is stealing Americans' faith in elections
The U.S.'s election systems are secure and fair, but that's harder for many to believe after a decade of lies from the president.
www.latimes.com
June 11, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Column: The noxious irony of Trump’s imperial D.C. building spree is that it’s underway even as he continues a decade-plus teardown of the metaphorical foundations of democracy: trust in free and fair elections.
Irony #2: He's the real danger to elections.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Irony #2: He's the real danger to elections.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: For the nation's 250th birthday, its capital is a scarred mess, thanks to Trump. Yet by his vanity projects and other, worse abuses of power, the wannabe king has inadvertently sparked a Spirit of '26 among revolted Americans. Cue the fireworks.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: As we approach July 4, the capital is, fittingly, a mess
The adulatory banners and ego-driven construction projects hardly send the message appropriate for a people who renounced a king.
www.latimes.com
June 4, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Column: For the nation's 250th birthday, its capital is a scarred mess, thanks to Trump. Yet by his vanity projects and other, worse abuses of power, the wannabe king has inadvertently sparked a Spirit of '26 among revolted Americans. Cue the fireworks.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: A week later, too many Democrats still obsess over how the party screwed up an autopsy about how the party screwed up the '24 election. Yes, party chair Ken Martin should go, but forget '24, focus on '26, then let the '28 race to (re)define the party begin.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Enough navel-gazing, Democrats. Focus on the future
The party's advantage in these midterm elections is entirely thanks to Trump’s and Republicans’ own unpopularity.
www.latimes.com
May 28, 2026 at 2:17 PM
Column: A week later, too many Democrats still obsess over how the party screwed up an autopsy about how the party screwed up the '24 election. Yes, party chair Ken Martin should go, but forget '24, focus on '26, then let the '28 race to (re)define the party begin.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump, by his humiliating failure to cut a nuclear deal with Iran, has caused a new, more positive look at Obama's multinational 2015 pact, the JCPOA, that Trump ended and still calls the "worst deal ever." He'd be happy to get JCPOA Lite.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Obama's strong terms curbed Iran. Trump struggles to secure even a weak deal
Since 2018, the president's actions have allowed Iran to rebuild its nuclear program. Now he is in a quagmire of his own creation.
www.latimes.com
May 21, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Column: Trump, by his humiliating failure to cut a nuclear deal with Iran, has caused a new, more positive look at Obama's multinational 2015 pact, the JCPOA, that Trump ended and still calls the "worst deal ever." He'd be happy to get JCPOA Lite.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: However the Trump-Xi summit ends, Trump entered as perhaps the weakest president in six decades of U.S.-China relations, his weakness—and thus America's— self-inflicted. He's eroded our technological, clean energy, military and reputational edge.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump surrendered to China before he even landed there
The president has humiliated himself by sacrificing the U.S. economy and U.S. military readiness, handing victories to our geopolitical rival.
www.latimes.com
May 14, 2026 at 4:04 PM
Column: However the Trump-Xi summit ends, Trump entered as perhaps the weakest president in six decades of U.S.-China relations, his weakness—and thus America's— self-inflicted. He's eroded our technological, clean energy, military and reputational edge.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Who won election in 2020? Was the Capitol attacked on Jan. 6, 2021? Can Trump have a third term? Only Trump, and his lickspittles, get it wrong. Alas, that includes his nominees to be federal judges. They fail the test of judicial independence.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump's judicial nominees are fact-challenged and unfit
Wannabe federal judges are going along with the president's delusions for the sake of their careers. That should be disqualifying for a judge.
www.latimes.com
May 7, 2026 at 4:39 PM
Column: Who won election in 2020? Was the Capitol attacked on Jan. 6, 2021? Can Trump have a third term? Only Trump, and his lickspittles, get it wrong. Alas, that includes his nominees to be federal judges. They fail the test of judicial independence.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump is so drunk with power, so cocooned in a bubble of bootlickers, he gives no sign of altering the behavior and policies repelling ever more Americans, including his voters. So take heart in his record low polls. Trumpism likely ends with him.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Americans aren't buying Trump's schtick anymore
A growing majority of Americans see Trump as a cartoonish caricature of himself. And that includes some of his own voters.
www.latimes.com
April 30, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Column: Trump is so drunk with power, so cocooned in a bubble of bootlickers, he gives no sign of altering the behavior and policies repelling ever more Americans, including his voters. So take heart in his record low polls. Trumpism likely ends with him.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: It's a measure of Trump’s lost credibility, after years of lies, that once-close allies suggest his two assassination attempts were faked. Less extremely, foreign leaders, CEOs and many Americans dismiss his BS. It's karma, but it's destabilizing.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Even Trump's base doesn't believe him anymore
People who once stood behind the president's most favored conspiracy theories (birtherism) are now promoting theories in which he is the deceiver (Butler assassination attempt).
www.latimes.com
April 23, 2026 at 12:47 PM
Column: It's a measure of Trump’s lost credibility, after years of lies, that once-close allies suggest his two assassination attempts were faked. Less extremely, foreign leaders, CEOs and many Americans dismiss his BS. It's karma, but it's destabilizing.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...