Fed Chair Jerome Powell turns whistleblower against Trump
January 12th, 2026

Let’s be absolutely clear about what’s happening here. Powell is being punished for ​​refusing to bend monetary policy to the whims of an authoritarian president who believes the entire machinery of government exists to serve his personal interests and ambitions.

Even by Trump’s standards, the brazenness of this assault is staggering. The Federal Reserve was deliberately designed to be independent to avoid exactly this scenario. The Banking Act of 1935 created the modern structure of the Fed and explicitly placed monetary policy decisions beyond presidential reach. Central banks in nearly every major democracy operate on the same principle of independence — precisely because the alternative could lead to inflation and instability. Trump has never accepted the basic premise that the Fed was designed to be independent of presidents to avoid political business cycles and cronyism. The idea that someone else can say no to him — as Powell has in the past by refusing to take action on the economy according to Trump’s whims — is intolerable, so, true to form, the president has escalated.

A Breathtaking Week of Pure Trump Id
January 12, 2026

Even for Trump, it’s been quite the week. But this is more than just a series of dizzying news cycles. The White House, after months of struggle, believes that it has found its footing again. Trump, though never restrained, is now pure id, acting on impulse and goaded on by advisers who see an opportunity to further expand executive power.

Overthrowing the Venezuelan Government Was Radical Even for Trump
January 3, 2026

President Trump’s decision to have U.S forces attack Venezuela and capture president Nicolás Maduro was one of the most radical of his administration, says Elizabeth Saunders, a Columbia University political science professor who specializes in American foreign policy. While the U.S. has deposed leaders abroad before, particularly in Latin America, Saunders argues that Trump’s actions in Venezuela are alarming because the president does not appear to be taking much guidance from Congress, the American public, or even his own advisers. Saunders says she was surprised by the decision to capture Maduro and even more so by Trump declaring that the U.S. would now essentially run Venezuela.

This Is What Presidential Panic Looks Like
December 17, 2025

I consider myself a connoisseur of Trump’s speeches. I’ve watched them and live-tweeted them for years because I think Americans need to see what kind of man sits in the Oval Office. But even by Trump’s standards, this was an unnerving display of fear. I can only imagine America’s enemies in Moscow and Beijing and Tehran smiling with pleasure as they watched a president losing his bearings, berating his own people, and demanding that they absolve him of any blame when things get worse.

Trump defends reaction to Rob Reiner killing despite GOP criticism
December 15, 2025

The statement, even for Trump, was a shocking comment that came as police were still investigating the deaths of the director and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, as an apparent homicide. The couple were found dead at their home Sunday in Los Angeles. Investigators believe they suffered stab wounds and the couple’s son Nick Reiner was in police custody early Monday.

Trump Calls Somalis ‘Garbage’ He Doesn’t Want in the Country
December 2, 2025

Even for Mr. Trump — who has a long history of insulting Black people, particularly those from African countries — his outburst was shocking in its unapologetic bigotry. And it comes as he started a new ICE operation targeting Somalis in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region.

National Guard Soldier Dies From Wounds in D.C. Shooting
November 27, 2025

President Trump said in a pair of lengthy posts on social media Thursday night that he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.” Even for Trump, who often uses incendiary rhetoric, these comments were something new. He did not provide details about how he would pause migration, or evidence of his claims against refugees. He posted these comments hours after delivering remarks in which he used the shooting of National Guard troops to cast suspicion on refugees writ large.

Telling a reporter ‘quiet, piggy’ was shocking – even for Trump
November 20, 2025

He pointed straight at Lucey and told her to stop doing her job.

“Quiet. Quiet, piggy,” said the president of the United States.

The Destruction of One of America’s Oldest Traditions
October 7, 2025

For several weeks, instead of federalizing the Illinois Guard, Trump appeared to be flirting with the idea of getting Texas Governor Greg Abbott to send his National Guard—operating under Title 32 status—into Chicago, against Pritzker’s will. This would have the advantage of arguably allowing the Texas Guard to work with law enforcement without running afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act. But it would have the disadvantage of constituting an invasion of one sovereign state into another. (Red-state governors contributed National Guard units to Trump’s D.C. deployment under Title 32, but the District lacks the legal protections that Illinois has as a sovereign state.) The prospect of a skirmish between Illinois and Texas might have been too extreme even for Trump.

Nominating Emil Bove for Appellate Court is Brazen, Even for Trump
June 2, 2025

But others, including conservatives, have expressed concern that Bove’s nomination reflects an overtly politicized approach to judicial appointments. It echoes Trump’s 2016 campaign promise to nominate justices to the Supreme Court who would “automatically” overrule Roe v. Wade. He did, and they did. Trump’s claim that Bove on the bench would “do whatever is necessary” to advance his agenda is a weird and highly politicized interpretation of the judicial role.

There’s No Such Thing as a Free Plane
May 12, 2025

Ahead of Trump’s own Middle East jaunt this week, his family business has also struck billions in deals in the region recently; his sons have traveled to or announced agreements with Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and—whaddya know—Qatar. Perhaps it would have been too brazen even for Trump to have his son Eric’s Middle East trip come right after his. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a former top official in the first administration, is also reportedly serving as an informal adviser on Middle East diplomacy—despite his business interests in the region.

Even for Trump, this attack on a journalist is a new low
April 1, 2025

“He's a, you know, sleazebag, but at the highest level,” Trump said about Goldberg on a podcast. (Good to know that sleazebags have levels.) “His magazine is failing,” Trump added, as if he follows such things. The Atlantic has gained subscribers since the story.

Threatening and ignoring judges crosses a line, even for Trump
March 23, 2025

President Donald Trump has publicly called for U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg to be impeached for ruling against the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. This follows the recent trend of Elon Musk and Republican lawmakers advocating impeachment for judges they disagree with.

What might happen if Trump were to defy a court order
February 26, 2025

Cole said refusing to comply with a ruling might be a “bridge too far even for Trump” and would bring significant blowback from the public. That would especially be true if such an order were challenged and eventually upheld by the highest court in the land.

“Trump has crossed many red lines that no one else would cross and violated many basic norms of our constitutional governance, but ... I think it would be political suicide if he did,” Cole said.

Corey Lewandowski Is Too Controversial—Even for Trump
February 14, 2025

The president’s decision has not stopped Lewandowski from working closely with Noem in her new role, functioning as a traveling adviser while overseeing other employees in her office. The situation has alarmed some in Trump’s circle, who view Lewandowski as a chaotic presence, even by MAGA standards

Elon Musk a Loose Cannon, Even for Trump
December 4, 2024

Musk just moved into his office in the Old Executive Building next to the White House but he’s already a loose cannon that makes Trump look weak and submissive.

Pete Hegseth, Belligerent Drunk, May Be Too Much Even for Trump
December 4, 2024

Hegseth, a Fox News host, was one of Trump’s first “shock and awe” nominees to the president-elect’s incoming cabinet. He had quickly forfeited posts atop two veterans’ nonprofit groups amid charges of financial mismanagement, excessive drinking, and sexual misconduct, according to an investigation by The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer. From that inauspicious start in the military advocacy world, he landed his Fox gig, where he just as rapidly took up the same conduct, engineering a payoff and a nondisclosure agreement from a woman who alleged he sexually assaulted her at a right-wing conference in California where Hegseth was a featured speaker. The police complaint over the incident makes for a bracing read.

A Crazy Transition, Even for Trump
November 21, 2024

There’s no insurrection like Trump’s 2020 handoff, but it’s still filled with infighting, wild selections like Gaetz, and a GSA-free framework, adding to the chaos. A transition scholar explains.

Trump dances for 40 minutes during campaign rally: ‘Let’s listen to music’
October 15, 2024

Opposition outrage over Donald Trump’s rabble-rousing demagoguery turned to bewilderment after the Republican nominee spent 40 minutes swaying to his favourite songs at a rally near Philadelphia, prompting Kamala Harris to express apparent concern for his mental state.

“Hope he’s okay,” Harris, the US vice-president and Democratic nominee, posted on social media, accompanying footage of a performance that many observers agreed was bizarre, even by Trump’s standards.

Trump repeatedly attacks Republican Georgia Gov. Kemp at Atlanta rally
August 23, 2024

Even for Trump — who has resented Kemp since the governor refused to help him overturn the 2020 election results and disputed Trump’s false claims of fraud — the broadsides were particularly hostile. They were also delivered in a swing state where Kemp has won office twice by large margins, including a second gubernatorial term in 2022 with Trump opposing him and rallying against him. Trump lost the state by about 12,000 votes in 2020.

A Thought Experiment About SEAL Team 6 Goes Terribly, Terribly Wrong
January 9, 2024

In a hearing before the D.C. Circuit Court, the former president’s lawyers argued that he should be immune from criminal prosecution for his role in the attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election. This argument has an obvious flaw: It implies that the president is above the law. Such a blunt rejection of the Constitution and the basic concept of American democracy is too much even for Trump to assert—publicly, at least—so his lawyers have proposed a theory. They say that he can’t be criminally prosecuted unless he is first impeached and convicted by Congress.

Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have lost their way
January 11, 2024

Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump — expected to trounce DeSantis, Haley and all other comers in Monday’s Iowa caucuses — addressed school violence during a campaign stop on Friday. The callousness was breathtaking, even for Trump.

“I want to send our support and our deepest sympathies to the victims and families touched by the terrible school shooting yesterday in Perry, Iowa,” he said in Sioux City. “It’s just horrible, so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it, we have to move forward.”

Former President Trump says FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach
August 8, 2022

“In the United States of America, no one is above the law, not even a former President," Crist said in a statement. "Governor DeSantis’s knee-jerk partisan response to this law enforcement action proves yet again he is more interested in playing politics than seeking justice or the rule of law."

The idea that the FBI or any other law enforcement agency is raiding a former president’s house is stunning, period – and unprecedented. Even for Trump,” said Matthew Dallek, a longtime presidential historian who has written extensively on modern-era politics and presidents.

Even for Trump, the new revelations about his actions on January 6 are shocking
June 30, 2022

Most Americans, even some of his supporters, have long understood that former president Donald Trump is an incurable liar, braggart, and bully. His ignominious status as the only president in U.S. history to be twice impeached only serves to emphasize the malfeasance and corruption that marked his administration. All that said, this week's revelations from the U.S. House committe investigating the events of January 6th make clear that there was an even deeper layer of lawlessness and indeed violence that infected Trump's presidency

Donald Trump wants attention to be paid
June 7, 2021

Amazingly, neither of these was the most pathetic story about Trump in the past week. No, that started with a Maggie Haberman tweet:

Trump has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August (no that isn’t how it works but simply sharing the information). Some folks were quick to dismiss this as absurd even for Trump (and to dismiss Haberman for talking about Trump), but the story checked out. The Washington Post and the Daily Beast both confirmed it.

Trump saved the worst for last
December 20, 2020

On Friday, as the New York Times first reported, Trump met at the White House with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a pardoned felon, and attorney Sidney Powell, who was fired from the Trump legal team after promoting conspiracy theories about the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez too wacky even for Trump. Trump reportedly discussed with the duo Flynn’s idea of declaring martial law and having the military “rerun” the election — or, failing that, appointing Powell as a special counsel to probe (nonexistent) election fraud.

Trump’s legacy, by the numbers
November 25, 2020

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, he crowed, had just pierced 30,000. “That’s a sacred number, 30,000,” he said.

It was a bizarre statement even for Trump. After all, Trump has argued for years that any stock market gains that occur after a presidential election should be credited to the new president-elect, not the guy on his way out the door. In reality, neither presidents nor presidents-elect control stock markets, of course; but even if Trump did unilaterally control equity prices, and even if he had done so for the entire duration of his presidency, his record would still pale in comparison with his predecessor’s.

Trump-Biden election presents stark contrast in Mideast peace outlook
November 2, 2020

“Do you think Sleepy Joe could have made this deal, Bibi?” he asked on the open phone line to Jerusalem, using nicknames for his Democratic Party opponent and the Israeli leader. “Somehow, I don’t think so.”[1]

So much for diplomatic protocol! Even for Trump, who delights in disrupting the White House behavior norms, it was surprising to watch him try to prod a foreign head-of-state into publicly criticizing Biden, who may indeed become president once the November 3 election ballots are tallied.

Trump didn’t build his border wall with steel. He built it out of paper.
October 29, 2020

But the debate around “merit” helped disguise what would have been the bill’s most consequential effect: slashing legal immigration levels in half. Even for Trump loyalists, this was beyond the pale. The bill went nowhere, and several months later, the Senate voted 60 to 39 against advancing a similar proposal.

The coddling of the president’s mind
October 10, 2020

In the week since Election Day, Donald Trump has been decompensating at an alarming rate. As the curator of the #ToddlerinChief thread, I have added more than 75 entries to the thread in the past week. To put it another way: His supporters are publicly characterizing him like a toddler more than 10 times a day over the past week. Even for Trump’s immaturity, this is an unprecedented pace.

Even for Trump, the Canada aluminum tariff is especially senseless
August 12, 2020

A NEW 10 percent tariff on a form of basic aluminum from Canada goes into effect on Aug. 16, the latest chapter in President Trump’s protectionist campaign against other nations, foe and friend alike. Even for Mr. Trump, this one is especially senseless.

The 45 most incoherent lines from Donald Trump's rambling Rose Garden speech
July 15, 2020

Even by Trump standards, it was a shocking performance – suggesting a level of volatility and unpredictability that has to terrify Republicans trying to run and win campaigns while sharing the same ballot with Trump in November.

Don’t count on Republicans to do anything about the latest Russia scandal
June 30, 2020

The New York Times reports: “Democrats and Republicans in Congress demanded on Monday that American intelligence agencies promptly share with lawmakers what they know about a suspected Russian plot to pay bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, and threatened to retaliate against the Kremlin.” The White House press secretary and president have been so inconsistent in their responses to questions on the subject — as simple as whether President Trump was briefed — that we still do not know whether Trump was egregiously indifferent to intelligence matters or willing to let Russian President Vladimir Putin pay militants to kill our troops. The latter sounds horrendous even for Trump, but the former underscores just how unfit he is to serve as commander in chief.

Bolton’s new book blows apart one of Trump’s biggest reelection arguments
June 17, 2020

But, in addition to revealing new dimensions of corruption that are remarkable — even for Trump — the book also deals a huge blow to one of Trump’s leading arguments for reelection: the idea that opponent Joe Biden is soft on China, while Trump is bristling with toughness toward that country.

Democrats call Trump’s tweets ‘witness intimidation,’ contemplate adding charge to impeachment articles
November 15, 2019

“It’s a message to other potential witnesses what awaits them if they come forward,” said Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), another member of the House Intelligence Committee. “Even for Trump, it’s pretty shocking. Blaming her for what happened in Somalia? Trashing a witness who was presenting the pride that she took in a life of service to the United States? It’s Trump outdoing himself.”

Even for Trump, it’s been a busy stretch of media attacks
September 10, 2019

NEW YORK (AP) — Even for a president who has made attacks on the media routine, the past few days have seemed turbo-charged.

Within five days, President Donald Trump has tweeted a video of the CNN logo bursting into flames, asserted that two Washington Post reporters should be barred from the White House and got into a tweetstorm with singer John Legend and his wife, model Chrissy Teigen after an MSNBC program on criminal justice reform

Trump Wants to Nuke His Way Out of Big Problems
August 26, 2019

During President Donald Trump’s first year in office, he had a question for staffers who were briefing him on hurricanes. Why not just bomb them? That seems far-fetched, even for Trump, but the reporters on the item, Jonathan Swan and Margaret Talev, both have a long record of accurate stories on the White House beat, and they also reviewed a National Security Council memo that recorded Trump’s question. On one occasion, Trump suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on a hurricane, a long-circulating crackpot theory. On another occasion, Trump mentioned bombs, just not nuclear ones.

Even by Trump's standards, this year's budget stands out for dishonesty
March 12, 2019

The best that can be said for President Trump's $4.75 trillion budget plan for fiscal 2020 is that it has no chance of becoming law... Even by the standards of previous nonstarter White House blueprints, however, Mr. Trump's effort this year stands out for dishonesty and warped priorities.

Emergency declaration a shattering step, even for Trump
February 15, 2019

US President Donald Trump is preparing to declare a national emergency on border security.

Even for Trump, There Is Such a Thing as Too Far
October 24, 2018

When children are being locked away, Republican attacks on immigrants will backfire.

Is the Saudi Crown Prince Too Disruptive Even for Trump?
October 12, 2018

Yet Mr. Trump has made no effort to restrain M.B.S.’s adventurism. The two men’s apparent closeness is not the cause of the prince’s recklessness; for example, Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen while Barack Obama was still president. But the Trump administration’s full-throated endorsement of M.B.S. is hurting America’s interests.

After Parkland, a Visual of the Trumpian Empathy Script
February 22, 2018

And yet a kind of emotional intelligence has been essential even for Trump, whose jingoistic invocations created a fever in his base. The shooting, or the deportation of Muslims, or the violence of white supremacists, just does not move him.

The President sets the tone. In a barrage of tweets this morning, he seemed to grow increasingly excited by his own rhetorical flourishes—“Savage Sicko” for mass shooters; “attacks would end!” he wrote, if “highly trained teachers” were armed in classrooms. An alt-right Internet campaign is currently pushing the conspiracy theory that David Hogg, a teen-age Parkland journalist who has, in the blur of a single, heartbreaking week, become an eloquent activist for gun control, is actually a paid actor. How ironic, then, that it is the President who seems unbelievable.

A striking row, even for Trump: New war of words with Corker
October 24, 2017

A furious Trump lashed back over Twitter, calling Corker “incompetent,” saying he “doesn’t have a clue” and claiming the two-term lawmaker “couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee.”

A Tale of Two Trumps
May 30, 2017

Still, even for Trump's supporters, there is such a thing as too much. "If we can just get him to stop tweeting," they said to me. "Does he have the discipline to dial it back?" On a scale of 1 to 10, he seems most often drawn to 11.

Why Trump’s Latest Obama Accusation Could Backfire
March 6, 2017

This weekend, President Trump was mostly up to his usual stuff, popping off on social media, peddling unfounded conspiracy theories to divert attention from stories he doesn't like, and generally acting in an alarming, obnoxious manner. But this particular “Trump rants and rages” story might have lasting significance. According to numerous reports, James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has asked the Justice Department to knock down Trump’s new claim that former President Obama ordered Trump’s phones to be wiretapped. Even for Trump, who has been busy rewriting the Presidential etiquette book since the day he was inaugurated, being labelled a liar by a major federal agency would be a first.

How We Watched the Third Debate
October 19, 2016

“Nobody has more respect for women than I do.” Even by Trump’s standards, that’s laughable.

Hillary Clinton’s Positive Message? That Was the Plan, at Least
October 1, 2016

Mr. Trump’s attacks on a former beauty pageant winner were “unhinged,” Mrs. Clinton said, “even for Trump.” She accused him of valuing women only for their looks. She defended Rosie O’Donnell (“an accomplished actor”) and Kim Kardashian against his “pathetic” insults.

The Meaning of Trump’s Early-Morning Tweet Storm
September 30, 2016

"Oh look, Trump is dominating the news cycle again," Brian Fallon, Clinton's campaign spokesman, wrote on Twitter at 9:30 a.m. "Whatever will we do." Later in the morning, Clinton’s campaign put out a series of tweets under the candidate’s own name, the first of which said, “This is . . . unhinged, even for Trump." A second Clinton tweet asked, “What kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories?”

A Human Race to the Bottom
August 10, 2016

So while you could predict that Trump would noxiously erupt after a period of quiescence, he still managed to stun by joking about "Second Amendment people" stopping a President Hillary Clinton – shooting her, or perhaps her judicial nominees, in other words. As I commented on Sidewire Tuesday afternoon, the question is no longer whether Donald Trump has a sense of decency, at long last, but rather where his finely honed nose for indecency will lead him next.

Even for Trump this is a new low – how many more times this year will we have to say this?

Trump faces backlash over attacks on family of slain Muslim US soldier
July 31, 2016

"Trump's slur against Captain Khan's mother is, even for him, beyond the pale," tweeted John Weaver, a Republican strategist for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. "He has NO redeeming qualities."

Donald Trump’s answer on torture is really out there — even for Trump
February 8, 2016

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do we win by being more like them?

TRUMP: Yes. I'm sorry. You have to do it that way. And I'm not sure everybody agrees with me. I guess a lot of people don't. We are living in a time that's as evil as any time that there has ever been. You know, when I was a young man, I studied Medieval times. That's what they did, they chopped off heads. That's what we have ...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So we're going to chop off heads ...

TRUMP: We're going to do things beyond waterboarding perhaps, if that happens to come.

Trump's rant against Carson goes viral on social media
November 13, 2015

"If you're pathological, there's no cure for that," Trump said. "If you're a child molester, there's no cure. They can't stop you." In response on Friday, Carson recommended praying for Trump.

A Twitter user with the handle @JoeDelgadoJr tweeted to Trump's official account @realDonaldTrump: "You need to recant this 'stupid' people of Iowa statement.. and child molester comparison was not a mature attack."

Another user with the handle @GregB00 said: "Even for Trump, comparing your primary political opponent to a child molester HAS to be going too far. Doesn't it?"