John Avlon interviewed Barbara Walter, author of How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them, about the dangerous warning signs in America today.
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Director of Eisenhower Library Ousted
President Trump wanted to give King Charles one of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s swords during his state visit to the U.K., the New York Times reports.
The Eisenhower presidential library said it could not provide one because it is government property and illegal to give away. Now the library director has been fired.
House Republicans Plan to Rewrite History
“A new House panel will re-investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack with an eye toward recasting the narrative about the events in Washington that day,” Politico reports.
“It’s the latest sign that the deadly riot remains a wound on Congress that might never fully heal amid ferocious partisan sparring. Retribution, not reconciliation, appears to be the prime motivation behind the new probe, with the Republicans behind it still bitter over the work of the panel’s previous iteration, which was largely led by Democrats and concluded President Donald Trump was singularly to blame for the violence inflicted by his supporters.”
The Most Unprecedented Presidency in 250 years
“Not since America’s founding 250 years ago has a U.S. president expanded power — and punished critics — in more unprecedented ways than Donald J. Trump,” Axios reports.
“Yes, most presidents stretch the power of the White House and, on rare occasions, blatantly target U.S. critics on U.S. soil. But Trump has veered, often suddenly, proudly and loudly, into unprecedented territory in at least 15 different areas.”
“No president in peacetime has done this much in one year of one term.”
“Trump has done this in eight short months, often with the loyal backing of a compliant Republican-led Congress and validated by the conservative majority of the Supreme Court.”
New York Times: Trump’s remarks at Kirk memorial distill his politics.
Stephen Miller Has His Horst Wessel
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Oliver North’s Wedding Was a Surprise to His Children
Oliver North’s marriage to his one-time secretary Fawn Hall was a surprise to his adult children, Michael Isikoff reports.
The couple apparently renewed their acquaintance in November at the funeral of North’s wife of 56 years.
Said daughter Sarah Katz: “We were not at the wedding because we didn’t know it was happening. And mostly we hope it won’t impact our relationship with our dad because we do love him and we’re still in the process of mourning our mother.”
Oliver North Marries Fawn Hall
“Two key figures in the Iran-Contra affair quietly married last month, nearly 40 years after the scandal rocked U.S. politics and President Ronald Reagan’s administration,” CNN reports.
The 40% Presidency
Seth Masket: “Presidential approval just doesn’t move around like it used to. The chart below shows Gallup’s data for presidential approval going back to Harry Truman. And one thing that stands out is that approval used to fluctuate a lot more than it has since Obama took office.”
“But more importantly, approval ratings appear unrelated to variations in the economic index.”
America’s Perón
Scott Linciome: “When the populist strongman Juan Perón ran Argentina’s economy from his presidential palace in the mid-20th century—personally deciding which companies received favors, which industries got nationalized or protected, and which businessmen profited from state largesse—economists warned that the experiment would end badly. They were right. Over decades of rule by Perón and his successors, a country that had once been among the world’s wealthiest nations devolved into a global laughingstock, with uncontrollable inflation, routine fiscal crises, rampant corruption, and crippling poverty. Peronism became a cautionary tale of how not to manage an economy.”
“President Donald Trump seems to have misunderstood the lesson. His second term has begun to follow the Peronist playbook of import substitution, emergency declarations, personal dealmaking, fiscal and monetary recklessness, and unprecedented government control over private enterprise. And, as with Argentina’s Peronism, much of U.S. economic policy making runs directly through the president himself.”
McConnell Likens This Period to the 1930s
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the world during Donald Trump’s second presidency has entered a period of danger, The Guardian reports.
Said McConnell: “I think this is the most dangerous period since before World War II. There’s certain similarities right now to the 30s.”
He added: “Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill in 1930, widely believed by historians and economists to have taken the depression worldwide. Those who were totally anxious to stay out of all of what was going on in Europe were called ‘America First’. Sound familiar?”
More: “So what do we have today? North Korea, China, Russia, Iran and Iran’s proxies. They’re very different kinds of countries, but they have one thing in common: They hate us.”
Flashback Quote of the Day
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
— Martin Niemöller, after being released from prison after World War II.
Trump Escalates Attacks on the Smithsonian
President Trump escalated his campaign to purge cultural institutions of materials that conflict with his political directives, alleging museums were too focused on highlighting negative aspects of American history, including “how bad slavery was,” CNN reports.
Said Trump: “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”
Quote of the Day
“I think FDR would recognize him… The whole campaign was about affordability.”
— Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, in an interview with Time, on Zohran Mamdani.
White House to Vet Smithsonian to Fit Trump’s Vision
“The White House plans to conduct a far-reaching review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions, materials and operations ahead of America’s 250th anniversary to ensure the museums align with President Trump’s interpretation of American history,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
From a letter: “This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

Trump’s Gift to Putin
Heather Cox Richardson: “Putin generally cannot travel outside Russia because he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including the theft of Ukrainian children. And yet Trump is welcoming him to the United States of America.”
“This welcome gives Putin the huge gift of letting him touch down on U.S. soil after he invaded Ukraine in defiance of the policy established after World War II to prevent another such devastating war. In 1945 the United Nations charter declared that ‘all Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.’ The United States was the key guarantor of this principle until Trump took office.”
John Bolton: “This is not quite as bad, as Trump inviting the Taliban to Camp David to talk about the peace negotiations in Afghanistan, but it certainly reminds one of that. The only better place for Putin than Alaska would be if the summit were being held in Moscow.”
Statue of Confederate Soldier to Be Returned to Park
“The U.S. National Park Service will restore and reinstall the statue of a Confederate military officer in Washington, DC, after protesters toppled the monument five years ago,” CNN reports.
Like Nixon, Only Worse
Jonathan Bernstein: “Trump is not the first president to mess with BLS. Richard Nixon decided that Jews were out to get him… and had his underlings draw up a list of Jews at BLS and then demote them.”
“As I said a while ago, pick a past presidential scandal and odds are Trump has topped it; in this case, Nixon didn’t publicly undermine the entire agency. Also, unlike Trump, Nixon used antisemitic slurs only in private (as far as I know), so no one found out until the White House tapes revealed them.”
Smithsonian to Restore Info About Trump Impeachments
The Smithsonian said on Saturday that it would restore information about President Donald Trump’s two impeachments to an exhibit in the National Museum of American History “in the coming weeks,” the Washington Post reports.
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