This Just In: Former Vice President Dick Cheney, has died at the age of 84. The New York Times obituary is here. The Washington Post remembers the former Vice President here, and the New York Post has wire stories.
Back to Regularly Scheduled Programing. Election Day 2025—exciting, nerve-racking and defining.
President Trump looms large over key races despite not being on the ballot:
Grabbing top billing are New Jersey and Virginia, the only two states to hold contests for governor in the year after a presidential election. Their gubernatorial races typically receive outsized national attention and are seen as a key barometer ahead of next year’s midterms, when the GOP will be defending its slim House and Senate majorities.
We will probably go to bed tonight knowing whether New York, the (for now) throbbing heart of capitalism, will elect a socialist mayor. A new bombshell poll has socialist Zohran Mamdani and former Governor Andrew Cuomo neck and neck.
President Trump made his choice clear:
President Trump made his most overt endorsement yet of Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayoral race — saying that New Yorkers “must vote for” the disgraced former governor to defeat “Communist” Zohran Mamdani.
“If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“He [Cuomo] is capable of it, Mamdani is not!” Trump added. AEI’s Danielle Pletka writes that the election of Mamdani, who recently stood in solidarity with a terrorist-friendly Imam, means New York has forgotten its history. If Kansas City’s erstwhile free buses are an indication, Mamdani’s free buses would also lead to a degradation of the experience of riders. Also predicted, because of Mamdani’s push to decriminalize prostitution, AOC’s “red light district” crisis could engulf New York. But is the argument stacked against capitalism?
Meanwhile, in New Jersey GOP candidate for Governor Jack Ciattarelli got an endorsement from former Governor Thomas Kean, who has largely avoided politics:
“I haven’t been involved in partisan politics for a number of years, but this year is different,” Kean said in a video shared by Ciattarelli on X. “New Jersey needs a change and needs a change badly. Jack Ciattarelli is that change.”
Former President Barack Obama’s last-minute efforts on behalf of Rep. Mikie Sherrill, Democratic candidate for New Jersey Governor, left one black leader unimpressed. Former President Obama also dabbled in the New York Mayor’s race, offering to be a sounding board for Mamdani, but not quite endorsing him. James Freeman of the Wall Street Journal refers to “Obama’s Self-Serving Straddle with Mamdani.” Good News for Political Junkies: The New York Post and 2Way team up to provide coverage for this excruciating evening. There is hope on Capitol Hill that the elections will help end the shutdown.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments tomorrow over whether President Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs are legal. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal, which has been consistently opposed to the tariffs, is headlined “The Tariff King and the Supreme Court.” For the editors, the question is whether the Justices stop Trump from usurping Congress’s power over taxes and tariffs:
The Trump Administration tries to leapfrog all of these statutory obstacles by citing the President’s Article II foreign-policy authority. Few conservatives are more deferential to presidential overseas authority than we are. But the power of the purse still belongs to Congress and can’t simply be wished away with the words “foreign policy.” Tariffs are taxes on Americans.
If the Court blesses this unlimited presidential tariff power, future Presidents will be able to cite emergencies to justify tariffs to pursue all kinds of policy goals. An all-too-likely example is a climate emergency to tax imports of countries with high CO2 emissions.
President Trump calls the tariffs case “[t]he most important case ever.” A ruling against tariffs could trigger a chaotic economic situation. “It really feels like this is a coin flip in terms of the outcome,” Heritage Foundation Chief Economist E.J. Antoni told The Federalist.
Who You Callin’ Isolationist. Wall Street Journal international affairs columnist Walter Russell Mead says it’s wrong to regard President Trump as an isolationist—he’s out to reshape the globe:
Venezuela’s proven oil reserves are larger than Saudi Arabia’s. Flipping Venezuela from the Axis of Revisionists to Team America would have lasting consequences on the global balance of power—and would reduce the ability of countries like Russia and Iran to use energy as a weapon against the U.S.
Those who still think of Mr. Trump as a restrainer or isolationist should watch his “60 Minutes” interview. This president isn’t retreating from the world. He aims to reshape it.
What other American President would threaten to go in “arms blazing” because of persecution and murder of Nigeria’s Christians? An editorial in the Wall Street Journal takes note:
The plight of Africa’s Christians seems like a world away from America First policy. But U.S. moral interests include humanitarian concerns, and in this case they coincide with the fight against radical Islam. Credit to Mr. Trump for showing he understands and may be willing to act on those interests.
Have you heard that some administration people have been moved to military housing for protection? It’s true. Adviser Stephen Miller, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are in military housing. The Atlantic and the New York Times had stories saying it was their own fault. The Federalist responds:
It’s just so baffling, they continue, because Obama Defense Secretaries Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel “felt secure in their homes” when they were in office. What could possibly be different for Trump officials? If Panetta wasn’t scared of Tea Party grandmas, surely the Millers can shrug off the threat of antifa mobs and leftists like Virginia Democrat Jay Jones calling for the murder of Republicans?
Maybe this is a good place to cite a Daily Caller story on the growing number of young Americans who believe violence to be justified:
The poll found that 24% of Americans say there are circumstances in which political violence can be justified, compared to 64% who say it is never acceptable, according to Politico’s report on the survey. Among younger adults, that number rises sharply, with more than one in three under the age of 45 agreeing there are circumstances where political violence is warranted. There was “little partisan divide” on the issue, according to Politico, though neither the precise breakdown on the numbers nor the phrasing of the questions were included in the report. The findings come amid a surge of politically motivated attacks and threats in recent months.
Fascinating Ideas. “Taking Hostages Turned Out to Be Hamas’s Undoing.” Microchips are so yesterday—the future is wafers, according to the visionary George Gilder. Wall Street Journalist columnist Gerard Baker says that Mamdani is a gift, but President Trump should be careful how he opens it. And the great Joel Kotkin boils down message of lefty Mayors to the cities they supposedly govern: Drop dead. Kotkin writes:
“The progressives are not focused on governance,” he suggested over sushi in Little Tokyo, a stone’s throw from City Hall. “They prefer virtue-signaling to running a city.” Cole’s is not the complaint of a conservative but someone who identifies as “a pragmatic progressive,” even a “sewer socialist.” The problem, he says, is that today’s progressives lack a “results-oriented approach” that actually helps residents.
Perhaps never in recent history have American cities so badly needed strong, pragmatic mayors—and gotten so few. ….
Cities cannot afford such choices.
We’ll know soon whether New York has made such a choice.
