Joe Klein

Recent Articles

The Ideological Challenge at the Core of Donald Trump's Radical Presidency

In addition to a loaded slogan–“America First”–and a questionable demeanor, it is now apparent that President Donald J. Trump actually has a governing ideology. His Inaugural Address, the strongest and most coherent speech he’s ever...

By Joe Klein

Beware the Tricks and Traps of Donald Trump, News Manipulator in Chief

On Oct. 7, at the height of the presidential campaign, a tape appeared of Donald Trump saying vile things about women to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. We, the media, went berserk. For the next...

By Joe Klein

Amazing Grace

Eight years ago, toward the end of the 2008 presidential campaign, Michelle Obama asked me, “Klein, are you going to write a book like Primary Colors about us?” referring to my satirical novel about the...

By Joe Klein

The Teddy Awards, Even In a Year That Set New Lows for Politicians

It isn’t easy to bestow awards for political courage in an election year–and it’s near impossible after a campaign like the one we’ve just experienced, which set a sad new standard for ugliness and mendacity....

By Joe Klein

Style Over Substance: Why Fidel Castro's Revolutionary Chic Was a Fraud

I met Fidel Castro 40 years ago, and he was really, really cool. I was part of an American delegation to Cuba led by Senator George McGovern; we met Castro at his brother Raúl’s farm....

By Joe Klein

Why We Must Focus Now on Maintaining Democracy, Civility and Perspective

Twenty-five years ago, at the beginning of the era that has just ended, I watched Bill Clinton give a pretty good speech in Chicago. Afterward, we talked about it–I was his traveling press corps that...

By Joe Klein

What Comes Next With President Trump

It turns out that Donald Trump was qualified to be President, after all. He was credentialed by the American people on Election Day. I’m still not sure he’s fit for the job, and I’m certain...

By Joe Klein

Why Hillary Clinton Is the Only Choice to Keep America Great

“It is the job of editorial writers,” the late, great Murray Kempton once observed, “to come down from the hills after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.” I’ve been thinking about that as...

By Joe Klein

The Ultimate Insider Who Could Still Change the Game In the Oval Office

There haven’t been many exhilarating moments in Hillary Clinton’s long slog to the presidency, but this may have been one of them: a gorgeous late-October afternoon in New Hampshire, an outdoor rally amid the falling...

By Joe Klein

Beware the Toxic Sequel to Donald Trump's Flailing Presidential Campaign

Donald Trump will probably lose this election, which is good news. Here’s the bad news: that loss may be just the beginning of Trump’s toxic presence in American political life. Nightmare scenarios are floating through...

By Joe Klein

7 Key Lessons From the Final Debate

Some thoughts about the third Presidential debate:1. Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency because he doesn’t believe in the will of the American people. Every news outlet said that his refusal to accept the...

By Joe Klein

Why the Russian Hacks of Hillary Clinton's Campaign Should Reassure Us All

In the midst of our bountiful October harvest of Trump grotesqueries, the Russians and Julian Assange organized a WikiLeaks dump of private emails from the Clinton campaign. These revealed a shocking and scandalous fact about...

By Joe Klein

Trump Forced Clinton to Play Defense at the Debate

But he didn't exactly win either

By Joe Klein

Running Mates From the Past Prove the Need for a New Politics of the Future

The old arguments, and the old ways of arguing, have run their course

By Joe Klein

Elena Ferrante, the Clintons and the Beauty of Anonymity

Let's hope 'Elena Ferrante' never confirms her identity

By Joe Klein

The Prepared Candidate and the One Who Is Still a Child

I prepared for the first Clinton-Trump debate by watching Citizen Soldier, a riveting documentary about the Oklahoma Army National Guard in combat in Afghanistan–and by not watching any of the pregame commentary by the talking...

By Joe Klein

Clinton Was Tough and Disciplined at the Debate

Well. We all know who won the debate, don’t we? She won on every count, and clearly. She wasn’t perfect; she was, in the words of a famous American, “likeable enough.” But that wasn’t the...

By Joe Klein

Heroin, Obamacare and Pride: Why Trump Is Finding an Audience In Southern Ohio

I had a memorable experience in Jackson, Ohio, in 2012. This is hillbilly country, the northwestern edge of Appalachia. Susan Rogers, who works for a local public-service agency, asked me to come visit. She put...

By Joe Klein

Hillary Clinton's Biggest Stumbles Have Nothing to Do With Her Health

The idea that Donald Trump might become President of the United States is unthinkable, but it is no longer implausible. Hillary Clinton has made it possible. This is not to say that she will lose....

By Joe Klein

Don't Believe the New Myths About America's White Working Class

This has been an election year filled with sloppy sociology. Democrats, as usual, mistakenly see voters primarily as members of vast, amorphous “identity” groups rather than as individuals. Now the Republicans have joined in. “An...

By Joe Klein
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