Editor, writer, film/TV critic. Atlantic, NYT, TNR, WaPo, etc. If you are anonymous, I'll likely ignore you.
DC
Joined January 2011
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Christopher Orr retweeted
I’m happy for all of you. Really. But I’m bummed and a bit enraged that Florida got left out of the fun. There’s one big obvious lesson for Democrats, and yes this is I Told You So, and yes it might not even fucking matter anymore because 2026 was the best chance…but🧵.
Christopher Orr retweeted
Impeach Hegseth and Blanche. The Pentagon and DOJ are too important to be left in their hands. And it will be important to bar them from federal service forever.
A US military source says: "Hegseth's days are numbered". There are differing views on why - some believe he will face inevitable impeachment by the Democrats, others believe Trump will sack him as the fall guy for the disastrous Iran war.
Either way, he has already alienated significant parts of the US military.
One senior military officer, not authorised to speak on the record, tells @thetimes: "Personally, after decades of service and five combat deployments I’m just tired of being called ‘woke’ by a secretary who seems to spend more time worrying about NCO business than actually making serious policy decisions."
Christopher Orr retweeted
Trump at 38-62% approval in the first round of exits, assuming it roughly holds up, is THE massive fact of these midterms. All the rest is (interesting and important, don't get me wrong!) commentary.
Christopher Orr retweeted
The big swing vote that saved D’s in 2022 was Biden “somewhat disapprove” voters, so if you’re R’s the hope is this is another election where anger doesn’t translate to partisan choice
Christopher Orr retweeted
This is how a person lies while telling himself he tells the truth. Did he see such a report on some crank website or social media post? Maybe. Could any intelligent, informed person think it’s true? Nope. But he repeats it anyway, fueling the partisan fire and fooling the gullible.
Christopher Orr retweeted
There was a time when this kind of thing would have been considered a major news story
It begins. theguardian.com/us-news/2026…
Christopher Orr retweeted
I genuinely cannot believe this is a real exchange between a voter and the Vice President of the United States.
Christopher Orr retweeted
“inflation on a yearly basis was 3.0 percent when Trump took office in January 2025, and it is 3.7 percent today … Trump promised it would go down, and it hasn't”
"I might be wrong," Trump told me. "The country's never done better. People feel good. The gasoline's a little high, but it's coming down. You know, gasoline is lower than it was with Biden and Obama, and I got rid of the nuclear threat."
Trump's critics will scoff at his "never done better" claim, and at least some of his supporters might wince. Indeed, one could make the alternative argument that Trump was elected to do one big thing -- bring down inflation -- and inflation on a yearly basis was 3.0 percent when Trump took office in January 2025, and it is 3.7 percent today. That's nowhere near where it was -- 9.1 percent -- in the worst of the Joe Biden years, but Trump promised it would go down, and it hasn't.
On the other hand, there is the bill of particulars Trump offered voters in Sioux City and every other place he has held rallies. Look at the stock market, he told the crowd in Iowa, and look at your 401k. They're both up. Then: "Income for hardworking Americans has soared to the highest level ever recorded." That's true. And then: "The poverty rate has just reached its best level in American history." That's true, too, referring to the period in which the rate has been recorded. Then Trump cited other improvements, in manufacturing and exports, some of which were overstated but did indeed reflect progress under Trump. In addition, for Iowa specifically, on September 30 Trump announced the planned construction of a huge new steel plant in the state, which outgoing Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds called "transformational."
Say what you want, but that's not nothing. At his rallies, Trump presents a compelling case for solid economic accomplishments -- to go along with the higher energy and food prices that have made inflation so stubborn in the months after Trump started the war in Iran. He promises, of course, that gas prices will plunge as soon as the war ends, which he thinks will be after the midterms. That will be great if it happens, although until then prices will remain a real problem. Still, the good indicators in the economy are real.
So are Trump's tax cuts. Onstage in Sioux City, he polled the crowd on their opinion of his moves to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security. Reflecting the area's economic and demographic makeup, no tax on tips was somewhat popular; no tax on overtime was more popular; and no tax on Social Security was really, really popular.
And that is just the economy, without considering the signature achievement of Trump's second term, which is re-securing the U.S.-Mexico border and stopping cold the massive influx of illegal border crossers of the Biden years.
washingtonexaminer.com/daily…
No one is required to remain in the GOP
Christopher Orr retweeted
What an incredibly weird lie. Check out the community note.
That Mr. French has debated me twice is "pure fiction." Also, he has lifted humorlessness into an art form, bringing a level of dedication to it that is genuinely impressive. Sad!
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Eric Metaxas and David French participated in two public debates in 2020 about whether Christians should vote for Donald Trump one at the Q Summit and another at John Brown University. youtube.com/watch?v=CuYk4-… thewayofimprovement.blog/2020/04/25/tra… christianpost.com/news/christian…
Christopher Orr retweeted
This is correct. Even worse, denominational leaders will stand aside as the radicals and crazies rip decent people to shreds. They preserve the "peace of the church" by standing by, quietly, while heinous people slander good Christians whose "sin" is dissenting from their hateful politics.
Christopher Orr retweeted
Trump to Republicans: I'm on the ballot.
Trump to Houthis: I'm not on the ballot.
Christopher Orr retweeted
Other countries might be defined by blood, territory or language. America has always been creedal, an ideal of liberty turned into a state.
Its critics back-handedly recognise as much. The reason that anti-Americanism is a force in world affairs (unlike anti-Algerianism or anti-Armenianism or anti-Albanianism) is that America’s enemies acknowledge that it stands for something. That something is the package represented by personal autonomy, limited government, constitutional rule, regular elections and private enterprise – in a word, freedom.
A bias towards freedom has, until now, characterised US foreign policy. A people habituated to liberty immediately saw what was wrong with Nazism and Communism.
Which is why current US foreign policy is so shocking to pro-Americans.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is one of those rare occasions when we can clearly identify the aggressor. Vladimir Putin sought to annex a neighbour that offered him no threat – a neighbour that had given up its nuclear weapons in return for a promise that its sovereignty would be respected within its existing borders. Who guaranteed that promise? Britain, the United States and (never forget) Russia.
Donald Trump is backing a belligerent dictatorship against a beleaguered democracy. Putin is the one leader he never disparages. He threatens annexation against Denmark, muses about handing away British territory, wages economic war on Canada. But not Russia. Never Russia.
Now Trump is buying diesel from Russia, potash from Belarus, minerals from China – all because he doesn’t want to buy them from Canada, which has stood at America’s side in war after war.
American friends, can you not see what this is doing, not just to America’s standing, but to the free world which your fathers have built since 1941? Trump is bringing down the international system from which the US has been the chief beneficiary. And for what? To drink liberal tears? God help us.
Christopher Orr retweeted
Dear friends, during some recent medical examinations, the doctors found a small, localized nodule in my lung. It was detected at a very early stage and is well-localized. The doctors believe that it is best to intervene, so, following their advice, I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it. The operation is already scheduled to take place in the coming days. I thank you for your spiritual closeness and entrust myself to your prayers.