So, I'm going to indulge in one of those annoying threads about my stories from the Trump era. I promise not to make it too long! (Honestly, just mute me now.)
About 7 years ago, a fluke blizzard and a rerouted flight ended with me spending a two days at Mar-a-Lago with Trump. Yes, he hated my story. (And yes, that picture was meant to be a joke.) In retrospect, this was the beginning of "the Trump era" for me. buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/3…
I revisited the Mar-a-Lago experience a couple years later when Trump was about to win the GOP nomination. My story on how Trump's campaign was part of his lifelong revenge march against the "haters" who'd snubbed and sneered at him (myself included): buzzfeednews.com/article/mckayc…
I joined The Atlantic just before Trump took office, and began covering how his conquest of the GOP would shape Washington. After interviewing Jason Chaffetz, one thing was clear: Republicans were going to let him get away with whatever he wanted. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
My profile of Mike Pence looks at the Faustian bargain he—and the religious right—made in allying themselves with Trump: theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
I also wrote about the revealing meltdowns of Trump-world's lesser figures.
I began 2020 with a deep look at the billion-dollar disinformation campaign to reelect the president, and how Trump was working to hold his supporters in an alternate reality: theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
And finally, just because it was such a fitting end to the 2020 campaign, my story on getting kicked out Steve Bannon's election party (along with @RosieGray): theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
(OK I'm done with the hyper-indulgent tweets now, you can unmute me.)
(And of course I'm grateful to @JeffreyGoldberg, who brought me to The Atlantic, assigned many of the stories in this thread, and has purchased literally hundreds of boxes of Girl Scout cookies from daughter over the years.)
Forgot to include my cover story on the Trump family in this thread earlier, but things look much worse for Don, Ivanka, Jared, et al than they did when I wrote it back in 2019. Still, I'm not convinced we're done with this family... theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
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“We’re about to see a whole political party do a large-scale version of ‘New phone, who dis?’” says Sarah Isgur, a former spokesperson for the Trump DOJ. “It will be like that boyfriend you should never have dated—the mistake that shall not be mentioned.” theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
When I asked Doug Heye, a longtime GOP strategist, how his party will remember the Trump years, he responded with a litany of episodes to memory-hole: theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
As the Trump era draws to a close, the Republican Party is fractured, out of power, and bitterly fighting over core tenets of democracy.
My story on the spectacle in Washington today, with quotes from Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Thomas Massie, and more: theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
I spoke to (a fairly sanguine) Romney last night a few hours after he was harassed by Trump supporters in an airport. “A huge portion of the American public has been misled by the president about the outcome of the election," he told me. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
“The president was right that there was an effort to corrupt the election," Romney told me, "but it was not by Joe Biden. It was by President Trump.” theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
In the Trump era, many Washington reporters became resistance heroes, showered with book deals, TV contacts, and Twitter followers. I talked to some of them about their (our) ambivalence about that—and what they plan to do next. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
“On a purely social level, I don’t know that reporting critically on Joe Biden will feel as safe for reporters,” @Olivianuzzi told me. “You’re not going to get yass queen–ed to death.” theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
One cable-news anchor told me that praise from anti-Trump celebrities on Twitter has become like a “narcotic” for some of his colleagues: “It’s important to people that George Takei likes their monologue." theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
I was at Steve Bannon’s rooftop Election Night party when reality started to set in—then I got dramatically kicked out. On failed prophecy, cognitive dissonance, and the future of Trumpism in America: theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Slightly regretting that we didn't headline this piece "What we can learn about the future of Trumpism from a 1950s UFO sect in Chicago" theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
So, here's Mike Lee comparing Donald Trump to Captain Moroni (a hero in the Book of Mormon) and then modifying a verse of LDS scripture to include the words "fake news."
The end of this cursed campaign season cannot come soon enough.
I've gotta say, "I seek not for power but to pull it down" may be the single Book of Mormon quote that's least relatable to Donald Trump. churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptur…
Former aides say they’ve heard Trump privately ridicule conservative religious leaders, dismiss faith groups with cartoonish stereotypes, and deride rites and doctrines held sacred by many in his base.
When Trump learned about a megachurch pastor trying to raise $60 million to buy a private jet, he was delighted by the "scam," according to Michael Cohen, and eager to highlight that the pastor was "full of sh*t."