REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Conservative: Trump vs. the Racists
“The political Right has come to accept that if there must be a civil-rights regime, it should be one of its own making,” observes City Journal’s Christopher F. Rufo.
“The first field of battle is higher education,” where Trump has shattered the “illusion” that Ivy League leaders are “heirs to the civil-rights movement.” No: They are “active practitioners of racial discrimination.”
And Trump’s “argument is straightforward”: “Racial discrimination is wrong” no matter the victim, and “any institution that continues to discriminate based on race is ineligible for federal support.”
“The terms of this debate have now changed. The president has ensured that the civil-rights regime will no longer be a one-way lever.”
“The important thing for the Trump administration is not to blink.”
Foreign desk: An Obama-esque Iran Play
“President Donald Trump is already growing impatient with the progress of the Iran nuclear negotiations that his chief envoy, Steve Witkoff, started only on Saturday,” notes The Free Press’ Eli Lake.
But “the fact that Trump did not say that Iran cannot have a nuclear program, which is what he insisted on when he scuttled Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, is a red flag.”
Yet “Obama never had this amount of leverage over Iran. Last year, Israel destroyed the regime’s strategic air defense systems” and wrecked its “two strongest proxies: Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran’s economy is crippled,” with inflation above 30%.
So it’s “baffling” Trump & Co. “would signal that they are open to a deal that allows an unpopular regime to keep its nuclear production capability.”
Left Coast watch: SF Turns Page on Crime
“In January, crime in San Francisco hit a 23-year low,” cheers the Washington Examiner’s Zachary Faria.
Why? The city now has a “real prosecutor,” Brooke Jenkins, who — unlike predecessor Chesa Boudin — “believes crime is bad” and “criminals should go to jail.”
Boudin focused on “making sure criminals served as little jail time as possible” and fighting “mass incarceration.”
He was motivated by the fact that his “terrorist parents were jailed for years” for their role in the 1981 Brink’s robbery.
Now “San Francisco is back on track in terms of crime.” It “can stay that way as long as residents remember the lessons of recent years.”
From the right: Vance’s Hope for Europe
In an interview with UnHerd’s Sohrab Ahmari, Vice President JD Vance argues it’s “not good for Europe to be the permanent security vassal of the United States.”
Vance believes America can still be a friend to Europe, “provided European leaders are prepared to assume a more independent role on the international stage, and to be more responsive to their own voters, especially when it comes to the question of immigration.”
Europe must also address security, Vance says: “Europe’s entire security infrastructure, for my entire life, has been subsidised by the United States of America.”
As Ahmari puts it, the veep “would prefer to see a strong and independent Europe precisely because it could then act as a better check against the foreign-policy missteps of the Americans.”
Libertarian: The Rise of Political Violence
The arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is “only part of the wave of political violence sweeping over the country,” warns Reason’s J.D. Tuccille, from the assassination attempts on Donald Trump to “the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson by — allegedly — a man who has since become a cult figure,” to “arson against Tesla cars and dealers.”
“Americans — especially those on the political left — seem increasingly open to” ideologically motivated violence.
“Political scientists have argued for years that the right is more prone to violence than the left.”
That “always seemed a dubious claim,” but “certainly has not been true” since the 2024 election.
And “the people who embrace violence” are reinforcing “similar attitudes in others who share their ideological beliefs.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board