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A president's attention was once the most dangerous thing in American politics. From Donald Trump’s thumbs to his Truth Social page, a single sentence could make or end a career by lunchtime.
He still has the thumbs, but what happens once they hit "post" has become more of an open question.
Tom Cotton ⬇
Trump posted the Republican Arkansas senator's personal cellphone number and told voters to call him about making daylight saving time permanent.
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The voicemail piled up fast, and Trump successfully demonstrated he still has the juice to force people to change their cell numbers.
Jerome Powell ⬆
Hours after the Fed's inspector general found no grounds for a criminal referral over its headquarters renovation, a longtime hobbyhorse for Trump, the president posted that the former Fed chair should be "forced to resign" and told Attorney General Todd Blanche to study the matter.
Blanche has been assigned homework with the answer printed on the cover.
Byron Donalds ⬇
The Republican nominee for Florida governor removed at least eight references to Trump from his campaign homepage, including the photo of the two of them together.
Trump called the story fake, named Donalds "a very close friend" and announced two rallies for him.
Donalds took Trump off his website, so Trump put himself on his calendar.
Annie Andrews ⬆
Trump used the "trannie" slur three times for South Carolina's Democratic Senate nominee who is not transgender. Even Senator Darline Graham, the Republican he was trying to help in a state he carried by 18 points in 2024, distanced herself from the post, saying "that’s not how I would’ve said it."
At 37 percent approval, presidential nicknames just hit differently.
María Elvira Salazar ⬇
The Republican congresswoman running for reelection in Miami aired an ad telling Trump that "some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far." He responded by reposting at least 14 attacks on her, including calls to replace her.
In 2024 Trump was one of her best assets with Hispanic voters. But now she’s breaking with Trump to keep Latino votes, and he broke with her to cost her Republican ones.
Kelly Ortberg ⬆
A FlyDubai copilot allegedly stabbed the captain and sent a Boeing 737 Max 8 into a dive until a passenger, an Israeli plumber, grabbed the controls.
Trump congratulated the Boeing CEO by name on a plane that withstood strain "far beyond what it was designed and expected to do."
Seven years after two crashes grounded it, the Max finally earned some good PR for a near disaster.
Originally a staple of Newsweek's print edition, Conventional Wisdom used arrows to track whose stock was rising or falling in the political circus. We're reviving it in the digital age because the problem it lampooned—hyperbole and partisan certainty masquerading as insight—has only intensified.
CW assigns arrows—up, down, or sideways—to the figures and forces shaping current events. The arrows don't predict the future or claim special insight. They capture the prevailing winds of the moment, uncluttered by tribal howling. In an era when partisan media reinforces rather than questions assumptions, CW operates from the center—skeptical of left and right alike, committed to puncturing inflated reputations and recognizing overlooked truths.
Do you agree with our editors on which way the political winds are blowing? Send us a message here.
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