The Latest Breaking News from Francis Wilkinson

Francis Wilkinson: Why can’t Republicans quit Trump?

After starting the year polling almost even with former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis began losing ground in March and continued sinking through the spring. Notably, the decline began before Trump’s first indictment. A July Economist/YouGovAmerica poll shows Trump at 49% and DeSantis at 20% in a multicandidate…

Tribune News Service · Jul 15, 2023

Francis Wilkinson: Trump has officially broken the Republican Party

There are tens of millions of conservatives in the U.S. For American democracy to succeed, they need a political party that productively channels their aspirations, represents their ideologies, mediates their conflicts and functions in accord with democratic values and the rule of law.

Tribune News Service · Jun 14, 2023

Francis Wilkinson: Save your outrage over Ja Morant

What exactly did Ja Morant do wrong? The 23-year-old NBA superstar faced a barrage of criticism after he was seen in an Instagram Live last weekend waving a handgun while bopping to music in a car. This was Morant’s second public escapade with a firearm. He was suspended from his…

Tribune News Service · May 19, 2023

Francis Wilkinson: Kamala Harris’s biggest problem is her boss

President Joe Biden is still old. That observation might not seem quite so relevant after Biden delivered a spirited State of the Union address Tuesday night that accomplished all the White House could reasonably have hoped for. Biden, 80, rattled off meaningful achievements, slathered on some bipartisanship with a salute…

Tribune News Service · Feb 9, 2023

Francis Wilkinson: Trump’s wall settles into a strange, costly afterlife

Donald Trump’s signature border wall is morphing in strange and costly ways — even as it seems to play little role in stemming illegal migration.

Tribune News Service · Feb 4, 2023

Francis Wilkinson: We already know which gun policies work

Rand Corporation, the think tank with origins in Cold War military planning, recently issued its latest update on gun policy research. Rand has been sifting through gun research, offering generally conservative assessments of its utility and findings, since 2018. As strictures on gun violence research have fallen, and more such…

Tribune News Service · Jan 24, 2023

Francis Wilkinson: Sinema will have to be partisan to be independent

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema showed up in Davos this week, where she celebrated her recently declared independence from partisanship. The most pressing problem in U.S. politics, the former Democrat from Arizona told the World Economic Forum, was “a deeply broken two-party system.”

Tribune News Service · Jan 20, 2023

Francis Wilkinson: Democrats had bad candidates, too. But they weren’t dangerous

Herschel Walker was a bad candidate.

Tribune News Service · Dec 10, 2022

Francis Wilkinson: Republicans campaigned on fear. America didn't buy it

The American republic stood on the brink of another descent into Trumpism this week. On Tuesday it stepped back to reconsider its options.

Tribune News Service · Nov 9, 2022

Francis Wilkinson: Biden’s warning about democracy will go unheeded

President Joe Biden, who delivered what is likely to be an ineffective speech Wednesday night on the perils faced by American democracy, might want to keep in mind Sen. Gerald Nye of North Dakota.

Tribune News Service · Nov 4, 2022