Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Opinion Today: How are you feeling today about Donald Trump?

We have a way for you to get whatever is on your mind off your chest.
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By Patrick Healy

Deputy Opinion Editor

Donald Trump has been operating like a political black hole for some time now. He sucked up all his opponents in 2016, warping their public images until their candidacies were obliterated. He tore the Republican Party apart. He consumed political oxygen, attention and mind share. His early morning tweets pulled in members of Congress, the news media and millions of Americans: Our days, our plans, our moods were set by the relentless gravitational force of Trump's political nihilism.

Now Trump is back in our lives as a presidential candidate. I suspect you have an opinion or two about that. Speaking with a focus group of swing voters last week, I heard from Republicans and Democrats alike who had the same advice for Trump: "Go away." Even some of his admirers just don't want to get pulled in again.

So my colleagues and I came up with an idea: Why not take all of the thoughts, feelings, obsessiveness and distraction that Trump inspires — and cast them into our own black hole? Could that little act give us some of our emotional energy and brain space back?

And hey, if you're an unalloyed Trump fan, the black hole is there for you, too. We all probably have something we'd like to get out of our system.

Whether you like or loathe the former president, we're all in the same spot: He is now back in our lives in a bigger way than he has been since he got kicked off Twitter and left office. He may not win the 2024 election, but we have to face the fact that he has returned to the main stage of our politics. That doesn't mean, however, that he has to keep living rent-free in Americans' heads.

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Here's what we're focusing on today:

On the News

MICHELLE GOLDBERG

The Trump Show Is Back. Let's Not Tune In.

Trump may be running for president again, but that doesn't mean we have to give him a do-over.

By Michelle Goldberg

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ROSS DOUTHAT

Trump's Announcement Is a Sign of Weakness

An admission of weakness poorly disguised in a show of strength.

By Ross Douthat

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THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

The Big Liar and His Losing Little Liars

Most election deniers who lost last week have conceded and did not claim fraud. That doesn't absolve them from embracing Trump's Big Lie in the first place.

By Thomas L. Friedman

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GUEST ESSAY

The Chaos Inside Donald Trump's Mind

Far from a model C.E.O, the former president is an inattentive, lazy, incompetent manager, saddling his presidential campaign with a heavy disadvantage.

By Michael Wolff

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GUEST ESSAY

How Is It Possible That We Are Still Talking About This Man?

Now Trump wants to bore us to death. It might work.

By Peter Wehner

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GUEST ESSAY

The Red Wave Didn't Just Vanish

"Apparently, Republicans tacked too hard to the right."

By Thomas B. Edsall

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