Deadline Poet / May 13, 2025

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere

Calvin Trillin
Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025.
Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025.(Mandel Ngan / Getty)
“Would it be possible to have a cabinet meeting without
the Kim Jong Il–style tributes?”—Ann Coulter,
regarding Donald Trump’s cabinet meetings

A Trumpworld figure isn’t judged
On how he carries out some duty.
It’s more about the kisses he
Can plant on Donald Trump’s patootie.

Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin is The Nation’s “deadline poet.”

More from The Nation

El-Sayed Wins

El-Sayed Wins El-Sayed Wins

 The big melt.

Steve Brodner

Children at a Head Start program at the Kedren Community Health Center in Los Angeles.

Trump’s Deregulation of Head Start Would Lead to Bigger Class Sizes, Lower Quality Trump’s Deregulation of Head Start Would Lead to Bigger Class Sizes, Lower Quality

The administration has now made public a proposed rule to eliminate critical standards for services in the free preschool program.

Bryce Covert

No Hospital Workers for You

No Hospital Workers for You No Hospital Workers for You

Have a nice day.

OppArt / Bill Bramhall

A scene from the film

Texas’s DNA Doesn’t Run As Red as the Right Wants You to Think Texas’s DNA Doesn’t Run As Red as the Right Wants You to Think

David Griscom’s new book “The Myth of Red Texas” undoes the idea of Texas as a place with conservatism inherent to its political bloodline.

StudentNation / Lajward Zahra

People enter before US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers opening remarks during the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism at the State Department on July 16, 2026, in Washington, DC.

The Right-Wing Terrorism Miller and Rubio Conveniently Neglected to Mention at Their DC Summit The Right-Wing Terrorism Miller and Rubio Conveniently Neglected to Mention at Their DC Summit

At their July event on “The Resurgence of Political Terrorism,” the secretary of state and the White House deputy chief of staff selectively presented information to malign the le...

Sasha Abramsky

Democratic Senate primary winner Abdul El-Sayed and Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow on August 5, 2026, in Detroit, Michigan

Will El-Sayed’s Centrist Opponents “Vote Blue No Matter Who”? Will El-Sayed’s Centrist Opponents “Vote Blue No Matter Who”?

It’s time for the Democratic establishment to take its own medicine.

Aaron Regunberg