National Commentary

“Several of the scenarios in which Republicans win the presidency resemble 2000 and 2016: They're electoral victories earned with fewer popular votes than the Democrats are projected to get,” writes Ramesh Ponnuru.

“The president and a good deal of Congress may disappoint, if not embarrass, many Americans, but we have no shortage of admirable Americans in public life who know it's not all about them,” writes Jennifer Rubin.

Columnist Esther Cepeda writes that such tactics result in less-safe neighborhoods and many local law enforcement agencies across the country have rejected these programs for decades.

When it comes to the Russian leader, Trump doesn't come across as fierce or demanding. He comes across as scared.

“The upshot is that if it's accurate, as it has been reported, that Trump is more worried about the Cohen investigation than the Mueller one, he's not wrong,” writes Noah Feldman.

“Nothing is better than being the most righteous guy in the room — while still getting a huge payday,” writes Rich Lowry.

“It's not often that public figures hold themselves to the standards they apply to others,” writes E.J. Dionne Jr.

“It's too early to render a verdict on Mueller's work, but he certainly appears to have become a kind of free-floating legal ombudsman,” writes Rich Lowry.

“Trump's standard — that a dictator can indiscriminately kill his people as long as he doesn't use chemical weapons — is nearly lost in the overarching lesson of the Syrian conflict,” writes Michael Gerson.

“For a certain type of reader — the kind who savors deluges of ultra-specific details about offbeat topics — ‘The Pale King’ is the most narratively fascinating book about the internal nature of boredom that has ever been written,” writes Esther J. Cepeda.