S.E. Cupp Columns

As a journalist and political commentator, I’ve covered politics for nearly 20 years — presidential elections, midterms, state and local races, even international elections. It used to be fun. There was the horse race, a colorful cast of characters, the debate over ideas and policies, all occasionally punctuated by a...

Charlie Kirk was in the middle of a college campus, as he had probably been hundreds of times before. He was surrounded by a mix of supporters and critics of the influential MAGA youth leader. The large, all-caps block writing above his head read, “PROVE ME WRONG.” Kirk’s project was...

It had a slightly more noble sound to it in 2023, when then-former President Donald Trump made the lofty but creepy promise to a friendly MAGA crowd at CPAC. “In 2016 I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for...

On the surface, it looked like a marketing disaster: Beloved American restaurant chain serving up simple Southern favorites in unpretentious general store environment “loses $143 million in market value after woke brand fiasco.” Indeed, it has not been a great news cycle for Cracker Barrel. But after announcing a major...

In June 1999, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s vulgar and hilarious animated series “South Park” came to the silver screen. “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” followed Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny as they sneak into the R-rated film “Asses of Fire” starring fictional Canadian comedy duo “Terrance and Phillip.”...

If you haven’t been following the saga at an unassuming government agency known as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, boy have you been missing out. To catch you up, President Trump recently fired Erika McEntarfer, who’d been appointed by former President Joe Biden to head the agency that, among other...

You know the old philosophical question: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well, in President Trump’s America, the answer would depend on whether or not he wanted it to. In a world where the only “truth”...

With all eyes on New York City’s mayoral race, Democrats are hoping, wishing, praying that Zohran Mamdani is the proverbial canary in the coal mine. With the party in a state of total disarray and weakness — a whopping 63% of voters have an unfavorable view of Democrats, and a...

In her continuing campaign to diminish Donald Trump, S.E. Cupp wields her verbal knives, saying he “is a convicted criminal, an adjudicated sexual abuser and an ignoramus” (“We are obsessed with Coldplay’s kiss cam couple,” July 25, TribLive). Wow! She concludes by saying that he is incompetent. Not so. Since...

By now, you’ve definitely seen it — the viral video of Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot in the canoodle heard ’round the world. The two were at a Coldplay concert outside Boston, and they were caught on the jumbotron kiss cam at the exact worst moment, with their arms wrapped...

For all of his high-profile connections to presidents, moguls and royals, Jeffrey Epstein probably couldn’t have imagined just how politically important he would one day become. The long-deceased convicted sex offender and pedophile is at the epicenter of a seemingly seismic blowup inside MAGA, in which splintering factions are now...

Over the course of the last few months, a “No Kings” movement has coalesced to oppose the authoritarian policies of President Trump. Organized protests across all 50 states, coinciding with Trump’s military parade, were meant to draw attention to Trump’s anti-democratic and increasingly monarchical consolidation of power. In areas of...

The great American humorist Josh Billings once said, “There are some people so addicted to exaggeration that they can’t tell the truth without lying.” That may be charming in a storyteller, but in a president, that’s truly dangerous. To put it bluntly, in addition to being a serial exaggerator, Donald...

In 50 years, when we talk about this era of American politics, it will be truly impossible to capture the chaos, exhaustion, darkness and insanity of Donald Trump’s presidencies. There won’t be adequate words to describe how much changed in such a short period of time, thanks to Trump’s utter...

Few in American politics are as desperate as California Gov. Gavin Newsom is right now. Newsom, long considered — by himself, anyway — a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, has been positioning himself and repositioning himself to be next in line for years. And this week, through the...

There’s nothing Donald Trump believes in more than his own power of persuasion. From “The Art of the Deal” to Trump Steaks to his foray into politics, Trump’s North Star has always been his confidence that he can convince anyone of anything. Remember, simply by assuming the office of the...

He shot onto the political scene seemingly out of nowhere. But Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, made his presence known in short time. After acquiring Twitter in 2022 and wading into the controversial politics of free speech and misinformation, Musk’s first big move was to dump more than $50...

On Thursday morning, a gleeful GOP celebrated the passing of President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” by the House. It didn’t come easy — there were a few dissenters — but eventually, fear of Trump’s retribution likely pushed it through. But it’s a Pyrrhic victory, if a victory at all, and...

“He totally (expletive)ed us.” It’s rare to hear a political party operative speak this way about one of his own. It’s almost unheard of to hear a well-known campaign adviser like David Plouffe speak this way on the record about the former president of the United States, Joe Biden. Especially...

Among the many problems Democrats faced in the 2024 election — former President Joe Biden’s obvious decline, a rejiggered ticket at the 11th hour, a slumbering economy and a border crisis that Dems took too long to acknowledge — was their terrible timing. When Biden won in 2020, it was...

This week, President Trump’s second term turned 100 … days, that is. And to mark the occasion, he held a rally in Michigan where he touted what he thinks of as his biggest accomplishments: tariffs, deporting alleged gang members to El Salvador and his creation of the Department of Government...

Pete Hegseth came in hot. The tatted-up warhawk who’d spent the past seven years as a “Fox & Friends” weekend host was on nobody’s short list for Defense secretary when incoming President Trump made him his pick to lead the largest organization in the world. His lack of experience running...

Our long national nightmare is over. Or is it? After the longest week of economic uncertainty and peril Americans have endured in a long time, President Donald Trump finally caved and announced a 90-day pause on his ham-fisted, hairbrained, ill-advised and ill-conceived trade war with the world. The 10% baseline...

Here’s a nice trick for the misanthropic: Mention “import substitution industrialization” at the next dinner party you attend, and watch eyes glaze over and bodies slowly depart your general area. Talking economic theory isn’t usually exciting. And talking trade theory, including the supporting theory for tariffs, even less so. But,...

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.” This was the president of the United States’ defense of his national security adviser who’s embroiled in a humiliating, alarming and downright unfathomable breach of security — and confidence. In case you missed it, “Signalgate” is the latest controversy...