Philip Bump
@pbump.com
MSNBC contributor
Former Washington Post columnist
Book: "The Aftermath"
Newsletter: https://howtoreadthisch.art
Email: hello@pbump.com
Signal: pbump.11
Former Washington Post columnist
Book: "The Aftermath"
Newsletter: https://howtoreadthisch.art
Email: hello@pbump.com
Signal: pbump.11
Pinned
Philip Bump
@pbump.com
· 3d
President Hobbies closes out year five
I am pleased to report that we have reached, as of writing, the 361st day of 2025, a year that includes only 365 days despite feeling as though it has included 36,500. This has been the longest year s...
www.howtoreadthisch.art
The last newsletter of the year is out and it’s a good one. Some people spent 2025 golfing and hanging with friends at private clubs and one of them is the president.
Reposted by Philip Bump
Love this by @aedwardslevy.bsky.social
Americans in 1998 tried to predict 2025. Here’s what they got right | CNN Politics
In the year 1998 – when Bill Clinton was president, most households still had landline phones, and CNN’s website looked like this – Gallup and USA Today called up 1,055 Americans on those landlines an...
www.cnn.com
December 31, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Love this by @aedwardslevy.bsky.social
Reposted by Philip Bump
WSJ breaks significant news reporting that Mar-a-Lago’s spa *for years* regularly sent young staffers to Epstein’s home purportedly to give him massages, contorts its scoop to find a more flattering angle for Trump, and still gets an icy blast of a comment from Leavitt. www.wsj.com/us-news/trum...
Exclusive | The Incident That Prompted Trump to Ban Epstein From Mar-a-Lago’s Spa
Mar-a-Lago sent an 18-year-old spa worker on a house call to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. She complained to her bosses that Epstein pressured her for sex.
www.wsj.com
December 31, 2025 at 2:24 AM
WSJ breaks significant news reporting that Mar-a-Lago’s spa *for years* regularly sent young staffers to Epstein’s home purportedly to give him massages, contorts its scoop to find a more flattering angle for Trump, and still gets an icy blast of a comment from Leavitt. www.wsj.com/us-news/trum...
Wrote up some quick thoughts on the day's mini-debate on here about the extent to which Trump voters were voting for the sort of mass deportations that are now underway. www.pbump.net/o/did-trump-...
December 30, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Wrote up some quick thoughts on the day's mini-debate on here about the extent to which Trump voters were voting for the sort of mass deportations that are now underway. www.pbump.net/o/did-trump-...
Update on the numbers included in this week's newsletter.
www.howtoreadthisch.art/president-ho...
www.howtoreadthisch.art/president-ho...
December 30, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Update on the numbers included in this week's newsletter.
www.howtoreadthisch.art/president-ho...
www.howtoreadthisch.art/president-ho...
America is one of the “hottest countries” in a “climate change is making us hot” way far more than a “Trump’s policies are boosting stock prices” way. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Opinion | America isn't the "hottest country" even by one of Trump's favorite metrics
Philip Bump: How Trump's stock market hyperbole hides the truth about his first year back in office.
www.ms.now
December 30, 2025 at 9:29 PM
America is one of the “hottest countries” in a “climate change is making us hot” way far more than a “Trump’s policies are boosting stock prices” way. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Trump keeps saying that the U.S. is the "hottest country" in the world. By his own favorite metric — stock prices — it hasn't been. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Opinion | America isn't the 'hottest country' even by one of Trump's favorite metrics
Philip Bump: How Trump's stock market hyperbole hides the truth about his first year back in office.
www.ms.now
December 30, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Trump keeps saying that the U.S. is the "hottest country" in the world. By his own favorite metric — stock prices — it hasn't been. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Playing a (Christmas gift) Trivial Pursuit that has questions for both kids and adults. Six year-old gets a question: “What does a bibliophile collect?” As I’m thinking that doesn’t sound like a kids’ question, he says, without missing a beat, “Books.”
December 30, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Playing a (Christmas gift) Trivial Pursuit that has questions for both kids and adults. Six year-old gets a question: “What does a bibliophile collect?” As I’m thinking that doesn’t sound like a kids’ question, he says, without missing a beat, “Books.”
Reposted by Philip Bump
So the President did disclose a CIA drone strike inside Venezuela.
And this does cross a red line of violating the UN Charter -- where the boat strikes on high seas had not.
www.cnn.com/2025/12/29/p...
And this does cross a red line of violating the UN Charter -- where the boat strikes on high seas had not.
www.cnn.com/2025/12/29/p...
Exclusive: CIA carried out drone strike on port facility on Venezuelan coast | CNN Politics
The CIA carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, marking the first known US attack on a target inside that...
www.cnn.com
December 30, 2025 at 1:46 AM
So the President did disclose a CIA drone strike inside Venezuela.
And this does cross a red line of violating the UN Charter -- where the boat strikes on high seas had not.
www.cnn.com/2025/12/29/p...
And this does cross a red line of violating the UN Charter -- where the boat strikes on high seas had not.
www.cnn.com/2025/12/29/p...
Every “2020 was stolen” claim is definitionally idiotic but “they didn’t follow procedure” not only doesn’t indicate any fraud but actually *undercuts* the idea of there being a plot. If they were stealing the election, they’d be *more* assiduous about track-covering.
www.wsj.com/opinion/maga...
www.wsj.com/opinion/maga...
December 29, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Every “2020 was stolen” claim is definitionally idiotic but “they didn’t follow procedure” not only doesn’t indicate any fraud but actually *undercuts* the idea of there being a plot. If they were stealing the election, they’d be *more* assiduous about track-covering.
www.wsj.com/opinion/maga...
www.wsj.com/opinion/maga...
An essential development over the past decade-plus is that the ignorant went from feeling chastened when their ignorance was revealed to banding together and deciding that, actually, they were right. They might disagree at times, but they agreed that ignorance itself was an indicator of trust.
December 29, 2025 at 3:26 PM
An essential development over the past decade-plus is that the ignorant went from feeling chastened when their ignorance was revealed to banding together and deciding that, actually, they were right. They might disagree at times, but they agreed that ignorance itself was an indicator of trust.
I wonder how past predictions of crises being resolved by Easter worked out?
December 29, 2025 at 3:20 PM
I wonder how past predictions of crises being resolved by Easter worked out?
“The television was, as always, set to Fox News, though Greene told me she no longer watched the network because she found it factually unreliable.” oh word?
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/m...
‘I Was Just So Naïve’: Inside Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Break With Trump
www.nytimes.com
December 29, 2025 at 1:53 PM
“The television was, as always, set to Fox News, though Greene told me she no longer watched the network because she found it factually unreliable.” oh word?
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/m...
[holding hostages in a bank vault] “I join the cops in wanting to resolve this dangerous situation”
Trump claims "Russia wants it ended" even as Putin relentlessly bombs Ukraine
December 28, 2025 at 10:35 PM
[holding hostages in a bank vault] “I join the cops in wanting to resolve this dangerous situation”
Reposted by Philip Bump
A nice thread in which an actual expert patiently explains why the Secretary of Health and Human Service is not simply a liar, but an especially stupid one.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that the 1918 flu pandemic was caused by a lab virus from vaccine research, a defective influenza vaccine. Let’s analyze what a lie this is. First, in 1918, 107 years ago, virology was in its infancy
December 28, 2025 at 6:06 PM
A nice thread in which an actual expert patiently explains why the Secretary of Health and Human Service is not simply a liar, but an especially stupid one.
Reposted by Philip Bump
2025 has been a year of tumult and uncertainty and a year in which the president of the U.S. has spent at least part of one in three days at his private businesses and one in four days playing golf.
President Hobbies closes out year five
I am pleased to report that we have reached, as of writing, the 361st day of 2025, a year that includes only 365 days despite feeling as though it has included 36,500. This has been the longest year s...
www.howtoreadthisch.art
December 28, 2025 at 2:53 PM
2025 has been a year of tumult and uncertainty and a year in which the president of the U.S. has spent at least part of one in three days at his private businesses and one in four days playing golf.
Shaking hands with his left hand.
not only was Trump's right hand discolored on Christmas Eve, but it appears his left hand is now discolored too
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty)
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty)
December 28, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Shaking hands with his left hand.
2025 has been a year of tumult and uncertainty and a year in which the president of the U.S. has spent at least part of one in three days at his private businesses and one in four days playing golf.
President Hobbies closes out year five
I am pleased to report that we have reached, as of writing, the 361st day of 2025, a year that includes only 365 days despite feeling as though it has included 36,500. This has been the longest year s...
www.howtoreadthisch.art
December 28, 2025 at 2:53 PM
2025 has been a year of tumult and uncertainty and a year in which the president of the U.S. has spent at least part of one in three days at his private businesses and one in four days playing golf.
The intentional and load-bearing addition of “all” is so funny. I don’t know what a “public artist” is in the context of music, but if they perform for fewer than 340 million Americans they are abdicating their duties.
"Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn't courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people"- Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi
Kennedy Center vows to sue musician who canceled performance over Trump name change
The Kennedy Center is planning legal action after jazz musician Chuck Redd canceled an annual holiday concert. Redd pulled out after President Trump's name appeared on the building.
www.npr.org
December 28, 2025 at 2:07 PM
The intentional and load-bearing addition of “all” is so funny. I don’t know what a “public artist” is in the context of music, but if they perform for fewer than 340 million Americans they are abdicating their duties.
Sometimes you make a safe bet and it pays off. (From the newsletter.) www.howtoreadthisch.art/president-ho...
December 27, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Sometimes you make a safe bet and it pays off. (From the newsletter.) www.howtoreadthisch.art/president-ho...
Reposted by Philip Bump
Donald Trump, who disparaged Obama’s golf-playing and who said he’d be too busy to play himself, has surpassed Obama’s eight-year total in less than five years and is on pace to play twice as often — once every five days on average. www.howtoreadthisch.art/president-ho...
December 27, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Donald Trump, who disparaged Obama’s golf-playing and who said he’d be too busy to play himself, has surpassed Obama’s eight-year total in less than five years and is on pace to play twice as often — once every five days on average. www.howtoreadthisch.art/president-ho...
The last newsletter of the year is out and it’s a good one. Some people spent 2025 golfing and hanging with friends at private clubs and one of them is the president.
President Hobbies closes out year five
I am pleased to report that we have reached, as of writing, the 361st day of 2025, a year that includes only 365 days despite feeling as though it has included 36,500. This has been the longest year s...
www.howtoreadthisch.art
December 27, 2025 at 3:03 PM
The last newsletter of the year is out and it’s a good one. Some people spent 2025 golfing and hanging with friends at private clubs and one of them is the president.
Yeah, brilliant idea to grant the franchise to infinitely replicable digital entities controlled by cadres of tech executives. Muskbrained.
it’s hard to think of a bigger grift than the claim that predictive text aka gAI is ‘conscious’ and thus “deserve rights” like the ability to vote
December 27, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Yeah, brilliant idea to grant the franchise to infinitely replicable digital entities controlled by cadres of tech executives. Muskbrained.
Me, reading the article: I sincerely doubt Trump is familiar with the geopolitics of Somaliland.
The article:
The article:
December 27, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Me, reading the article: I sincerely doubt Trump is familiar with the geopolitics of Somaliland.
The article:
The article: