Peter Wehner
@peter-wehner.bsky.social
Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum
Writer for The New York Times and The Atlantic
Worked in Reagan and Bush41 administrations and Bush43 White House
Writer for The New York Times and The Atlantic
Worked in Reagan and Bush41 administrations and Bush43 White House
Reposted by Peter Wehner
“.. for those of us who, in our younger years, revered America as a shining city upon a hill, .. this is quite a painful period.
“..’America has lost its moral bearings; as a result, it has also lost its moral standing in the world.”
@peter-wehner.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
“..’America has lost its moral bearings; as a result, it has also lost its moral standing in the world.”
@peter-wehner.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
October 31, 2025 at 6:19 PM
“.. for those of us who, in our younger years, revered America as a shining city upon a hill, .. this is quite a painful period.
“..’America has lost its moral bearings; as a result, it has also lost its moral standing in the world.”
@peter-wehner.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
“..’America has lost its moral bearings; as a result, it has also lost its moral standing in the world.”
@peter-wehner.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
"It’s not so much that we know every ethical line [Christopher] Foyle draws is the exact right one; it’s rather that we know he’s doing the best he can to pursue justice....Foyle’s moral compass can’t be demagnetized."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Virtue of Integrity
The only way out of our wreckage is to rewrite the cultural script, to make excellence in character admired again.
www.theatlantic.com
August 13, 2025 at 5:35 PM
"It’s not so much that we know every ethical line [Christopher] Foyle draws is the exact right one; it’s rather that we know he’s doing the best he can to pursue justice....Foyle’s moral compass can’t be demagnetized."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
"any number of regimes, though they fall short of the German Reich, act in ways that are morally problematic or even wicked. Collaboration and capitulation—the selling of a soul—take many forms, including in America."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Virtue of Integrity
The only way out of our wreckage is to rewrite the cultural script, to make excellence in character admired again.
www.theatlantic.com
August 13, 2025 at 5:32 PM
"any number of regimes, though they fall short of the German Reich, act in ways that are morally problematic or even wicked. Collaboration and capitulation—the selling of a soul—take many forms, including in America."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Here's an example of disordered loves: When there are "large swaths of Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals, men and women who worship Jesus with their lips while giving priority to Trump and the MAGA movement in their heart."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Virtue of Integrity
The only way out of our wreckage is to rewrite the cultural script, to make excellence in character admired again.
www.theatlantic.com
August 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Here's an example of disordered loves: When there are "large swaths of Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals, men and women who worship Jesus with their lips while giving priority to Trump and the MAGA movement in their heart."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Reposted by Peter Wehner
A peacock showing off its art.
August 5, 2025 at 2:05 PM
A peacock showing off its art.
Reposted by Peter Wehner
Full Moon captured from space
NASA ✨️
NASA ✨️
July 27, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Full Moon captured from space
NASA ✨️
NASA ✨️
"For Trump to get on the wrong side of a MAGA conspiracy is highly unusual, and it explains why, for the first time, his base is upset with him. Trump is on the wrong side of what is, for them, sacred."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Trump Discovers MAGA Has No ‘Off’ Switch
For the first time, the president finds himself at odds with his own movement.
www.theatlantic.com
July 16, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"For Trump to get on the wrong side of a MAGA conspiracy is highly unusual, and it explains why, for the first time, his base is upset with him. Trump is on the wrong side of what is, for them, sacred."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
"Trump has lit the flames of dozens of conspiracy theories during his time in politics...His transgressions, his lawlessness, even his cruelty were vivifying to his supporters. Having created that movement, Trump is discovering there’s no 'off' switch."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Trump Discovers MAGA Has No ‘Off’ Switch
For the first time, the president finds himself at odds with his own movement.
www.theatlantic.com
July 16, 2025 at 7:47 PM
"Trump has lit the flames of dozens of conspiracy theories during his time in politics...His transgressions, his lawlessness, even his cruelty were vivifying to his supporters. Having created that movement, Trump is discovering there’s no 'off' switch."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Trump Discovers MAGA Has No ‘Off’ Switch
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Trump Discovers MAGA Has No ‘Off’ Switch
For the first time, the president finds himself at odds with his own movement.
www.theatlantic.com
July 16, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Trump Discovers MAGA Has No ‘Off’ Switch
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Reposted by Peter Wehner
I was grateful to be part of this article and for the excellent work @peter-wehner.bsky.social did on it.
July 7, 2025 at 3:59 AM
I was grateful to be part of this article and for the excellent work @peter-wehner.bsky.social did on it.
Reposted by Peter Wehner
By @peter-wehner.bsky.social, an important article. I like to think that, if Americans knew about PEPFAR, they would support it, and even be proud of it. Not all of them, obviously -- but the great majority.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Why Evangelicals Turned Their Back on PEPFAR
A religious movement that has so often taken public stands has been unusually quiet since Trump gutted the program to combat AIDS in Africa.
www.theatlantic.com
July 6, 2025 at 10:28 PM
By @peter-wehner.bsky.social, an important article. I like to think that, if Americans knew about PEPFAR, they would support it, and even be proud of it. Not all of them, obviously -- but the great majority.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Reposted by Peter Wehner
An important, compelling, and ultimately damning piece by @peter-wehner.bsky.social. The views Wehner attributes to right-leaning evangelicals regrettably apply to many Catholics as well. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Why Evangelicals Turned Their Back on PEPFAR
A religious movement that has so often taken public stands has been unusually quiet since Trump gutted the program to combat AIDS in Africa.
www.theatlantic.com
July 6, 2025 at 10:19 PM
An important, compelling, and ultimately damning piece by @peter-wehner.bsky.social. The views Wehner attributes to right-leaning evangelicals regrettably apply to many Catholics as well. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Reposted by Peter Wehner
I just read this article. Great work fr @peter-wehner.bsky.social.
Evangelicals in America "have mostly turned their eyes away from what is happening on the African continent" since Trump slashed PEPFAR, Peter Wehner writes. "They have other things to do. They have culture wars to fight":
Why Evangelicals Turned Their Back on PEPFAR
A religious movement that has so often taken public stands has been unusually quiet since Trump gutted the program to combat AIDS in Africa.
bit.ly
July 6, 2025 at 6:23 PM
I just read this article. Great work fr @peter-wehner.bsky.social.
Reposted by Peter Wehner
Evangelicals in America "have mostly turned their eyes away from what is happening on the African continent" since Trump slashed PEPFAR, Peter Wehner writes. "They have other things to do. They have culture wars to fight":
Why Evangelicals Turned Their Back on PEPFAR
A religious movement that has so often taken public stands has been unusually quiet since Trump gutted the program to combat AIDS in Africa.
bit.ly
July 6, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Evangelicals in America "have mostly turned their eyes away from what is happening on the African continent" since Trump slashed PEPFAR, Peter Wehner writes. "They have other things to do. They have culture wars to fight":
Reposted by Peter Wehner
In this sobering conversation, @peter-wehner.bsky.social —former Bush advisor and longtime conservative—explains how Trump’s executive orders have effectively dismantled PEPFAR, the lifesaving global AIDS relief program.
🎧 Watch now: youtu.be/Y_srO5k5-Yo
🎧 Watch now: youtu.be/Y_srO5k5-Yo
How Trump Dismantled the World’s Most Life-Saving Aid Program with Peter Wehner
YouTube video by Faithful Politics Podcast
youtu.be
June 14, 2025 at 2:38 PM
In this sobering conversation, @peter-wehner.bsky.social —former Bush advisor and longtime conservative—explains how Trump’s executive orders have effectively dismantled PEPFAR, the lifesaving global AIDS relief program.
🎧 Watch now: youtu.be/Y_srO5k5-Yo
🎧 Watch now: youtu.be/Y_srO5k5-Yo
Reposted by Peter Wehner
From a week and a half ago: “As of Monday, the model shows, about 96,000 adults and 200,000 children have died because of the administration’s cutbacks to funding for aid groups and support organizations. The overall death count grows by 103 people an hour.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Analysis | Rubio’s claim that it’s ‘a lie’ that people have died from foreign-aid cuts
The secretary of state rejected convincing evidence documented in news reports and by disease modelers.
www.washingtonpost.com
June 8, 2025 at 3:50 PM
From a week and a half ago: “As of Monday, the model shows, about 96,000 adults and 200,000 children have died because of the administration’s cutbacks to funding for aid groups and support organizations. The overall death count grows by 103 people an hour.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
"I found recently in the work of a 17th-century Welsh Catholic writer Augustine Baker a wonderful image: the soul without God, the soul cut off from God, is like a whale stuck in a pond. It longs for the ocean, he said. It can’t be in the depths where it belongs."
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
Opinion | Jesus Has ‘More to Say Than Any Human Language Can Carry’: A Q&A With Rowan Williams
www.nytimes.com
June 8, 2025 at 8:00 PM
"I found recently in the work of a 17th-century Welsh Catholic writer Augustine Baker a wonderful image: the soul without God, the soul cut off from God, is like a whale stuck in a pond. It longs for the ocean, he said. It can’t be in the depths where it belongs."
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
"But very often the God who’s being attacked and questioned by the Dawkinses and the Graylings and the Pullmans of this world is a God I don’t believe in, either." Rowan Williams in his @nytimes.com with me.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
Opinion | Jesus Has ‘More to Say Than Any Human Language Can Carry’: A Q&A With Rowan Williams
www.nytimes.com
June 8, 2025 at 7:59 PM
"But very often the God who’s being attacked and questioned by the Dawkinses and the Graylings and the Pullmans of this world is a God I don’t believe in, either." Rowan Williams in his @nytimes.com with me.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
Rowan Williams is among the most important religious thinkers in the world. I spoke to him about his faith journey; why God allows innocents to suffer; the New Atheists & Dostoyevsky; what makes Jesus a compelling figure & what it means to pastor people through grief.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
Opinion | Jesus Has ‘More to Say Than Any Human Language Can Carry’: A Q&A With Rowan Williams
www.nytimes.com
June 8, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Rowan Williams is among the most important religious thinkers in the world. I spoke to him about his faith journey; why God allows innocents to suffer; the New Atheists & Dostoyevsky; what makes Jesus a compelling figure & what it means to pastor people through grief.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
Jesus Has ‘More to Say Than Any Human Language Can Carry’: A Q&A With Rowan Williams
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
Opinion | Jesus Has ‘More to Say Than Any Human Language Can Carry’: A Q&A With Rowan Williams
www.nytimes.com
June 8, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Jesus Has ‘More to Say Than Any Human Language Can Carry’: A Q&A With Rowan Williams
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...
"We must stand up against the bully in the Oval Office." By John Danforth, a Republican/former Senator who has maintained his principles and integrity. That makes him a rarity these days.
www.kansascity.com/opinion/read...
www.kansascity.com/opinion/read...
John Danforth: We must stand up against the bully in the Oval Office | Opinion
The longtime Missouri GOP senator knows Donald Trump relishes being called a strongman. That’s the wrong word. | Opinion
www.kansascity.com
June 4, 2025 at 1:38 AM
"We must stand up against the bully in the Oval Office." By John Danforth, a Republican/former Senator who has maintained his principles and integrity. That makes him a rarity these days.
www.kansascity.com/opinion/read...
www.kansascity.com/opinion/read...
Reposted by Peter Wehner
They don’t know what they’re doing.
The market-tanking tariffs, the oops-we-screwed-up cuts to nuclear security and infectious disease control, the whoops-did-we-give-the-editor-of-the-Atlantic-our-war-plans episode … and now this.
They’re idiots. They don’t know what they’re doing.
The market-tanking tariffs, the oops-we-screwed-up cuts to nuclear security and infectious disease control, the whoops-did-we-give-the-editor-of-the-Atlantic-our-war-plans episode … and now this.
They’re idiots. They don’t know what they’re doing.
Exclusive: Staff of FEMA were left baffled after the head of the US disaster agency said during a briefing that he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation reut.rs/3HAP8qI
Exclusive: FEMA staff confused after head said he was unaware of US hurricane season, sources say
Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said during a briefing that he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.
reut.rs
June 2, 2025 at 10:07 PM
They don’t know what they’re doing.
The market-tanking tariffs, the oops-we-screwed-up cuts to nuclear security and infectious disease control, the whoops-did-we-give-the-editor-of-the-Atlantic-our-war-plans episode … and now this.
They’re idiots. They don’t know what they’re doing.
The market-tanking tariffs, the oops-we-screwed-up cuts to nuclear security and infectious disease control, the whoops-did-we-give-the-editor-of-the-Atlantic-our-war-plans episode … and now this.
They’re idiots. They don’t know what they’re doing.
Reposted by Peter Wehner
This vibrant Hubble image of the globular cluster Terzan 12 shows how interstellar dust in the Milky Way scatters light, reddening the cluster's stars and highlighting the complex interplay between starlight, age, and cosmic dust
Spectacular 💫😲💫💙💫✨💫
Credit: NASA, ESA, ESA/Hubble, Roger Cohen (RU)
Spectacular 💫😲💫💙💫✨💫
Credit: NASA, ESA, ESA/Hubble, Roger Cohen (RU)
June 2, 2025 at 9:59 PM
This vibrant Hubble image of the globular cluster Terzan 12 shows how interstellar dust in the Milky Way scatters light, reddening the cluster's stars and highlighting the complex interplay between starlight, age, and cosmic dust
Spectacular 💫😲💫💙💫✨💫
Credit: NASA, ESA, ESA/Hubble, Roger Cohen (RU)
Spectacular 💫😲💫💙💫✨💫
Credit: NASA, ESA, ESA/Hubble, Roger Cohen (RU)
I had a delightful, wide-ranging conversation with @monacharen.bsky.social on her superb podcast The Mona Charen Show. Among other things, we talked about the modern history of conservatism/the GOP and ways to understand evangelicalism and what's gone terribly wrong.
In the latest episode of The Mona Charen Show, The Atlantic's @peter-wehner.bsky.social joins @monacharen.bsky.social and offers insights into the transformation of the GOP from the party that passed PEPFAR to the MAGA warriors of today www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-griev...
MAGA Grievance: A Short History
The Atlantic's Peter Wehner offers insights into the transformation of the GOP from the party that passed PEPFAR to the MAGA warriors of today.
www.thebulwark.com
April 22, 2025 at 1:28 AM
I had a delightful, wide-ranging conversation with @monacharen.bsky.social on her superb podcast The Mona Charen Show. Among other things, we talked about the modern history of conservatism/the GOP and ways to understand evangelicalism and what's gone terribly wrong.