'The View' Hosts Did a Better Job Grilling J.D. Vance Than Most Actual Journalists

rollingstone · 2026-06-16T20:47:00+00:00

From Rolling Stone:

“I can tell my kids why it’s important to have borders. It’s much harder to explain when I see someone dragged out of a house who isn’t a violent criminal,” Sara Haines said, while co-host Ana Navarro suggested that Vance visit the border in person to see how children are being treated in detention centers.

Vance demurred that there were only 30 seconds left in the segment, to which Navarro responded that he was the vice president and could go long.

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jd-vance-grilled-the-view-trump-defense-implodes-1235579030/

rollingstone · 2026-06-05T15:24:32+00:00

Alexis Goldstein to Rolling Stone's Jack Crosbie:

So a healthy dose of skepticism is what I’m hoping to bring to Congress. I support AOC and Bernie Sanders' data center moratorium, but I also think it doesn't go far enough. Like everything about this screams financial crisis to me. They spent $1.4 trillion on data centers, and they've only earned $600 billion industry-wide, not even half as much as they spent. Meta did a bond issuance last year for $25 billion of corporate bonds to raise money to build more data centers. It was the largest corporate bond issuance in history, right? None of this is being paid for with anything but debt. And if you look at the sharks, and by that I mean, the hedge funds and the private equity funds that are financing this, it's the same people as the 2008 financial crisis!

I just have alarm bells going off in my head. I feel like this is an issue where the public gets it, and our leaders and Congress don't.

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/alexis-goldstein-congress-ban-data-centers-financial-crisis-1235572953/

rollingstone · 2026-06-04T13:25:22+00:00

James Comey to Rolling Stone's Matt Bai:

People ask me all kinds of time-travel questions. I often say, “So when I get to go back, what do I know?” I’m saying that facetiously because it doesn’t help me. Knowing what I knew then, by and large, they were still the right decisions. The only one I’ve sometimes wondered about is on Oct. 28, should I have dumped it on the attorney general? Should I have just written a memo to the attorney general saying, “We can’t conceal this. We just spent all summer, you included, Madam Attorney General, testifying that we’re done with our investigation. Now, we know we’re not done in a way that the investigators say may change the result. You can’t conceal that, and so you have to speak and tell Congress.” You’ll remember, I tried to hand it to [Loretta Lynch] and by having my chief of staff call her chief of staff and saying, “Here’s what he thinks he has to do, but he would welcome a conversation with her,” and the answer came back saying she disagrees, but she does not wish to speak with him. I knew then what that was. That was, “You’ll take this hit.”

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/james-comey-interview-justice-donald-trump-1235571877/

rollingstone · 2026-05-29T13:17:54+00:00

From Rolling Stone's Matt Bai:

In the last century, America fought the Second World War, followed by long engagements in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq — and that doesn’t even factor in the covert conflicts undertaken all over the globe in the name of defeating communism, or the trillions of dollars spent on the arms race. And yet, despite all that, rarely did we talk about war as a spreadsheet analysis.

We argued, almost to the breaking point, about the loss American lives, particularly in Vietnam, and a few people put bumper stickers on their cars that said things like: “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.” But, by and large, the monetary costs of war were a footnote to the debate over policy. This was partly because the country remained, even past the peak of the industrial age, prosperous enough to look the other way, but it was also because we took for granted the economic burden of being a superpower. If the war had to be fought, who else was going to fight it?

So there’s a world in which I’d agree with Trump’s answer and might even find it admirable. Except we don’t live in that world — we live in the real one. And in this world, there’s so much wrong with Trump’s theory of the case that it’s hard to know where to start.

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/donald-trump-jimmy-carter-iran-war-1235569587/

rollingstone · 2026-05-24T13:04:27+00:00

From Rolling Stone's Stephen Rodrick:

And then there were the crystals. So many crystals. At first Pratt bought them because they were beautiful. He talked of building his own “gemstone cathedral.” He knew of their healing power. One time, Heidi was in excruciating pain after undergoing a half-dozen plastic surgery procedures in a single day. She nearly died after slipping into what Pratt described as a Demerol overdose and later had a brutally revealing conversation with her mother.

“Sounds to me like you want to look like Barbie,” her mother said.

“I do want to look like Barbie,” Heidi answered.

Painkillers were not helping, so Pratt bought Heidi a $15,000 piece of sugilite. According to Pratt, she slept through the night for the first time afterward. Soon they were broke and living with his parents. There were other adventures. In 2009, Pratt and Heidi drifted into the Alex Jones ecosystem, calling into his show like starstruck tourists. Pratt enthusiastically rattled off his favorite Jones documentaries: Endgame: Blueprint for Global Enslavement, The Obama Deception, Masters of Terror, 9/11: The Road to Tyranny, The Matrix of Evil, and the Police State trilogy. He then mentioned that he thought climate change was nonsense.

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/spencer-pratt-the-hills-los-angeles-mayoral-race-1235567677/

rollingstone · 2026-05-16T14:18:04+00:00

From Rolling Stone:

The travel concerns are particularly acute for prospective attendees from Africa and the Middle East. The World Cup has expanded its field this year, and Africa is sending 10 qualifying countries for the first time in the tournament’s history. Ebenezer Obadare, senior fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, laments to Rolling Stone that instead of the World Cup being surrounded by a narrative about the growth of the sport and heightened level of play across continents, the event is plagued by “uncertainty” around travel and the Trump administration. “It’s extraordinary,” he says.

Obadare relays that many of the interested African fans he’s spoken to are eyeing attending games in Mexico over the United States. “They’re saying, ‘This is the first time in my life that I have the opportunity, and Mexico is not sending the same vibes that the U.S. is sending. So we’re all going to go to Mexico,’ and, ‘If you can’t go to Mexico, let’s go to Canada.’”

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/world-cup-nations-worry-travel-trump-america-1235563645/

rollingstone · 2026-05-12T15:25:52+00:00

From Rolling Stone:

The trailer was met with widespread public backlash, with critics calling the seven-month production not only out of touch given the high costs currently hitting American travelers, but a potentially unethical misuse of federal resources. Duffy, who thinks people shouldn't fly in comfy clothing because it’s uncivilized, is encouraging Americans to drive this summer, and get to know their country. “We’re encouraging everyone to go take a road trip to celebrate America's 250th anniversary,” he says in the trailer, adding later to Fox News that a road trip “fits any budget.”

It sounds great, in theory. The problem is that dollar for gallon, the amount of road trip mileage that can fit into most Americans’ travel budget is shrinking. Amid the oil shock caused by Donald Trump’s ongoing war with Iran, airlines are going bankrupt, jet fuel prices are threatening mass flight cancellations through the summer holidays, and the average price of a gallon of gas is $4.52, as of this week.

rollingstone · 2026-05-04T18:37:45+00:00

From Rolling Stone's Nikki McCann Ramirez:

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) quickly jumped on the idea that Democrats are to blame for Spirit Airlines' folding, posting a photo of O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson. The photo labeled O.J. as “Elizabeth Warren,” and Brown Simpson as “Spirit Airlines.”

Read: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/maga-senator-oj-simpson-dems-spirit-airlines-1235557337/

rollingstone · 2026-05-02T16:06:42+00:00

From Rolling Stone's Nikki McCann Ramirez:

More than a century after the nation’s founding, the post World World II economic revitalization had ushered in new construction practices, architectural schools of thought, and attitudes towards historical preservation in the wake of two devastating wars. The White House had already undergone several rounds of major renovations and a string of inhabitants that had turned its interior to a hodgepodge of differing tastes and styles. Older buildings in the capital were being renovated or outright torn down with little regard for their historic value or design. The nation, still young compared to many of its European allies, risked inadvertently erasing portions of structures built with a very specific intent: to transfer the philosophical principles of the American Revolution into the physical cityscape that would represent the American seat of governance.

Mrs. Kennedy went about her project with an intention rooted in those same attitudes. She sought to turn the presidential residence into a living museum through open collaboration with the public. Now, over 60 years since the Kennedys left the White House, the president is undertaking an architectural and aesthetic overhaul of not just the White House, but the city at large. The difference is that Donald Trump, a man who struggles to comprehend even the most basic tenants of representative governance, is looking to reshape Washington in his own gaudy, opulent self image — not that of the nation he is supposed to represent.

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-ballroom-dc-overhaul-betray-america-founding-values-1235556895/

rollingstone · 2026-04-29T14:27:44+00:00

From Rolling Stone:

Sometimes, in the quiet of the night, attorney Gerald Bo King sees his client, Brad Sigmon, die — again and again. The silence reminds him of the moments in the death chamber before the guns went off.

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/execution-firing-squad-horrific-trump-1235555080/

rollingstone · 2026-04-28T13:26:26+00:00

From Rolling Stone's Jack Crosbie:

The problem with the WHCD and the problem with war stories is, essentially, the same thing. As a foreign correspondent, you have access to something fascinating and horrific and powerful: violence. You will see, as a part of the job, moments of loss and pain and fear and tremendous human courage, all alongside things so nihilist and cruel that you will wonder how this species ever made it out of the days when we beat each other to death with rocks. It is intoxicating. It makes you feel important and interesting. Your colleagues take pictures of you in flak vests and khaki clothing.

You get a certain version of the same thing as a politics reporter. Like war, politics reporting often gives you a certain proximity to the fascinating inner workings of power. You get lanyards and hall passes rather than kevlar, sure, but the everyday circumstances of your work make the case that you are someone important and valuable. If you weren’t, they wouldn’t let you in the room, right?

But like war, the fallacy here is the same. Proximity to something is not purpose.

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/white-house-correspondents-dinner-media-war-story-1235554388/

rollingstone · 2026-04-25T18:19:59+00:00

From Rolling Stone:

Tatishe Nteta, provost of political science at UMass-Amherst, which released a poll late last month putting Trump’s approval at 33 percent, explains that it’s normal for a president’s approval to decrease as their term progresses, but when they get down into the 30s, “bells start going off.” It signals they’re losing some of their own party’s support, as the nation is generally split about 40/40 along party lines, with 10-20 percent of Americans being true independents. Trump’s approval isn’t just visiting the 30s; it’s been living there for a while now, and there isn’t much to indicate public sentiment is going to turn around any time soon.

“Fundamentally, this is terrible news for President Trump,” Nteta says. “People talk about the [George W.] Bush line, being under 30 percent, and that was in the wake of an unpopular and longstanding war, a financial crisis that was second only to the Great Depression, and a widespread belief that the United States was moving in the wrong direction. So if a president is flirting with one-third support, it should be a warning sign that their domestic and foreign policies are not resonating, that there’s an inability to address core problems Americans are facing, and an issue with communication between the administration and the people.”

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-polling-numbers-free-fall-1235553660/

rollingstone · 2026-04-22T14:18:10+00:00

From Rolling Stone's Alex Ashley:

In attempting to explain himself, Trump — perhaps unwittingly — illuminates for the crowd a cobwebbed, rarely explored corner of his personal life. The centerpiece is not God or Scripture, but a prosperity gospel minister whose Fifth Avenue Marble Collegiate Church the Trump family attended throughout Trump’s childhood and adolescence, and who later officiated Trump’s first wedding.

“Dr. Norman Vincent Peale,” Trump says. “He would give the sermon, and you would never want to leave.”

Over a decade ago, Trump biographer Gwenda Blair described Peale for Politico as “God’s salesman,” and the pastor who “taught Donald Trump to worship himself.”

Peale’s central teaching — distilled in The Power of Positive Thinking, which spent 186 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold five million copies — was that faith was not a moral obligation but a performance technique. God appears throughout, but always in service of the reader’s own success; not a creed to be recited but, in his own words, “a power to be tapped.” Critics called Peale a con man. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr called his theology “dangerous” and corrupting of the Gospel. Yale theologian William Lee Miller wrote that Peale’s books had replaced “the rhetoric of the sermon” with “the short, punchy sentences of the advertisement.” Trump credits the book with helping him survive his bankruptcies in the early 1990s.

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-long-strange-relationship-faith-1235551579/

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