@peterbakernyt
Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times and MS NOW analyst. Proud husband of @sbg1.bsky.social and equally proud father of @tab-delete.bsky.social. Co-author of "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021."
Americans skipped the rally-around-the-president stage this time. JFK gained 13 points after Cuban Missile Crisis, LBJ 8 after bombing Hanoi, GHW Bush 18 during Gulf War, GW Bush 8 after Saddam captured, Obama 11 after OBL killed. Trump gained 0 since Iran. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/u...
Trump likes to assert that he has accomplished things no other president has. With the strikes on Iran, he has achieved another distinction: He is the first president in the era of modern polling to take America to war without the support of the public. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/u...
Trump, Sunday: "They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them."
Trump, Friday: "There will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender."
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...
In the 13 months since Trump took office, the economy has created a net total of 198,000 jobs compared with 1.4 million created in the last 13 months of the Biden administration. data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOu...
Employers cut 92,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4% as the labor market continues to weaken after an anemic year of job growth. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...
House votes 219 to 212 to block consideration of a bipartisan resolution that would end offensive military operations in Iran that had not been approved by Congress. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/u...
Trump fires Noem after Republican lawmakers went after her this week at congressional hearings on a variety of topics, including her knowledge of a lucrative advertising contract. Trump to nominate Markwayne Mullin to replace her. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...
China sets target for economic growth for 2026 between 4.5% and 5%, the first time in more than three decades that the benchmark was placed below the 5% mark and an official acknowledgment that the country is on a slower growth path. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/b...
Trump has quietly asked Hill Republicans if he should fire Noem, the latest sign of her tenuous standing inside the West Wing, @bresreports.bsky.social @andrewdesiderio.bsky.social @jakesherman.bsky.social report. punchbowl.news/article/bord...
Under pressure from Trump, the Justice Department sought to figure out a way to prosecute Biden or his aides for using an auto pen but prosecutors could find no way to make a case and dropped it, report Mike Schmidt Devlin Barrett @alanfeuer.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/u...
VA has eliminated thousands of medical positions vacated by a wave of resignations and retirements last year. The total number of VA doctors and nurses fell for the first time in at least 20 years. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/u...
At Global Academy in Spartanburg, SC, only 21% of students were vaccinated against measles. Now Spartanburg is ground zero for the largest measles outbreak since 2000, when the virus was declared eliminated in the US. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/u...
With competitive primaries on both sides, more Texans voted for Democrats than Republicans, 2,252,358 vs 2,141,929 with most ballots counted. The challenge for each will be holding onto voters who backed losing candidates while reaching non-voters in fall. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
"I don’t get bored,"Trump insisted. "Forty-six seconds later," @sbg1.bsky.social writes, "he began waxing about the 'very, very beautiful' new White House ballroom he’s building, which he thinks will be 'the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world.'" www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...
Trump abandons attempts to impose potentially crippling executive orders against law firms that refused to capitulate to him, walking away from its appeal of victories the firms had won against the White House. @jonesieman.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/u...
Iran evidently bet that striking Arab neighbors would prompt them to pressure Trump to stop the war. But that gamble seems to have backfired as Gulf states conclude that Iran cannot be allowed to get away with attacking them, @yarotrof.bsky.social reports from Dubai. www.wsj.com/world/middle...
How Trump shifted from "no new wars" to regime change. www.nytimes.com/video/world/...
The richest Americans saw their net worth soar 120% from 2017-25 and the number of US billionaires jumped 50% to more than 900. Overall, the top 1% now control $55.8 trillion in assets — more than the GDP of the US and China combined. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/u...
No president in the modern era has launched more military strikes against as many different countries as Trump, including more individual strikes in 2025 than Biden ordered in all four years. @zacharybasu www.axios.com/2026/03/02/t...
Kuwaiti air defenses mistakenly shoot down three US fighter jets. All six American crew members safely ejected and were later recovered, military says. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/w...
While Trump has called for regime change in Iran, he makes clear in phone interview with Zolan Kanno-Youngs that he is fine with remnants of the repressive regime remaining in power. "What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario." www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/u...
Oil prices rise 10% as markets open, underscoring the economic risks of the widening conflict in the Middle East. @rfelliott.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/b...
"The Mideast won’t be the same again": But what exactly emerges from the war may not be clear for a while. The seasoned and deeply sourced correspondent @stevenerlanger.bsky.social covered the Iranian Revolution in 1978-79 and now explores what could come next. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/w...
CIA intelligence about a Khamenei meeting with top officials prompted the US and Israel to switch plans to a daylight strike that successfully decapitated Iran's leadership. @julianbarnes.bsky.social @ronenbergman24.bsky.social Eric Schmitt @tylerpager.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/u...
After Trump launched a new war on Iran, he did not rush back to the White House or make an Oval Office address to rally the nation as other presidents have done. He stayed at Mar-a-Lago to attend a glitzy political fundraiser. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...
Some 27% of Americans approve of Trump's attack on Iran, while 43% disapprove and 29% are not sure, per new poll by @reuters.com and @ipsosus.bsky.social. More than half think Trump uses too much military force, including a quarter of Republicans. www.reuters.com/world/us/jus...
Trump’s increasing willingness to deploy military force underscores the broader change between his first term and second term. He is far more comfortable using the instruments of power than he was the last time around -- at home as well as abroad. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...
Only 21% of Americans supported the United States initiating an attack on Iran in polling conducted in advance of the strikes that Trump ordered this weekend. Even most Republicans were opposed or not sure, with just 40% in favor. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...
With his eye on Tehran, Reza Pahlavi, the late shah's son, praises the strikes: "When the Iranian people succeed in reclaiming their freedom in the days ahead, President Trump will be remembered as a leader who stood with them when it mattered most." www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
The self-declared “president of PEACE” has chosen to become the president of war after all, unleashing the full power of the U.S. military on Iran with the explicit goal of toppling its government. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...