More stories

  • in

    ‘Trump’s America’: His Comeback Victory Signals a Different Kind of Country

    In her closing rally on the Ellipse last week, Kamala Harris scorned Donald J. Trump as an outlier who did not represent America. “That is not who we are,” she declared.In fact, it turns out, that may be exactly who we are. At least most of us.The assumption that Mr. Trump represented an anomaly who would at last be consigned to the ash heap of history was washed away on Tuesday night by a red current that swept through battleground states — and swept away the understanding of America long nurtured by its ruling elite of both parties.No longer can the political establishment write off Mr. Trump as a temporary break from the long march of progress, a fluke who somehow sneaked into the White House in a quirky, one-off Electoral College win eight years ago. With his comeback victory to reclaim the presidency, Mr. Trump has now established himself as a transformational force reshaping the United States in his own image.Populist disenchantment with the nation’s direction and resentment against elites proved to be deeper and more profound than many in both parties had recognized. Mr. Trump’s testosterone-driven campaign capitalized on resistance to electing the first woman president.And while tens of millions of voters still cast ballots against Mr. Trump, he once again tapped into a sense among many others that the country they knew was slipping away, under siege economically, culturally and demographically.To counter that, those voters ratified the return of a brash 78-year-old champion willing to upend convention and take radical action even if it offends sensibilities or violates old standards. Any misgivings about their chosen leader were shoved to the side.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Photographing Every President Since Reagan

    Doug Mills reflects on nearly 40 years of taking photos of presidents.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Through his camera lens, Doug Mills has seen it all: George H.W. Bush playing horseshoes. An emotional Barack Obama. A shirtless Bill Clinton. And he’s shared what he’s seen with the world.Mr. Mills, a veteran photographer, has captured pictures of every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan. His portfolio includes images of intimate conversations, powerful podium moments and scenes now seared into the American consciousness — like the face of President George W. Bush, realizing that America was under attack while he was reading to schoolchildren.Mr. Mills began his photography career at United Press International before joining The Associated Press. Then, in 2002, he was hired at The New York Times, where his latest assignment has been trailing former President Donald J. Trump. In July, Mr. Mills captured the moment a bullet flew past Mr. Trump’s head at a rally in Butler, Pa., and then a photo of Mr. Trump, ear bloodied, raising his fist.Over the past four decades, cameras and other tools have changed the job considerably, he said. While he once used 35mm SLR film cameras (what photographers used for decades), he now travels with multiple Sony mirrorless digital cameras, which are silent and can shoot at least 20 frames per second. He used to lug around portable dark rooms; now he can transmit images to anywhere in the world directly from his camera, via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable, in a matter of seconds.But it’s not just the technology that has changed. Campaigns are more image-driven than ever before, he said, thanks to social media, TV ads and coverage that spans multiple platforms. Not to mention, it’s a nonstop, 24-hour news cycle. He likens covering an election year to a monthslong Super Bowl.“It consumes your life, but I love it,” Mr. Mills said. “I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.”Mr. Mills, who on election night will be with Mr. Trump at a watch party in Palm Beach, Fla., shared how one image of each president he’s photographed throughout his career came together. — Megan DiTrolioWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    So … How Does the Electoral College Work, Again?

    It’s weird. It’s confusing. It’s how we elect the president.This article is part of A Kid’s Guide to the Election, a collection of stories about the 2024 presidential election for readers ages 8 to 14, written and produced by The New York Times for Kids. This section is published in The Times’s print edition on the last Sunday of every month.Every four years, there’s one thing everybody is talking about: the Electoral College. It’s not a school, despite what it sounds like. It’s the unique way that the United States elects its presidents. And if we’re honest, it’s pretty confusing. Here’s a breakdown of how that process works.When your school elects a class president, the math is simple: The kid who gets the most votes wins. The presidential election is more complicated. When people cast their ballots, their votes won’t go straight to Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. Instead, they go through the Electoral College, a system in which people who represent different states elect the president.So what is the Electoral College, specifically? It’s a group of hundreds of people called electors who speak for voters in their state. They are usually people involved with politics, like activists or volunteers. You can sort of think of them like team captains who speak for their fellow Pennsylvanians, Coloradans, Wisconsinites and so on. Each state has a different number of electors, and each elector gets one electoral vote.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Trump’s Use of Profanity Was Already Growing Before the MSG Rally

    In former President Donald J. Trump’s third campaign for the White House, his speeches have grown coarser and coarser.Four-letter words were flying everywhere. One speaker flipped his middle finger at the opposition. Another made what was interpreted as an oral sex joke regarding Vice President Kamala Harris. Another suggested she was a prostitute. Still another discussed the supposed sexual habits of Latinos rather explicitly.All in all, former President Donald J. Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday was a cornucopia of crudeness, punctuated by the kind of language that once would have been unthinkable for a gathering held to promote the candidacy of a would-be president of the United States. But among the many lines that Mr. Trump has obliterated in his time in politics is the invisible boundary between propriety and profanity.Mr. Trump has always been more prone than any of his predecessors in the White House to publicly use what were once called dirty words. But in his third campaign for the presidency, his speeches have grown coarser and coarser. Altogether, according to a computer search, Mr. Trump has used words that would have once gotten a kid’s mouth washed out with soap at least 140 times in public this year. Counting tamer four-letter words like “damn” and “hell,” he has cursed in public at least 1,787 times in 2024.What minimal self-restraint Mr. Trump once showed in his public discourse has evaporated. A recent New York Times analysis of his public comments this year showed that he uses such language 69 percent more often than he did when he first ran for president in 2016. He sometimes acknowledges that he knows he should not but quickly adds that he cannot help himself.The crowd responding during the rally on Sunday night. Kenny Holston/The New York TimesHe often relates that Franklin Graham, the evangelical leader and son of the Rev. Billy Graham, has chided the former president about his language. “I wrote him back,” Mr. Trump said at a rally this month where he discussed the golfer Arnold Palmer’s penis size and invited the crowd to shout out a four-letter word to describe Ms. Harris. “I said, I’m going to try to do that, but actually, the stories won’t be as good. Because you can’t put the same emphasis on it. So tonight, I broke my rule.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment

    When the history of the 2024 election is written, one of the iconic images illustrating it will surely be the mug shot taken of Donald J. Trump after one of his four indictments, staring into the camera with his signature glare. It is an image not of shame but of defiance, the image of a man who would be a convicted felon before Election Day and yet possibly president of the United States again afterward.Sometimes lost amid all the shouting of a high-octane campaign heading into its final couple of weeks is that simple if mind-bending fact. America for the first time in its history may send a criminal to the Oval Office and entrust him with the nuclear codes. What would once have been automatically disqualifying barely seems to slow Mr. Trump down in his comeback march for a second term that he says will be devoted to “retribution.”In all the different ways that Mr. Trump has upended the traditional rules of American politics, that may be one of the most striking. He has survived more scandals than any major party presidential candidate, much less president, in the life of the republic. Not only survived but thrived. He has turned them on their head, making allegations against him into an argument for him by casting himself as a serial victim rather than a serial violator.His persecution defense, the notion that he gets in so much trouble only because everyone is out to get him, resonates at his rallies where he says “they’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you, and I’m just standing in the way.” But that of course belies a record of scandal stretching across his 78 years starting long before politics. Whether in his personal life or his public life, he has been accused of so many acts of wrongdoing, investigated by so many prosecutors and agencies, sued by so many plaintiffs and claimants that it requires a scorecard just to remember them all.Mr. Trump at a rally in Arizona earlier this month.Anna Watts for The New York TimesHis businesses went bankrupt repeatedly and multiple others failed. He was taken to court for stiffing his vendors, stiffing his bankers and even stiffing his own family. He avoided the draft during the Vietnam War and avoided paying any income taxes for years. He was forced to shell out tens of millions of dollars to students who accused him of scamming them, found liable for wide-scale business fraud and had his real estate firm convicted in criminal court of tax crimes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Trump prometió hacer público su historial médico pero sigue sin hacerlo

    Si vuelve a ser elegido, se convertirá en el presidente de mayor edad al final de su mandato. Sin embargo, se niega a revelar incluso la información médica básica.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Como candidato presidencial en 2015, Donald Trump se negó a publicar su historial médico, ofreciendo en su lugar una carta de cuatro párrafos de su médico personal en la que proclamaba que sería “la persona más sana jamás elegida para la presidencia”.En 2020, cuando estuvo hospitalizado por COVID-19 y se presentaba a la reelección, los médicos de Trump dieron una información mínima sobre su estado, que, según se supo más tarde, fue mucho más grave de lo que dejó entrever las descripciones públicas.En 2024, días antes de convertirse en el candidato presidencial republicano oficial por tercera vez, fue rozado por una bala de un posible asesino, pero su campaña no celebró una sesión informativa sobre su estado, no publicó los registros hospitalarios ni puso a disposición a los médicos de urgencias que lo trataron para ser entrevistados.Ahora, a poco más de un mes de unas elecciones que podrían convertir a Trump, de 78 años, en la persona de mayor edad en ocupar la presidencia (82 años, 7 meses y 6 días cuando su mandato termine en enero de 2029), se niega a revelar incluso la información más básica sobre su salud.Si gana, Trump podría entrar en el Despacho Oval con una serie de problemas potencialmente preocupantes, según los expertos médicos: factores de riesgo cardíaco, posibles secuelas del intento de asesinato de julio y el deterioro cognitivo que se produce de forma natural con la edad, entre otros.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Jimmy Carter cumple 100 años

    Diecinueve meses después de ingresar en cuidados paliativos, el presidente número 39 llega al siglo de vida el martes. ¿Su deseo de cumpleaños? Votar una vez más por el Partido Demócrata.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Cuando Jimmy Carter ingresó en cuidados paliativos en su casa de Georgia el año pasado, su familia y amigos pensaron que solo le quedaban unos días de vida. Más de 19 meses después, el martes cumple 100 años y es el primer presidente de la historia de Estados Unidos que alcanza el centenario.El último capítulo de la ya extraordinaria historia de Carter está resultando ser uno de asombrosa resistencia. Este agricultor de maníes convertido en estadista mundial ha superado a lo largo de los años un cáncer cerebral, se ha recuperado de una fractura de cadera y ha sobrevivido a sus adversarios políticos. Y ahora está estableciendo un récord de durabilidad presidencial que puede ser difícil de batir.Aunque frágil y generalmente confinado en su modesta casa de Plains, Georgia, Carter no solo se ha negado a rendirse a la inevitabilidad del tiempo, sino que se ha animado en los últimos meses, según sus familiares. Ha vuelto a fijar su atención un poco más, diciendo a sus hijos y nietos que tiene un nuevo hito que quiere alcanzar: no su cumpleaños, que profesa no importarle mucho, sino el día de las elecciones, para poder votar por la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris.“Es un regalo”, dijo Josh Carter, uno de sus nietos, hablando de los últimos meses. “Es un regalo que no sabía que íbamos a recibir”.Carter ya había superado a todos sus predecesores para convertirse en el presidente más longevo, pero algunos de quienes han experimentado su terca irascibilidad a lo largo de las décadas dijeron que no les sorprendía que se acercara a su segundo siglo.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Debate Trump-Harris: qué podemos esperar

    Los candidatos se preparan para el debate del martes por la noche, el único que tienen programado. Analizamos los aspectos más importantes que podrían discutir.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]El debate del martes por la noche será el más importante de la carrera política de la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris, ofreciéndole su mayor audiencia hasta el momento, mientras el país intenta saber más detalles sobre qué tipo de presidenta podría ser.El expresidente Donald Trump llega al debate con la esperanza de superar un verano difícil. Harris ha acortado distancias en las encuestas desde que sustituyó al presidente Joe Biden como candidata del Partido Demócrata, y el martes puede ser una de las mejores oportunidades de Trump para revertir ese impulso antes de que los estadounidenses comiencen la votación anticipada.Los colaboradores y partidarios de Harris quieren que provoque al expresidente para que despotrique de manera incoherente. El equipo de Trump quiere que vuelva a centrar la conversación en tres áreas que consideran terreno ganado: la economía, la inmigración y el caos global.Sin más debates programados entre Harris y Trump, el enfrentamiento se perfila como uno de los 90 minutos más cruciales que la política estadounidense ha visto en generaciones.Estos son los factores a los que hay que prestar atención:¿Trump podrá contenerse?Los asesores del expresidente tienen tatuado en la memoria el primer debate de 2020, en el que un Trump sudoroso y confundido por la covid despotricó y desvarió, interrumpiendo a Joe Biden y perdiendo el interés de tantos votantes que sus encuestas descendieron notablemente tras el debate.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More