Frank Bruni

The Power of Lies in an Age of Political Fiction

Imelda Marcos’s sandals lived better than I did. I just discovered that. I was reacquainting myself with that whole sordid history — with the unfathomable extravagance that she and her dictator husband, Ferdinand, indulged in before they were run out of the Philippines in 1986 — and found an…

Biden’s Biggest Nightmare Is One He Didn’t See Coming

As Joe Biden campaigned for the White House in 2020, he knew that the next president of the United States would govern under circumstances significantly more daunting than those that most faced. As he took the oath of office in 2021, he could see very clearly — in the tally of Covid-related…

America’s Enduring Arrogance

Talking last month about the planned American exit from Afghanistan, President Biden prophesied an orderly retreat and scoffed at the idea that a Taliban takeover was inevitable. The United States, after all, had equipped and trained hundreds of thousands of Afghan troops. The Taliban takeover…