In the June/July edition of First Things, John’s letter to the editor was (somewhat surprisingly to him) printed as follows:

Pity the poor publisher who endeavors to systematize the mind of Donald Trump. The lag of print led to a magazine hitting mailboxes with a lead feature touting the ­Donroe doctrine—with its supposed de-emphasis on warring in the Middle East—alongside Operation Epic Fury in Iran. Perhaps the dizzying ride on his foreign policy merry-go-round will prompt a broader reassessment of Trump from those on the First Things masthead. 

Maybe that reconsideration was already in some sense underway before the April edition went to press. Dominic Green’s review of Mafia: A Global History (“Back Room to Boardroom”) takes a giant, if unexpected, step toward actually telling the truth about Trump. As Green suggests, the president is called “the Don” by those closest to him for good reason. The Trump family’s current corrupt-in-plain-sight connections to places like the United Arab Emirates may well have more explanatory power than any foreign affairs doctrine ever could.

Perhaps, the next edition of FT will include some effort to explain the President’s recent attempt to achieve a deal with Iran (any deal it seems) before his birthday party UFC fight began. For Rusty Reno, Trump is a “remarkable man” who makes all others seem small. I suspect his magazine will find some way to frame the (as this is posted) most definitely signed but still very much undisclosed terms of the agreement as a win rather than a tap out.

Another letter was not as fortunate as the one described above. What follows below was submitted last September to Touchstone in response to R.V. Young’s “what about” attempt to take down Peggy Noonan. (She took issue with Trump politicizing the Army on its 250th birthday and he countered with Bill Clinton.) The letter also noted an interaction of godly people with the Iran of long ago.

Shortly after pressing send, John actually attended the 2025 Touchstone Conference in Illinois and had a nice chat with one who he thought at the time was the author of the piece, even briefly touching on his pro-Peggy letter. In retrospect, it appears John confused “C.R.” (as in C.R. Wiley with whom he spoke) and “R.V.” (There are just too many initialed authors at Touchstone.) The submitted but unpublished letter follows:

R.V. Young (Quodlibet, “We Don’t Do That”) excoriates Peggy Noonan for still having standards.  Young mocks her for calling out President Trump’s military parade on his birthday and his self-aggrandizing rhetoric before the troops at, appropriately enough, Fort Bragg.  Young then ticks through a list of prior line-crossings, from Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” to Bill Clinton’s Oval Office fellatio. 

With his repeated jokes about Noonan as a cloistered nun, is Young implying that she is ignorant of such things?  She is not, of course.  Noonan was, in fact, so critical of President Clinton that a quarter-century ago the Washington Post crossed lines of professional politeness to publish a column entitled “The Unhinging of Peggy Noonan.”  And a quick search finds that Noonan lauded those who protested Serrano’s provocation, including the vigorous but civilized means they used. 

Instead, Young seems to be arguing that because pioneers of vulgarity like Clinton have already blazed the trail for Trump, Christians should now no longer be in the business of holding any lines at all. This is a sad commentary on the current character of Touchstone as an institution.  I’ve followed the magazine long enough to remember the “The Godless Party” issue which lamented the leftist political discourse in 2003.  Today’s godlessness from the new right apparently merits but a shrug. 

Maybe, though, there was a veiled signal on the last page (“A Persian Parody”)?  I know who came to my mind with Patrick Henry Reardon’s description of a buffoonish leader (most definitely not King Cyrus) who enjoys gathering fawning crowds around him and who, Philistine style, might be apt to “fashion golden figures of hemorrhoids.”  Perhaps I am projecting, but as an infrequent contributor who has tried unsuccessfully to offer more direct critiques, I will take what odd glimmers of hope I can find.

On the heels of the first cage fight on the White House lawn, the glimmers of hope today seem harder to find. John doubts that either First Things or Touchstone will do much but whistle past that particular topic. FT is not above linking sports and politics if the politician being dinged is Democratic Socialist, but even a glancing blow directed at any anti-democratic autocrat is likely another matter. Time will tell. (On a totally unrelated note, Mike Judge’s vision of the year 2505 seems to have given us too much credit.)