The state of women in the time of Trump is ... fraught. I can't take credit for that insanely perfect word to describe this precarious time -- that goes to feminist writer and critic Roxane Gay.
It's right to celebrate the peaceful transition of power in our democracy, whatever one's views, writes Hampton University president, William Harvey, and the parade offers a golden opportunity to spotlight historically black colleges.
The President-elect has said he'll reverse Obama's executive actions that improve wages,benefits and workplace protections. It's time Trump shows how exactly he'll help workers, says Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
If the President-elect fails to follow the lead of advisors like Mattis, the US and Europe risk fracturing a mighty economic, political and military bloc in favor of Russia's interests.
Steve Israel says as the Republicans celebrate control of Congress and the White House, they should remember how that kind of undivided power quickly slipped out of the Democrats' hands after the heady days eight years ago
We need more funding for Zika research to prevent other women from being in my position, says Lindsay C. Malloy, who had a false positive test early in her pregnancy.
From stifling of press to rewriting history to discrediting justices who object to extra-legal practices, Trump's record bodes ill for the country and demands a vigorous push-back from citizens, writes historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat.
Donald Trump has called the Christopher Steele dossier "fake news" and "phony stuff," but is it? Nick Dowling says the material may or may not be true, but we can't dismiss it lightly
Donald Trump's critique of civil rights icon John Lewis, says Peniel Joseph, reminds us that Martin Luther King Jr. believed that justice was what love looked like in public.
Why is a painting by a high school student the object of a tug-of-war between rival factions of the 115th Congress? The painting ended up in this fracas after it won Democratic Representative William Clay's congressional art competition last May.
The highly public clashes could drive away key intelligence workers, discourage recruits and scare off foreign assets, for whom helping the U.S. poses grave risks.
Once upon a time, America's new presidents enjoyed a honeymoon upon taking office -- think Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan and Obama. But after a wide ranging and often combative press conference Wednesday, it is obvious that the opening weeks of the Donald Trump presidency will be the stormiest of modern times.
President-elect Trump's first press conference was strange, abusive, occasionally misleading, says Tim Stanley. But many Americans, distrustful of journalists, will think that's just fine.
Is the transition of power from Barack Obama to Donald Trump the very strangest in the history of the American presidency? Surely it's a contender: On January 20, an irascibly bombastic real estate mogul and reality star who once accused the President of being a fraud will step up to the plate as commander in chief himself, taking the mantle from the man -- community organizer and law professor, preternaturally calm in public -- he once claimed might never have really been President at all.
Jeff Yang says in satirizing Asian-American stereotype about putting studying for an exam over attending a speech, he inadvertenlty played to another one. But Obama's own farewell message had a better idea.
If Republicans still need reasons to unite behind President-elect Donald Trump, the next few days should provide plenty. This week, Democrats are busy slandering Sen. Jeff Sessions -- their friend and colleague of 20 years -- as a racist and a bigot, essentially re-enacting Hillary Clinton's "irredeemable deplorables" attack, albeit on a smaller, more personal scale.
Buck Sexton writes that the president was fortunate that he was able to give his version of events, on the record, one last time, before Republicans take power.
On Tuesday night, in front of a roaring crowd of enthusiastic supporters in his adopted hometown of Chicago, President Barack Obama delivered a stirring political farewell that simultaneously burnished his legacy, envisioned a more hopeful political future and engaged in the kind of soaring political rhetoric that helped make him a political supernova 12 years ago.
President Obama's farewell address Tuesday night, in combination with Senate hearings for Alabama senator and attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions on Tuesday afternoon, presents a stark example of America's schizophrenic racial landscape.
His practice of asking Americans to deny what they see with their own eyes is a chilling harbinger of wha journalists and other Americans will have to confront in his presidency, says Frida Ghitis.
Both Trump's transition team and the GOP should remember history: confirmations that move too fast can end careers, as they did with Bernie Kerik, says Errol Louis.
Democrats complain Republicans are cramming in confirmation hearings to fend off effective critique of Trump's nominees. Why? Mitch McConnell is betting Americans won't care.
Eleven commentators evaluate Barack Obama's presidency--on health care reform, climate change, immigration, his effect on the judiciary, on women and families and more.
John Avlon: The primary point of Washington's Farewell was not to recite his administration's accomplishments. Instead, he decided to issue a "warning from a parting friend" about the forces he feared could destroy the American experiment: hyper-partisanship, excessive debt, and foreign wars.
Eight years ago, Barack Obama took office on a promise of hope and change. CNN Opinion's commentators and other experts got busy sizing him up in op-eds over his two terms. Here's a selection.
The debate between Meryl Streep's supporters and Donald Trump's defenders followed an all-too-familiar script after the Golden Globes, writes David Perry.
However heartfelt Meryl Streep's criticism of Trump over his mocking disability, they nonetheless are reminder of Hollywood's hypocrisy--much talk and little action, writes Tim Stanley.
The end of President Barack Obama's tenure in office is a surprising time, with assessments of his achievements unexpectedly colored by how they compare to the unpredictability and tabloid glamour of President-elect Donald Trump.
Opponents of President-elect Donald Trump with significant stock market investments have a problem. We've made a lot of money since Election Day (the Dow is up almost 9%), yet it feels morally wrong to have profited from the victory of a man we consider unfit for office and whose policies we viscerally oppose. It's like possessing stolen property or being the unwilling beneficiary of a nefarious scheme.
Donald Trump's career shows he's capable to adjusting his persona to new roles but he's never faced anything like the challenge he's facing now, says Michael D'Antonio
When President Obama delivers his farewell address from his home city of Chicago on Tuesday, he will have a special opportunity to speak out on the key challenge facing America.
If there's any glimmer of truth to the rumors that Hillary Clinton is considering a run for mayor of New York City, it would be evidence that she might have tripped and bumped her head during one of those long walks she's been taking in the woods of Westchester County.
It's not impossible that the United States, much of the world, or even the Kremlin have been looking at the Trump-Putin lovefest through the wrong end of the telescope. Why not examine just how Donald Trump might play Vladimir Putin?
Intel report detailed Russia's efforts to subvert US presidential election, but Donald Trump does not seem to understand the grave danger this poses to the country he's about to lead.
Mark Bauerlein says his campus colleagues view Trump with dread -- the incoming president can do a lot to de-emphasize the role of identity politics in higher education
The Syrian civil war is by no means over, but this year will bring a decisive turn in the conflict that may reduce the overall level of violence and fundamentally -- and perhaps for some time to come -- change the balance of power on the ground.
While frustration over Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court is understandable, Democrats should be wary of blocking a Trump pick indefinitely, says Paul Callan.
It's one thing for the government to know who committed a cyberattack. It's quite another for it to convince the public who attacked, writes Bruce Schneier.
The Iraq WMD misjudgment was a huge scandal for the CIA and it has completely changed how it forms its views; the evidence in the Russian hacking is solid, writes Peter Bergen
If acceptance is the last stage of grief, Democrats have a way to go before they'll get over this election. From the moment the blue wall crumbled and formerly safe states flipped to Donald Trump, the left has had a tenuous grasp on political reality. Rather than accepting that Trump will be the President on January 20, many have instead jumped from one desperate strategy to another in an effort to overturn the will of the American voters.
House Republicans and the Trump administration cannot afford to walk away from the Obamacare issue without being able to claim victory, writes Tom Miller.
Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve says Chicago's crime numbers are a crisis without a simple solution; any fix will come from research and resources, not Trump's quips.
Issac Bailey writes that while Trump voters are under no obligation to embrace friends and family who voted for a candidate they deem bigoted, they should also avoid hatred and hostility for the next four years.
It's tempting to credit Trump's Twitter feed with the GOP's course correction on the Office of Congressional Ethics, writes S.E. Cupp, but reality suggests otherwise.
It's not all about Trump's tweets -- the GOP's choice not to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics also shows that media scrutiny and public outrage work, writes Lee Drutman.
Yascha Mounk says the House GOP's hasty pullback on gutting the ethics office shows the strengths that Trump could bring to Washington and hints at the dangers of unconstrained power
Froma Harrop says states led by Democrats have more dollars to gain if a President Trump slashes taxes on the wealthy -- and some of that money could go to implement progressive policies
In 2009, seven months after entering the Oval Office, President Obama pledged a new Africa policy. ''Africa," he declared in the Ghanaian Parliament, "doesn't need strongmen. It needs strong institutions.''
The Obama administration's failed policy of "strategic patience" toward Pyongyang contributed to the rapid development of North Korea's arsenal of mass destruction. The acceleration of its nuclear and ballistic missile program represents a grave threat to global peace and stability -- and a direct threat to the American homeland in the immediate future.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is compromising its reputation and endangering the growth of its Latino membership by accepting an invitation to perform at Trump's inauguration, writes Raul Reyes.
America enters 2017 divided, with one side fearing the consequences of a Trump presidency and the other with grand expectations of positive change, writes Julian Zelizer
Obama aims to punish Russia for meddling in U.S. election with forceful sanctions. Trump must show Americans, and his own party, that he won't cave and coddle Putin.
Likely not, says Mark Randazza: the writers who floated 'rumors' in stories alleging she worked as an escort already put them in weak position for disputing 'actual malice' challenge of law.
The media would be doing everyone a favor -- including itself -- if it stopped treating every tweet from Donald Trump like breaking news, says Dean Obeidallah.
Alice Johnson: I got a life sentence as a first-time nonviolent drug offender. I did wrong. But I still hope President Obama will grant clemency to people like me.
Few people on Earth consume media more avidly than members of the Trump family, and this is doubly true when it comes to news items that mention the family name.
By leaving state adversaries off his defense priority list, Donald Trump is indicating he intends to carry through on his campaign promise to withdraw the US from the world, writes Jonathan Cristol.
Few people on Earth consume media more avidly than members of the Trump family, and this is doubly true when it comes to news items that mention the family name.
A 10% tariff on imports would clash with growth, raise consumer prices, but a House tax reform proposal he's mulling that would help keep production--and jobs--in U.S., is promising.
Dean Obeidallah says Bill O'Reilly is wrong when he suggests that entertainment execs are pressuring celebrities not to take part; the problem for Trump's inaugural is that his campaign trafficked in hate
Citing the history of first ladies' handoffs, Kate Brower says they share an experience that, as Michelle Obama puts it, "no American really understands."
Our schools are failing to prepare graduates for our increasingly competitive global economy. Improving our nation's education system will be a major bipartisan challenge for the incoming Trump administration, writes Harold Levy.
Despite Trump's declaration of war against ISIS, ridding America of jihadist terror threats is no simple matter, and the incoming president would benefit from a helping of prudence, writes Aaron David Miller.
The former governor and presidential candidate says that in the 2016 election, the American people were clamoring for a dramatic shift of power out of a broken Washington and back into the hands of the people.
Why does he keep on doing it? Why does Donald Trump keep on tweeting? Nothing could be narrower than 140 characters, nothing could be wider than the impact of becoming the master of Twitter
President-elect Trump has a responsibility to act against the genocide that is happening by the Islamic State in Aleppo and elsewhere, write Ján Figeľ and Mark Goldfeder.
A pamphlet proclaiming that President Abraham Lincoln supported a program of interracial sex to create an "American race" meant to cost him his re-election. It didn't work, but the rumor never truly died.