Welcome back! Here are some highlights from the last week.

My most recent column served two purposes. First, I argued against the triumphalist notion, which we hear from certain diehard pro-Trump circles, that the 2024 Republican Party presidential primary is already over. "Just coronate Trump already," this argument goes. This is absolute nonsense for multiple reasons: The calendar is simply way too early to be making these sort of claims, and Trump finds himself in a world of legal trouble right now. That legal trouble will only get worse over the next six to 12 months. Indeed, there is a low but non-zero possibility that this sprawling, multistate political persecution of the former president ends with Trump in handcuffs in a prison cell. This is a horrible outcome to fathom that no patriot worth his salt should ever hope for no matter his partisan affiliation or specific candidate preference, but we are well into uncharted waters at this point and anything truly is possible. Second, and related, I noted that despite his legal woes, Trump remains dominant in national horse-race GOP presidential primary polling; therefore, tonight's opening presidential primary debate is crucial for every other candidate on that debate stage. (Trump will be skipping the debate in an insulting act to the Republican electorate.) The stakes tonight are perhaps the highest for Trump's nearest challenger and my own preferred candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

My most recent podcast episode featured special guest Aryeh Lightstone, the former Trump-era senior advisor to the U.S. ambassador to Israel and special envoy for the Abraham Accords, as well as the author of the 2022 book, Let My People Know: The Incredible Story of Middle East Peace — and What Lies Ahead. August 13, 2023, marked the three-year anniversary of the first Abraham Accord peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and Aryeh was the perfect person to bring on my show to discuss it all. Our conversation included a blunt assessment of the status of the Accords today, the Biden administration's seeming attempts to derail the Accords in virtually every possible way (from Iranian appeasement and outright ransom payments to deeply counterproductive Saudi ostracization), the prospects for the current administration (or the next one) brokering a transformative Israeli-Saudi peace, and the broader notion that the Accords should serve as a foreign policy model the U.S. can emulate elsewhere around the world. Aryeh was instrumental in negotiating the Abraham Accords, so you definitely don't want to miss his unique insights on this topic. (You can listen to that episode on Apple, Spotify, or here.)

In terms of other media hits and appearances since our last newsletter: I recorded a CenterClip audio op-ed on the need for the Biden administration to drill for more domestic oil and natural gas; joined "Don't Back Down with Stan Casacio" on WWDB-AM (Philadelphia) for a wide-ranging conversation on law, domestic politics, and foreign policy; joined "I'm Right w/ Jesse Kelly" to discuss the current state of the pro-life movement in America (also the subject of a recent column of mine); filled in as guest-host of "The Jason Rantz Show" on AM 770 KTTH (Seattle) last Thursday, August 17 (you can listen here to the first, second, and third hours of the show); joined "O'Connor Tonight" on Salem News Channel to discuss the wild recent revelation that then-Vice President Joe Biden seemingly used a pseudonym to cover up his involvement with his son's sketchy overseas business dealings; joined guest-host Alice Stewart on SirixusXM "P.O.T.U.S." to preview tonight's first GOP presidential primary debate; joined "NTD Evening News" on NTD to preview tonight's first GOP presidential primary debate; joined Fred Pawle on ADH TV (Australia) to discuss the horrific aftermath of the Maui fire, the present state of the GOP presidential primary, and more; joined "Rita Panahi Overtime" on Sky News Australia to discuss the smashing success of the country music song "Rich Men North of Richmond," crime and the culture of anarchy that is rotting away New York City (and other blue urban jurisdictions), and the outrageous revelation that a prominent Hawaii official might have valued "water equity" over the lives of fellow Hawaiians; joined "Newsline" on Newsmax to preview tonight's first GOP presidential debate; and (as always) co-hosted the past two episodes of the Edmund Burke Foundation's weekly "NatCon Squad" podcast.

Our additional highlighted right-leaning Newsweek op-eds from the past two weeks include selections from Stephen L. Miller, Jon Schweppe, Philip Jeffery, John Yoo and John Shu, and Steve Forbes.

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