The Josh Hammer Report

Josh Hammer

Newsweek Senior Editor-at-Large And Host,
"The Josh Hammer Show"

We are currently living through the most insane political timeline since at least 1968—and quite possibly even further back than that. The news cycle is so wild right now that it is genuinely impossible to even speculate about what might come next. The best we can do is buckle our seatbelts and try to hang on for the ride.

Suffice it to say I was very wrong about the fate of President Joe Biden. I will own that mistake! I really did not see this coming. As I told POLITICO Magazine: "I am honestly shocked at how the 2024 Democratic Party coup of President Joe Biden went down. The president has clearly been physically and mentally impaired for years now, as some of us repeatedly pointed out when it was less fashionable to do so. The much-discussed CNN presidential debate revealed precisely no new information for anyone paying even the slightest attention. And in a presidential election that will once again come down to the Rust Belt—and the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, in particular—it is bizarre for Democrats to swap out the man who talks ceaselessly about his hardscrabble Scranton upbringing for a left-wing Californian with more baggage than an Acela train."

I discussed all this and more in yesterday's episode of "The Josh Hammer Show." We have put out a number of new episodes since our last newsletter, so make sure to subscribe and keep up if you are not already doing so. You can listen to all episodes of "The Josh Hammer Show" at the Newsweek website or on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. (The show is also on the radio in multiple markets, and we are looking to expand!)

In other major news, Republicans had a highly successful national convention last week in Milwaukee. The GOP emerged from Milwaukee laser-focused, mission-oriented, and unified. I think particularly highly of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), President Donald Trump's running mate pick, as I have mentioned before in this newsletter. I have known J.D. for a few years now, consider him a friend, and am over the moon for him on a personal level. But even more important, I am also over the moon for the Republican Party, which finally seems to be heading in the decidedly correct substantive direction after this vice presidential pick and last week's forceful demonstration of party unity. I used my most recent syndicated column to dwell on Trump's excellent and inspired vice presidential pick.

I am now back in the nation's capital to speak at Young America's Foundation's (YAF) week-long National Conservative Student Conference. I will be speaking three straight days on foreign policy realism and how it is different from foreign policy moralism, the Abraham Accords peace agreements, and U.S.-Israel relations. I recently gave a similar speech for YAF's separate National High School Leadership Conference, which you can watch in full here.

To keep up with everything I'm doing and all my various media hits, make sure to follow me on Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook. As a reminder, I have a second show, "America on Trial with Josh Hammer," with The First; you can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to subscribe to both of my shows and leave your reviews! Make sure to also check out my new Subtext chat, which you can read all about and sign up for here.

Our highlighted Newsweek op-eds from the past week includes selections from Laila Mickelwait, John Spencer, Paul du Quenoy, Ayelet Razin Bet Or, and Sarah Stern.

We'll see you next week!

Spotlight

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The Chosen One

I think it was 2019 when I first interacted with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). I had just finished my judicial clerkship and begun my career in media. J.D., just a few years older than me, was already a bestselling author and a tech venture capitalist. We were both interested in some of the energetic and ascendant elements of the Trump-era Right, and had followed each other on social media accordingly. We messaged about meeting up on the sidelines of the first-ever National Conservatism Conference ("NatCon 1"), held in Washington D.C. in July 2019. I don't think we actually met up amid the fracas, but J.D. gave a memorable speech.

We've remained in touch ever since. He published two op-eds at Newsweek during my tenure as opinion editor. We have remained active with national conservatism and both spoke at last week's NatCon conference ("NatCon 4"). We are two of the founding advisory board members for American Moment, which seeks to "identify, educate, and credential" young New Right leaders. We have both been active with American Compass, a think tank that aims to reorient conservative economics away from doctrinaire libertarianism. We both spoke at the Restoring a Nation Conference in Steubenville, Ohio, in Oct. 2022; we got dinner before his keynote speech, nerding out on public policy. Like a true American, J.D. downed two Miller Lites.

We have also taken a similar path when it comes to former President Donald Trump. J.D. and I were both critical of Trump during the 2016 election but quickly came around as we saw the great achievements he secured in short order. We became vocal proponents of a more pragmatic, nimble, and dynamic Right—a Right, that is, which rejects the dog-eared playbook of yesteryear, and which prefers prudent statecraft to blindly following abstract dogma. We have been influenced by many of the same people and count a number of the same people as friends.

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