The Atlantic

Devin Nunes, 'Great American Hero'?

The president’s praise for the chair of the House Intelligence Committee makes the congressman something of an outlier in Trump’s pantheon.
Source: Andrew Harnik / AP

Donald Trump’s flair for insults is well noted, but his knack for backhanded compliments is perhaps under-appreciated. Note the finely calibrated use of the conditional tense in this Friday morning tweet:

The pesky “may” aside, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee isn’t getting much

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic3 min read
They Rode the Rails, Made Friends, and Fell Out of Love With America
The open road is the great American literary device. Whether the example is Jack Kerouac or Tracy Chapman, the national canon is full of travel tales that observe America’s idiosyncrasies and inequalities, its dark corners and lost wanderers, but ult
The Atlantic6 min read
There’s Just One Problem With Gun Buybacks
One warm North Carolina fall morning, a platoon of Durham County Sheriff’s Office employees was enjoying an exhibit of historical firearms in a church parking lot. They were on duty, tasked with running a gun buyback, an event at which citizens can t
The Atlantic8 min readAmerican Government
The Return of the John Birch Society
Michael Smart chuckled as he thought back to their banishment. Truthfully he couldn’t say for sure what the problem had been, why it was that in 2012, the John Birch Society—the far-right organization historically steeped in conspiracism and oppositi

Related Books & Audiobooks