Bret L. Stephens

Bret L. Stephens has been an opinion columnist with The New York Times since April 2017. He won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary at The Wall Street Journal in 2013 and was previously editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post.

President Donald Trump greets Russia's President Vladimir Putin Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Trump鈥檚 whipsawing performances with Putin and Zelenskyy reminded me why I’m a proud neocon (抖阴ap)

August 19, 2025 at 3:13 p.m.

What would a traditional neocon say about Trump鈥檚 latest diplomatic efforts between Russia and Ukraine? A few points.

Israeli captive Arbel Yehoud, 29, who has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, is escorted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters as she is handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

抖阴ap: The imperative remains to end Hamas鈥� control of Gaza

February 14, 2025 at 11:36 a.m.

President Donald Trump may be wrong about many things, but he鈥檚 right about this: This horror show of Hamas must end now.

Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Zabi Karimi)

抖阴ap: The staggering cost of America’s failure in Afghanistan

August 16, 2021 at 3:43 p.m.

This is happening on Biden鈥檚 watch, at Biden鈥檚 insistence, against the advice of his senior military advisers and with Biden鈥檚 firm assurance to the American people that what has just...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Mike Pence talk as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to count the Electoral College votes cast in November's election, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021.

Bret Stephens: Only impeachment can save Republicans

January 12, 2021 at 10:02 a.m.

The Pence-Trump story is also the GOP-Trump story. It is a play in four acts: brief resistance, abject submission, complete complicity and now bitter regret.

President Donald Trump arrives on stage ...

Bret L. Stephens: Meet a secret Trump voter

October 1, 2020 at 1:25 p.m.

Chris is a registered Democrat in her 50s who lives in Manhattan. She鈥檚 asked me not to publish her last name. It would not go down well for her at...

Bret Stephens: Unwitting progressives for Trump

September 2, 2020 at 7:21 a.m.

Many of these friends, I suspect, will reluctantly vote for Trump -- not out of sympathy for him, but out of disgust with defenses of looting and other things they...

Bret L. Stephens: What will a post-Trump GOP look like?

July 28, 2020 at 2:53 p.m.

If Donald Trump stages another come-from-behind victory in November -- helped, in all likelihood, by the collapse of public order in American cities 鈥� the Republican Party will become an...

Demonstrators gather at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Park during a free speech rally Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017, in Berkeley, Calif.

Bret Stephens: Reading Orwell for the Fourth of July

July 7, 2020 at 1:32 p.m.

Reading Orwell for the Fourth of July

Wilmington High School senior Kiara Nadeau, ...

Bret Stephens: COVID-19 and the Big Government Problem

April 12, 2020 at 5:13 p.m.

COVID-19 and the Big Government Problem

US director Woody Allen poses during the photocall of 'Midnight in Paris' presented out-of-competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival on May 11, 2011 in Cannes.

Stephens: Woody Allen meets the cancel culture

March 18, 2020 at 12:36 p.m.

鈥淪entence first, verdict afterwards鈥� is supposed to be the stuff of 鈥淎lice in Wonderland,鈥� not what passes for literary judgment in America.

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