FDR Was Pretty Consequential

Jack Blanchard, the author of Politico‘s newsletter Playbook, created some minor embarrassment for himself this week. In a recent edition of his newsletter, he commented on President Donald Trump’s incredibly impactful first month as president, implying that this level of accomplishment was historically unprecedented.

“Has any incoming administration been better prepared for power?” he asked. “Never mind the first 100 days—Trump’s team had a battleplan for the first 100 hours, and they executed it with stunning efficiency.”

He repeated this question in Monday’s Playbook, asking, “Has any previous U.S. leader made such an impact in such a short space of time?”

Blanchard is British, and previously edited Politico‘s U.K. version of Playbook. Perhaps this is why he is unfamiliar with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Helpfully, readers of Politico chimed in to inform Blanchard, prompting a follow-up on Tuesday:

The disconnect I feel working away from DC for even a little while is crazy because what do you mean the author of Playbook is now a Brit who doesn’t know who FDR was and copies whole paragraphs from Wikipedia? pic.twitter.com/yZb76PEXAS

— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) February 18, 2025

Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with turning to Wikipedia to become better informed on a topic, although you’re not supposed to admit that that’s what you’re doing. On the other hand, it’s a little odd for the editor of a major D.C. politics publication to be this in the dark about such an important chapter in American political history.

I discussed this subject on Rising today with Niall Stanage, an Irishman who is quite well informed on American political history!

This Week on Free Media

I am joined by Amber Duke to discuss CBS’ fascination with German censorship, Kevin O’Leary’s enthusiasm for the Department of Government Efficiency, and communism in Canada.

Worth Watching

I saw Captain America: Brave New World. It was somewhere between OK and not great. Storytelling in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gotten very, very stale.

The thing that put me off the most was the post-credits scene, which is usually the most exciting part of these movies. [SPOILER WARNING] In the scene, captured villain Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson, a great actor in a very underwhelming role) warns Captain America of a nonspecific threat from some other world. Is this supposed to be shocking? In MCU continuity, aliens have already attacked Earth repeatedly—in fact, some of the action in this movie takes place off the coast of an island that is actually just a giant, dead alien!

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