Opinion Today: How long will tariffs last?
Here’s what we’re focusing on.
Opinion Today
July 22, 2026
An illustration of an American flag, its stars and stripes blurred, being squeezed by a red string. The floor below the flag appears unfinished as does the area where the wall and floor meet.
Photo illustration by Daniel Ribar for The New York Times

Notable

Tariffs will long outlive Trump. “The biggest obstacle to undoing Mr. Trump’s tariffs after 2028 won’t be legal. It will be financial.”

— Josh Lipsky, vice president and chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council

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Russia will not yield. “How has Russia managed to weather its rejection by the West? What I found was testament to the country’s relentless adaptation.”

— Hanna Notte, author of the forthcoming book “We Shall Outlast Them: Putin’s Global Campaign to Defeat the West”

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How to make middle age look magical. “The friends — Tatum (Chloë Sevigny), Dru-Ann (Regina Hall) and Brooke (D’Arcy Carden) — are given dignity and agency in a way that 40- and 50-something women in other television shows and films are not.”

— Jessica Grose, an Opinion writer

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Spotlight

Illustration by The New York Times; source photographs by Danielle James/The Flint Journal and Ryan Sun/Associated Press

Who Should Be Michigan’s Next Senator?

Times Opinion convened a panel of experts to help voters make sense of the race.

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ICYMI

Three world leaders. Three bad decisions. “There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless leader faced with a plate of crow: Sometimes his instinct is to double down on a losing strategy instead.”

— Thomas L. Friedman, Opinion columnist

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More in Opinion

A photo illustration of an elephant in a crowd at a campaign rally.

Ross Douthat

A New Critique of Trumpism Goes Too Easy on Elites

Even under populism, elite failure is still a problem.

By Ross Douthat

A blurred image of JD Vance.

Bret Stephens

Call the Veep, Agent Mulder!

Have the “space Jews” come to get us at last?

By Bret Stephens

Sudanese refugees stand in front of white structures under a strong sun.

letters

Shining a Spotlight on the Atrocities in Sudan

Readers respond to an editorial, “The World Must Wake Up to the Horror in Sudan.” Also: Young people and guns; “gray divorce.”

The top of the Capitol in blue-and-red light.

Jamelle Bouie

Trump’s New Insult Won’t Save Republicans

Trump’s attempt to drum up a third red scare is certain to fail.

By Jamelle Bouie

In Your Words

Re: I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying New Era.

Read more Opinion comments here, and check out our Letters to the Editor.

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