Opinion | The Friends Who Got Away

In The Washington Post, Matt Bai reflected on the entire surreal arc of Donald Trump’s political, er, progress since 2015: “Trump didn’t begin his presidential campaign in 2015 with some Wile E. Coyote-type plan to upend the party and take over the country. Like everything else Trump had done in his life to that point, that campaign began as little more than a Barnumesque exercise in self-promotion, a chance to further the family brand.” Bai added: “It must have surprised Trump to find that the Republican Party could be acquired and replaced as easily as a failing hotel chain.” (Jeanette Clark, San Antonio)

The entire surreal arc of Senator Kyrsten Sinema was examined by another Washington Post essayist, Monica Hesse: “Washington is very accustomed to empty suits. It’s less accustomed to empty batwing dresses.” (Betsy Snider, Acworth, N.H., and Peter Walsworth, Providence, R.I.)

In The Atlantic, Jennifer Senior heaved a sigh of relief about President Biden’s energetic delivery of his State of the Union address, which challenged her previous conviction that Trump was bound for victory on Nov. 5 and her terror: “I imagined myself on a flight bound for Reykjavík, Lisbon, Sydney, wherever on Nov. 6, staring backward out the window and squinting at the smoking ruins of American democracy, grimly praying that I wouldn’t turn into a pillar of salt.” (Holly Freifeld, Portland, Ore.)

In The Dispatch, Nick Catoggio studied the visage of a key member of the audience for the State of the Union address: “Visible in-frame over Biden’s left shoulder, House Speaker Mike Johnson struggled all evening to find facial expressions that conveyed disagreement without seeming off-puttingly disrespectful. The extended, more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger choreography of exaggerated grimaces and head-shakes he settled on was familiar to me instantly as a longtime fan of the New York Jets.” (Michael Smith, Georgetown, Ky.)

In The Times, John McWhorter rolled his eyes at traditional rules about where prepositions can and cannot be placed: “Late last month, Merriam-Webster shared the news on Instagram that it’s OK to end a sentence with a preposition. Hats off to them, sincerely. But it is hard to convey how bizarre, to an almost comical degree, such a decree seems in terms of how language actually works. It is rather like announcing that it is now permissible for cats to meow.” (Amy Glass, Washington, Ill.)