Maureen Dowd: Doom Scrolling Indeed February 14, 2026 But first . . . Susan Collins is concerned (30 seconds). Great ad. She’s going down. We’re going to win the Senate. What Trump’s Best At, Hands Down. (Self-enrichment.) (Also: destroying things.) The President Of The 0.00001 Percent “Time to end the new Gilded Age. The way we did the last one.” — Andrew Sullivan What’s going on now in Washington is on a wholly new scale — an open, shameless exercise by those in power to benefit personally and massively from the leverage that comes with public office. In the words of Ann Coulter: “This is the most corrupt presidency in U.S. history. I mean, it is so blatant it’s right in front of our eyes.” . . . I think of that day a year ago that Elon Musk posted the following on X: << We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.>> And then I think of the tens of thousands of the poorest children on earth who were about to die in a matter of months as a direct consequence. . . . We don’t have to resign ourselves to this level of corruption and inequality. We really don’t. If this new Gilded Age has any silver lining, it may be that it becomes a prompt for the very kind of reforms the old one did. Worth reading in full. The richest man in the world is a racist. [Musk] posted about how the white race was under threat, made allusions to race science or promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days in January. Trump Is a Weak, Failing President—Dems Should Act Like It As Trump’s losses mount on many fronts, TNR editor Michael Tomasky discusses our special issue, which is chock full of pieces explaining how Democrats can take advantage of this highly fluid moment. STATE OF THE SWAMP Sign up here for the FREE rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union — 7pm Tuesday February 24 — streaming from the National Press Club, featuring everyone from Robert DeNiro and Mark Ruffalo to Stacey Abrams, Abbe Lowell, Marianne Williamson, Eric Swalwell, and a dozens more. And now (sorry!) . . . Maureen Dowd: Welcome to the Voyage of the Damned