Category Archives: Ronald Reagan

Global health charities warn of ‘huge and terrible’ threat to abortion rights if Trump returns

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‘Global gag rule’ and funding cuts will be ‘on different scale’ if Republicans win again, family-planning providers say

Providers of women’s healthcare around the world are preparing for potentially disastrous consequences should Donald Trump win the US presidential election in November.

Policies pursued during Trump’s last presidency caused “devastating” harm in a number of countries, said Beth Schlachter, a senior director at MSI Reproductive Choices in the US. It meant “clinics shuttered, health teams closed, women dying … but a second Trump term will be on a different scale”.

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Man who tried to assassinate Reagan says ‘violence is not the way to go’

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John Hinckley Jr tweets ‘give peace a chance’ in wake of Trump assassination attempt – drawing bemused responses

John Hinckley Jr, who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981, has waded into the discourse around the recent attempted assassination of Donald Trump in a social media post seemingly disavowing his own past actions.

“Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance,” Hinckley wrote on X on Wednesday, sentiments that drew a welter of bemused and often ironic responses.

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Ronald Reagan’s daughter says he would be ‘appalled’ by current political tenor

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‘He didn’t understand lack of civility. He didn’t understand attacking another person,’ says Patti Davis of former US president

The daughter of former president Ronald Reagan has hit out at contemporary White House politics, saying she thinks her late father would be “appalled” by the personal tenor of current political discourse.

“I think he’d be appalled … it was just more civilized,” Patti Davis told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “He didn’t understand lack of civility. He didn’t understand attacking another person. … He didn’t understand cruelty. And that’s what we’re dealing with now.

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FW de Klerk obituary

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Last president of South Africa under apartheid who oversaw the orderly transfer of power

Frederik Willem – FW – de Klerk, who has died aged 85, was the last president of South Africa under apartheid. He was often compared with Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, for his work in consigning a bankrupt and reviled regime to oblivion.

When De Klerk succeeded PW Botha in 1989, he oversaw an event no less unexpected than the collapse of Soviet communism was when Gorbachev came to power in 1985. His stunning act of realpolitik in announcing sweeping political reform, including the release of his eventual successor, Nelson Mandela, was the grand gesture that saved his country, and in 1993 they shared the Nobel peace prize. The following year Mandela became the country’s first democratically elected leader.

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John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan, to be freed from restrictions

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Hinckley, who was 25 when he shot and wounded the president in 1981, can be released from all court supervision if he follows rules

A federal judge has said John Hinckley Jr, who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan 40 years ago, can be freed from all remaining restrictions next year if he continues to follow those rules and remains mentally stable.

Related: Close calls: when American presidents diced with death

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Walter Mondale, former US vice-president and celebrated liberal, dies aged 93

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Former senator and ambassador lost one of the most lopsided US elections in history to Ronald Reagan

Walter F Mondale, the former vice-president and liberal leader who lost to Ronald Reagan in one of the most lopsided presidential elections, has died at the age of 93.

A towering figure in the Democratic party who resolutely put humility and honesty before the glitz of mass communication, Mondale’s death marked something of an end of an era in US politics. He was described by a biographer as the last major American politician to resist the allure of television.

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‘Honey, I forgot to duck’: the attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan, 40 years on

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The Republican narrowly escaped becoming the fifth US president to be assassinated – and there’s been no closer call since

Few guests at the Washington Hilton, a vast hotel rendered in curving Brutalist concrete, notice the simple plaque tucked away near a lower entrance designed for VIPs.

It marks the spot where, 40 years ago today, President Ronald Reagan was shot and injured when would-be assassin John Hinckley fired six bullets in two seconds. White House press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty and secret service agent Tim McCarthy were also hit.

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George Shultz obituary

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Secretary of state to Ronald Reagan who worked with Mikhail Gorbachev to help end the cold war

Many politicians and diplomats from the 1980s lay claim to a pivotal role in ending the cold war, but the former US secretary of state George Shultz, who has died aged 100, had a better claim than most. And he was not shy in letting people know, as he did at length in his 1,184-page account of his years at the state department, Turmoil and Triumph (1993).

When he became secretary of state in 1982 – a job he was to hold for seven years – relations between the US and the Soviet Union were at a dangerous low. The administration of US president Ronald Reagan was packed with anti-Soviet hardliners. Reagan himself in 1983 dubbed the Soviet Union “the evil empire”.

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‘They created a false image’: how the Reagans fooled America

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A new docuseries studies the damaging reign of Ronald and Nancy Reagan and the insidious myth-making that still surrounds their legacy

Ever since Richard Nixon’s sweaty upper lip during a debate with John F Kennedy cost him the election in 1960, television has been the most crucial proving ground for any presidential hopeful. Granting the gift of sight to the general public changed the game, as campaigners and office-holders have been forced to school themselves in careful image management and conscious branding. In American politics, a well-crafted position on foreign policy won’t get a person nearly as far as the easy telegenic charm that makes voters feel comfortable grabbing a pint, a dissonance that’s allowed some dubious characters access to the highest stations of authority.

Related: Ronald Reagan called African UN delegates 'monkeys', recordings reveal

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We thought Reagan was the devil – then came Trump. America, we’re rooting for you

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Veep writer Ian Martin once raged against the Gipper. Forty years later, the US is saddled with a human cronut

Dear America,

HEY! How you guys doing? Longtime British Americanophile “reaching out” across the Atlantic. I’m here to heart you, USA. I’m like “hope the hurting stops soon” (strong-arm mid-tone emoji).

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Trump aims barb at Reagan Foundation in fundraising coin kerfuffle

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  • Campaign and Republican party told to stop selling ‘iconic’ coins
  • President ties predecessor to Washington Post, a familiar target

Donald Trump famously fell out with the Bush family and has regularly claimed to be the greatest Republican president since the first, Abraham Lincoln. He has largely avoided attacking another claimant to that title, Ronald Reagan. Until now.

Related: Biden holds daunting lead over Trump as US election enters final stretch

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Ronald Reagan called African diplomats ‘monkeys’ in call to Richard Nixon – audio

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Ronald Reagan made racist remarks about African delegates to the United Nations, newly released audio recordings have revealed. 'Damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes,' Reagan tells Richard Nixon, who erupts in laughter. At the time of the call, Nixon was still president and Reagan was governor of California


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If Bill Clinton Had Taken The High Road, Would The Road Be Different For Trump And Republicans?

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In an alternate universe in which Bill Clinton resigns rather than outlast impeachment, his wife perhaps doesn't run -- and there might not be a President Trump. Moreover, Republicans might find it tougher to dismiss a sex-related impeachment charge.

Who is the South Dakota man linked to alleged Russian agent Maria Butina? Source: Cox Media Group

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The South Dakota man who helped shepherd an alleged Russian operative to National Rifle Association and conservative political group meetings had a front-row seat to history and a less than stellar reputation in South Dakota politics. Once a political provocateur, Paul Erickson virtually disappeared from the state's political scene in recent years despite having residences in both Sioux Falls and the Washington, D.C. area and boasting a Rolodex that allegedly contained some of the biggest names in the conservative universe.