Did former President Donald Trump’s behavior lead to Black Lives Matter, the 2020 riots, and the fraught racial and sexual politics upending American society? That’s a far-fetched theory that can’t withstand the barest scrutiny, yet one of the leading voices in today’s leftist media advances it as an explanation for the present moment.

Jonathan Chait is not just any journalist. A columnist for New York magazine, he’s one of the preeminent members of the political class that forms elite leftist opinion in this country. It is important, therefore, to point out when he veers from the truth.