Jim Antle, the magazine’s executive editor, brings to life the pages of the Washington Examiner magazine in the show Inside Scoop. Each episode features exclusive insight from the article authors and expert analysis.
Antle discusses Jay Caruso’s article on how political power is shifting away from Congress. It’s nothing new with the Trump administration; presidents such as Obama and Biden have asserted executive power through DACA and student loan forgiveness.
“Now the courts, as we’ve seen under the Trump administration, are actually fighting for their powers and constitutional prerogatives,” Antle said. “They’re competing with the executive branch, trying to push the envelope as to how much power they really do have the ability to exercise.”
Antle argues that Congress has devolved into a more parliamentary system, with members prioritizing personal gain over constitutional duties.
“There are a lot of members of Congress who seem to have decided the permanent incumbency, lucrative lobbying gigs, and now even sort of social media celebrity or being permanent cable news pundits, are things that are more appealing to them than fighting for the constitutional powers of Congress,” Antle said.
He is then joined by Gordon Chang, author of Plan Red: China’s Project to Destroy America, to discuss China’s perceived threat and internal cultural issues. Chang describes China as a “paper tiger,” with a strong exterior but a hollow interior.
“We can see this in the attitudes of Chinese people,” Chang said. “The mood inside the country is grim. We see people who have opted out of society. It is a very interesting phenomena recently of young urban professionals, the most privileged class in China, they are “retiring” to go to the countryside to farm vegetables.
Chang believes the biggest fissure is the economy, with Chinese people feeling deprived of prosperity due to the regime’s focus on competing with the U.S. Chang predicts the unsustainability of the Chinese Communist Party, citing economic exhaustion, potential stagnation, and declining birth rates as signs of deep pessimism.
“You see just the gloominess of the Chinese people, because they don’t believe in the same things as the regime does,” Chang said. “Perhaps this is most visible in their unwillingness to have children. When people don’t have children, it shows deep pessimism about a society.”
The in-depth report delves into America’s struggle with an immigration crisis that extends far beyond the border. Daniel Ross Goodman writes about how the National Guard‘s attack in Washington, D.C., has shaken up Trump’s immigration policy.
“The attack ignited a firestorm,” Goodman wrote. “The Farragut West Metro station ambush tragedy catalyzed the Trump administration to take even stronger measures to protect U.S. citizens from dangerous migrants.”
Asylum processing ground to a halt nationwide, visas for Afghans were halted, and applications from nationals of 19 “high-risk” countries were frozen, pending exhaustive reviews.
Supporters hail it as the long-overdue restoration of the rule of law. Critics decry it as chaotic and cruel. Immigrant advocates cried foul, labelling it a “scapegoating” of entire nationalities. But for Trump, it was vindication: proof that unchecked inflows bred peril.
INSIDE SCOOP: GEN Z SOCIALIST, CHRISTMAS READING LIST, UTAH REDISTRICTING SHUFFLE
“The tensions reveal a leader navigating zeal and reality, delivering results amid grumblings from the base,” Goodman said. “As 2026 looms, the operation endures— flawed, fierce, and fundamentally Trumpian.”
Tune in each week at washingtonexaminer.com and across all our social media platforms to go behind the headlines in the Washington Examiner’s magazine show, Inside Scoop.
