The Presidential Cage Match We Needed Is the One We Never Got
The proxy battles we got instead have not settled questions we have to settle.
Ezra Klein
July 5, 2026
Barack Obama and Donald Trump sitting across an aisle from each other, with their backs to the viewer, in front of a blue carpet with red stripes.

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Ezra Klein

The Presidential Cage Match We Needed Is the One We Never Got

The proxy battles we got instead have not settled questions we have to settle.

By Ezra Klein

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