Alexis Coe

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They say an armistice is just a postnup with a map

An extraordinary amount of due diligence from a man who hired Katie Zacharia.

A 56-year-old Mexican man held at a federal immigration facility in Laredo was found dead in his cell Saturday morning. His family says the center would not give him medicine for diabetes, high blood pressure and a heart condition. He is the 7th person to die in ICE custody in Texas this year.

Once a year, my one-stoplight village is overrun by Big Yarn. They control the needles. They control the narrative.

In 1976, a college paper blamed the Salem witch trials on moldy bread. It wasn’t true. www.popsci.com/science/sale...

I’ll see his fantasy and raise him his actual position substack.com/home/post/p-...

Vance thinks loving your fellow man sounds gay. His own Catholicism has never gone that far. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbpq7xX8hfE

Next comes a line of throw pillows promoting insurrection as self-care. May I suggest: “Be the January 6 you wish to see in the world.”

Alexis Coe (@alexiscoe.bsky.social) writes about John F. Kennedy as a figure who never stopped revising himself. Beneath the Camelot mythology, she traces a life shaped by chronic illness, loss, and a steady habit of turning setbacks into structure. @jfklibraryfdn.bsky.social

“Treat life as a working draft.” We’re excited to read the essay on President Kennedy by @alexiscoe.bsky.social for In Pursuit, a national civics project from More Perfect. Read here: inpursuit.substack.com/p/john-f-ken...

Peter Bergen on his much-lauded All the Presidents’ Wars: twenty-five years of war and ever-expanding presidential power. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/all-the-pr...

Tomorrow, Monday, September 28, 11 a.m. ET: Join me for a Substack Live with Peter Bergen to discuss his widely praised new book, All the Presidents’ Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America’s War on Terror. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Tomorrow, Monday, September 28, 11 a.m. ET: Join me for a Substack Live with Peter Bergen to discuss his widely praised new book, All the Presidents’ Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America’s War on Terror. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Nothing says “visionary” like discovering the Trump train is all revenge, destination nowhere in 2026, when it was basically on the departures board.

Presidential history offers plenty of indignities but I’m struggling to think of a modern precedent for publicly inviting America’s principal strategic rival into a grievance against your predecessor(s)

The America we’re forever being told we once knew: perpetually disappearing. The fundraising deadline to save it: miraculously self-renewing.

Circa 2021, I texted @drmchatelain.bsky.social, one of my favorite people on earth, an idea. On September 29, it’ll be a book! We’ll discuss it tonight, 8pm, Substack Live: open.substack.com/live-stream/...

I conducted a statistically dubious investigation into what J.D. Vance’s facial hair can tell us about 2028, which is mercifully *almost nothing.* alexiscoe.substack.com/p/reply-some...

Moby-Dick is the internet’s entire theory of dating: anxious (Ahab), avoidant (whale), and the deeply unfortunate vindication of “they always come back.”

I conducted a statistically dubious investigation into what J.D. Vance’s facial hair can tell us about 2028, which is mercifully *almost nothing.* alexiscoe.substack.com/p/reply-some...

Keep presidential trivia in the pub, where it belongs! Until then, here’s my case against mistaking it for analysis: alexiscoe.substack.com/p/reply-some...

Rob the poor. Gut the middle class. Bankrupt the future. Call it a “Golden Age.”

Horror of horrors: I have discovered that I'm not 100% Lizzie--I'm a touch of Jane! This is a developing story because clear, vulnerable communication could probably resolve it all but that could also go badly so I’ll probably just go about my day! substack.com/home/post/p-...

The only notable thing about Moulton’s run was that he was unusually rich-backed, even in this economy. Massachusetts confirmed my judgment.

Horace Greeley's Neck Hair saracatterall.com/2026/08/17/h... @scatterall.bsky.social

For better or for worse, the executive branch remains an extremely committed content partner!

A brutal review of a new Hannah Arendt biography looks at what actually separates new evidence from new meaning—and why sometimes the historian with no new archive writes the genuinely new book. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/new-eviden...

I guess “someone” focus-grouped better than “your research assistant.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFDR...

At this point, if Trump ordered troops to deploy to Fifth Avenue with specific orders to shoot Trump’s political opponents on sight, a federal court would issue an injunction, but SCOTUS would overturn it, 6-3 “per curiam,” on the ground that nobody got shot yet, let’s wait and see.

On a related note, the final pass: what I tried and why it remains in track changes. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/behind-the...

On a related note, the final pass: what I tried and why it remains in track changes. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/behind-the...

Relatedly:

Virginia lawmakers once tried to insert “Jesus Christ” into Jefferson’s religious-freedom bill. They lost the vote. Christian nationalism has been asking for a recount ever since. My latest: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/b...

In 1812, Thomas Jefferson predicted that taking Canada would be “a mere matter of marching.” By 1815, thousands had died and the invasion failed. Trump has traded troops for tariffs but kept the ol’ imperial wager: pressure makes it pliant. The border says otherwise.

In my latest, Henry Kissinger by way of a government liquidation sale: alexiscoe.substack.com/p/little-mar...

I wish doctors prescribed a month in the archives as a cure for certainty.

“Are mutton chops simply sideburns with territorial ambitions? Or can they be considered a beard that declines connection?” IMO… no beard!

A beard dispute! The archives do not speak with one voice. The two schools of thought: Strict Constructionist: No chin coverage, no beard. Substantial Compliance: Mutton chops that nearly connect constitute a beard. Cast your ballot!👇🗳️🧔‍♂️🙃 alexiscoe.substack.com/p/horace-gre...

Every president from Andrew Johnson through Donald Trump therefore lived at the same time as Herbert Hoover alexiscoe.substack.com/p/reply-some...

ALEXIS COE: “I am a verb,” he had once said. He wasn’t the story. He was the action. No performance, no preamble. Just motion, outcome, history written in the wake. While others postured, Grant advanced. He wasn’t described—he happened. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/part-i-i-a...