David Frum: The Atlantic Staff Writer and Former Bush Speechwriter Behind a Weekly Podcast

David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic, hosts a weekly podcast called The David Frum Show while covering U.S. politics, policy, art, literature, and history for the magazine, according to The Atlantic.

Frum has authored 10 books to date. His two most recent works, Trumpocracy (2018) and Trumpocalypse (2020), reflect a sustained focus on the political forces reshaping the Republican Party he once served from inside the White House.

From Speechwriter to Critic

Between 2001 and 2002, Frum worked as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, a role that placed him at the center of Republican messaging during a formative period for the party. In the years since, his writing has increasingly examined the direction of American conservatism rather than defending it.

His recent columns for The Atlantic illustrate the range. A June 2026 piece argued that a U.S. Supreme Court decision restoring financial power to political parties in elections was a win for American democracy, according to The Atlantic. Other entries have scrutinized President Trump's approach to the Fourteenth Amendment, presidential records, and negotiations with Iran and Cuba.

A Center-Right Institutional Record

Frum's influence extends beyond the page. From 2014 to 2017, he chaired Policy Exchange, a center-right think tank based in the United Kingdom. The position gave him a formal role in shaping conservative policy thinking on both sides of the Atlantic during a period that included the Brexit referendum.

Why It Matters

Frum occupies a specific and increasingly visible position in U.S. political commentary: a lifelong conservative who writes critically about the current Republican leadership for a magazine with a broad national readership. His podcast and columns extend that vantage point to audiences following American politics from outside the country, including readers across Asia tracking how debates over U.S. institutions, courts, and executive power unfold.

For observers in the Asia-Pacific region, where U.S. policy on trade, security, and technology carries direct weight, commentators who explain the internal fault lines of American governance offer a useful lens. Frum's body of work documents how those fault lines have shifted within one of the two major U.S. parties over the past decade.