Aaron Blake - Senior Reporter
Aaron Blake
Senior Reporter
Aaron Blake is a Senior Reporter based in Washington, D.C.
Latest
-
5 big questions about Election Day 2025Nov 4, 2025Americans are heading to the polls across the country Tuesday to vote in a handful of states and cities. -
The X factors that could end the shutdownNov 4, 2025It’s Election Day 2025. And the results in New Jersey, Virginia and elsewhere Tuesday could be some of the most significant dominoes to fall in the federal government shutdown, which is set to become the longest in history on Wednesday. -
The GOP claimed Biden didn’t know whom he was pardoning. Trump now admits he doesn’t know whom he’s pardoningNov 3, 2025President Donald Trump keeps complicating the GOP’s message about former President Joe Biden’s pardons by disclaiming his own role in and knowledge of major decisions. -
Democrats are winning the shutdown politics. Can they stop now?Nov 2, 2025After the 2013 government shutdown ended, Republican leaders made clear they had only been humoring Sen. Ted Cruz and his plot to defund Obamacare. -
Trump just kneecapped the GOP’s shutdown strategyOct 31, 2025After the government had been shut down for nearly a month, a conspicuously quiet President Donald Trump finally weighed in with a prescription for how to end it. -
Trump’s push to rewrite the history of January 6 takes an especially brazen turnOct 30, 2025Shortly after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, the political right spent a lot of time parsing whether the word “insurrection” was an apt description of the day’s events. -
The White House ballroom saga could be worse for Trump than he realizesOct 30, 2025President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom saga last week followed a familiar Trump-era arc: A bunch of the president’s critics sounded the alarm about his latest provocation – in this case, the sudden and surprising demolition of the East Wing – and a bunch of other people questioned what the big deal was. -
When Republicans in Congress actually vote to rebuke TrumpOct 29, 2025Congressional Republicans are so loathe to vote against President Donald Trump that it’s striking when they actually do. -
These key dates could intensify pressure on lawmakers to end the government shutdownOct 28, 2025The federal government shutdown is now entering its fifth week and could soon set an all-time record, with little sign of either side backing down or really even feeling much pressure to do so. -
Democrats’ dilemma on Maine Senate candidate Graham PlatnerOct 27, 2025If anyone thought recent revelations about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s past would give Democrats instant clarity about their party’s path forward, they apparently have another thing coming. -
Why Trump needs to keep the third-term talk goingOct 27, 2025President Donald Trump is still talking about trying to seek a third term in 2028, despite that being blatantly unconstitutional. -
The Reagan foundation did Trump a solid on tariffs – at the expense of Reagan’s idealsOct 25, 2025One of President Donald Trump’s superpowers as a politician is getting entities and people who might disagree with what he’s doing to set aside their principles and priors just enough to allow him to plow forward. It happens all the time with Republicans in Congress, who have willingly relegated themselves to second-class citizens in Washington. -
Read excerpts from Reagan’s 1987 speech on tariffsOct 24, 2025President Donald Trump canceled trade talks with Canada on Thursday, citing a recent ad released by the government of Canada’s Ontario province that quoted former President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 radio address to the nation on fair trade. CNN analyzed key excerpts from the full speech. -
Americans seem to see through Trump’s legal retributionOct 24, 2025As President Donald Trump’s norm-busting legal retribution campaign against his perceived political foes continues, Americans seem to be seeing it for what it is. -
‘A growing cancer’: The right’s growing acknowledgment of its own antisemitismOct 23, 2025Vice President JD Vance last week presented the Republican Party and the conservative movement with a fork in the road. They could either denounce the increasing examples of racist, antisemitic and extremist rhetoric in their ranks, or they could whatabout them away. -
Why Trump’s sudden East Wing demolition is extraordinary — and diceyOct 22, 2025When President Donald Trump reflected last week on the looming construction of his White House ballroom, the longtime real estate developer was practically giddy about the lack of red tape. He noted his New York projects often took years to break ground.
About
Aaron Blake is a Senior Reporter based in Washington, D.C.
Blake’s cross-platform reporting and analysis covers a range of political topics including President Trump, Congress, and the federal government.
Blake joined CNN after more than a decade at The Washington Post, where he most recently served as a Senior Reporter. As one of The Post’s most read authors, his sharp political coverage drove consistent engagement from audiences across platforms. He also hosted a weekly politics podcast.
Prior to joining The Washington Post, Blake was a staff writer for The Hill.
Blake is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and Minnesota native.