In the past, cities such as San Francisco and Chicago attracted the ire of conservatives for their liberal policies; Boston tended to fly under the radar, until now.
“Boston is a New England liberal city, which is maybe the quintessential elite university town,” said Matthew Baum, a professor of global communications and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “All of those things make it a natural source of antipathy for the current administration. Whatever you think about their policies, they’re directed on all the stuff that makes Boston, Boston. I think that goes a long way to explaining: Why Boston?”
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The feud between the city and the White House kicked into high gear in late February, when Trump “border czar” Tom Homan declared he was “coming to Boston and I’m bringing hell with me.” Homan also criticized Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox for abiding by a Massachusetts law that dictates local police cannot keep immigrants detained for future deportation without a criminal warrant. Wu jumped in to defend Cox, saying he “has my complete confidence & support” in a post on social media. “We’re going to continue following & enforcing the laws to keep all Bostonians safe.”
Then, on March 5, Wu testified before Congress about Boston’s immigration policies. Her testimony included a fresh dig at Homan.
“Shame on him for lying about my city,” Wu said. “For having the nerve to insult our police commissioner, who has overseen the safest Boston’s been in anyone’s lifetime. Bring him here under oath, and let’s ask him some questions.”
A few weeks later on March 18, Homan kept his promise and came to Bostonbut did not make his presence in the city publicly known until after he left. According to federal officials, over a six-day operation across Massachusetts, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 370 people. Of those arrested, 205 had “significant criminal convictions or charges,” according to ICE officials, who didn’t provide information on the other 165 people arrested. Homan, in a post on X, claimed the operation was necessary “because Massachusetts and Boston are sanctuaries that refuse to cooperate with ICE.”
Governor Maura Healey responded that Massachusetts is “not a sanctuary state, and Massachusetts law enforcement regularly partners with federal agencies and federal law enforcement to keep people safe.”
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“Public safety is a major priority for me, and it should never be a partisan issue,” she added.
But political operatives on both sides of the aisle say the animosity between a progressive city such as Boston and the Republican-controlled federal government is a symptom of the country’s wider partisan divide.
“Trump is a master storyteller, and he understands intuitively that the best narratives have a good versus evil kind of setting,” said Doug Rubin, a Democratic strategist who has worked on campaigns for the likes of Senator Elizabeth Warren, former Massachusetts governorDeval Patrick, andformer Boston mayorMarty Walsh.
By calling out Boston, Trump and his allies are attempting “to pit the working class and working families against liberal elites. That’s a narrative that has worked for him successfully in both of his campaigns,” Rubin added.
Wendy Wakeman, a Massachusetts-based GOP strategist, said it was local politicians who courted Trump’s scrutiny, not the other way around. “I don’t think you can find a more radical mayor in the country than Michelle Wu,” she said. “I am not surprised that the reasonable policies of President Trump — which are enacted to protect Americans — are drawing his attention, and his administration’s attention, to Massachusetts.”
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Still, Wakeman argued the Trump administration’s deportations are not politically motivated but instead are born out of practicality. “Why do bank robbers rob banks? It’s because that’s where the money is,” Wakeman said. “Why is Tom Holman coming to Massachusetts to arrest criminals from other nations living in the United States? It’s because they’re here.”
Homan hassaid repeatedlyhe targeted Boston after reading news reports about undocumented people committing crimes in the city.
The White House did not return a request for comment.
“Conservative media promotes this vision of American cities being overrun by illegal immigrants causing crimes,” said Republican strategist Alex Conant, who was communications director for current Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential bid. Outlets including Fox News, Breitbart, and Daily Wire have all recently covered immigration issues in Boston.
“Trump has always been preoccupied by the state of American cities,” Conant said. “I think Boston is a great American city that he sees as in decline, not unlike Chicago, San Francisco, New York, or D.C. And part of that is he has an image of cities filled with illegal immigrants committing crimes and he has made removing immigrants an administration priority.”
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Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat who represents parts of California’s Bay Area and has frequently parried Trump’s jabs at his district, recommends Boston officials simply do not back down: “Shrinking is the worst thing you can do because then he’ll know that he owns you, and he’ll just keep coming back to get more. That’s the only language a bully understands, is strength.”
Baum, the Harvard professor, argued that immigration policy alone isn’t what’s driving the wedge between Boston and the White House.
“It seems like the core economic engines of this region are under aggressive assault right now,” he said, referencing the administration’s efforts to cut biomedical research funding and demands on elite universities. The former, he said, is being targeted because “post-COVID, there’s been a notable decline in trust in science and medicine, disproportionately among Republicans.” Meanwhile, universities are being sanctioned because of “the perceived overreach of progressives on hot-button cultural issues, with the epicenter being elite colleges,” he said.
For the Trump administration, the likely strategy behind cracking down on Boston “is to shoot a warning shot across the bow at other cities,” Baum said.
Among those interviewed for this story, though, there was consensus the tension is unlikely to abate any time soon.
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Wakeman expects Massachusetts will remain in conservative crosshairs because so many of the state’s elected officials have “signaled that they’re at war with Donald Trump.” Plus, any blowback will have little practical effect on Trump executing his agenda.
“If the state of Massachusetts had some juice — in other words, a congressman or a senator who was important for future votes — then perhaps somebody might be able to run interference,” she said.
Conant shared a similar assessment that “this is a fight with few political consequences” for the president since “there’s not a lot of Trump voters in Boston.”
Tal Kopan of Globe staff contributed reporting to this story.
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Julian E.J. Sorapuru can be reached at julian.sorapuru@globe.com. Follow him on X @JulianSorapuru.
One autumn evening in 2020, the late poet Louise Glück walked into the snug dining room of the Somerville Peruvian restaurant Celeste. Glück found her usual table — the one between the two air conditioning vents — and greeted her usual server, Gonzalo, who waited on her every time she stopped in for ceviche de pescado and an IPA. But this evening was different from the others.
Glück had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature the day before and, amid a wave of public attention, craved the normalcy of enjoying a meal at one of her favorite restaurants. Ahead of Glück’s standing reservation, Celeste’s founders Maria Rondeau and chef JuanMa Calderon had filled the dining room with friends to ensure the new Nobel Laureate could dine in peace. A tabletop bouquet was the only memento marking her achievement.
“All she wanted was to be at Celeste and not think about anything else,” said Rondeau. “At the same time, we were nervous. We’d waited on the same lady every day, but now she was something else. It was a moment of joyous togetherness.”
Glück’s connection to Celeste is uniquely intense — so intense, in fact, that Rondeau and Calderon’s new restaurant opening in Back Bay, Rosa y Marigold, shares a name with Glück’s last published work. It’s also a particularly profound example of how Boston writers have long found comfort, camaraderie and sometimes safety in the city’s bars, cafes and restaurants.
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From the bygone Harvard Square Spanish spot Irunåa where Robert Lowell hosted post-workshop office hours to the old Ground Round off Soldiers Field Road where reporters for The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine and the Boston Phoenix grabbed drinks after media-league softball games, local eateries have literally and figuratively fueled generations of Boston academics, journalists, novelists and poets. So, we asked some of these writers to tell us where they typically go for a coffee, a meal, a conversation, or a moment of peace.
Zarlasht Niaz, novelist
Zarlasht Niaz, author of novel-in-verse “Unfurling,” at the Newsfeed Cafe at the Boston Public Library. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Zarlasht Niaz recently came to Boston from Minneapolis to begin her tenure as the Boston Public Library’s 2025-26 writer-in-residence. The Afghan American writer is managing an online literary journal that centers writing from and about Afghanistan while working on her debut novel-in-verse. Despite her newcomer status, she has already found some gastronomic staples.
Niaz regularly stops into BPL’s Newsfeed Café for arepas from the Somerville-based Venezuelan catering company Carolicious; lattes from a talented, unnamed barista — “When that person’s working, I get really excited,” said Niaz — and live public radio programming from the other NPR affiliate in town.
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She also frequents Anoush’ella’s South Boston location, whose Eastern Mediterranean flavors call to mind home food. “They have these salads with a lot of different herbs and they remind me of the salads I grew up eating,” said Niaz. Turmeric House in Braintree hits similarly. “A perfect cup of chai. A perfect kebab. Yeah, I can’t wait to go back.”
Stephen Greenblatt, literary historian
Author Stephen Greenblatt at Cambridge restaurant Giulia, on Massachusetts Ave. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Having devoted decades to unpacking the work of Renaissance writers, particularly William Shakespeare, it’s no wonder that the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning literary historian Stephen Greenblatt gravitates toward cuisine that could’ve conceivably appeared in “Julius Caesar.”
The Cambridge Italian staple Giulia is his undisputed go-to. “I know Italian food quite well, because we spend quite a lot of time in Rome,” said Greenblatt. “Guilia is unusually creative.” He often orders the pappardelle with wild boar topped with black trumpet mushrooms and parmigiano.
“The chef, Michael Pagliarini, is extremely talented and alert to what really good Italian food is like,” he said.
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Greenblatt also ventures to the eastern edges of the Mediterranean basin when visiting Oleana (which recently received a Michelin Guide recommendation), but his dessert of choice there is decidedly American. “I like Oleana quite a lot, particularly for the wonderful baked Alaska, which is, I think, one of the great desserts that one can get,” said Greenblatt.
Golden, poet and photographer
Golden moved to Boston in 2018 following a celebrated poetry slam guest performance at Haley House in Roxbury and quickly became a fixture within the local literary scene. In the time since, the Black, gender-nonconforming trans writer and photographer has turned out two collections of poetry and images, served as Boston’s 2020-21 artist in residence, and earned a handful of high-profile fellowships. Golden is now relocating to their home state of Virginia to pursue an MFA, but they depart with close community ties, including connections to a couple of keystone Jamaica Plain restaurants.
Galway House, on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, Boston. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
“When I first moved to Boston, I lived on Centre Street by Jackson Square and we would always go to Galway House,” said Golden. “They have affordable, consistent food and a lot of community members I know love going there.”
The Haven, one of the Boston area’s only Scottish spots, is another JP essential for Golden. “I love the Haven Burger — it’s one of my favorites. And I love a good French fry and you can’t go wrong with that there,” Golden said. “I love filling food and food that you can enjoy with friends. That’s where my brain goes when I’m deciding where to eat.”
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Laura Zigman, novelist
The fiction of Laura Zigman often hinges on the heightened emotionalism that comes with navigating life’s highs and lows, beginning with her debut 1997 novel “Animal Husbandry,” which was optioned and became the basis for a romantic comedy starring Ashley Judd and a young Hugh Jackman. But when it comes to going out for a drink or something to eat, Zigman looks to avoid drama at all costs.
Bar Enza, located in the Charles Hotel near Harvard Square, is her ideal venue for meeting friends. “They have really nice wine and cocktails, even though I really don’t drink anymore,” Zigman said. “When you come in for a drink, they’ll give you a velvet banquette that’s beautiful where you can talk and actually hear each other and I just love it.”
The entrance to George Howell Coffee and Lovestruck Books, in Cambridge, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
For coffee, Zigman prefers George Howell Coffee nestled inside the nearby Lovestruck Books. The location itself is freighted with Cambridge cafe history, standing not far from where Howell’s original Coffee Connection once operated between 1975 and 1996 before Starbucks acquired and rebranded it and its 18 local sister stores.
“Coffee Connection was one of those places that I just lived in when I was a teenager,” said Zigman. “They had French roast, French presses, and big barrels of coffee beans with burlap covers. The new George Howell inside Lovestruck is great — it’s cozy, smells like coffee, and it’s pink and red inside.”
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Paul Tremblay, novelist
Author Paul Tremblay, by the Hamilton Restaurant and Bar, near Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Brookline Booksmith near Coolidge Corner is a key location for the multi-time Bram Stoker Award-winning horror novelist Paul Tremblay. He visited the shop for the first time early in his writing career to attend a Stewart O’Nan reading and, in the years since, has gone back numerous times to do readings of his own and participate in author events.
Virtually every trip Tremblay makes to Brookline Booksmith goes hand-in-hand with a stop at Hamilton Restaurant and Bar, whose distinctive red awning with a silhouette of its namesake Founding Father casts a shadow on Beacon Street less than a block away.
“Invariably, before the event starts, usually at 7 p.m., all the writers involved and sometimes their family too will meet at Hamilton,” said Tremblay. “It’s such a relaxed vibe — a pub-style place with friendly staff, good food and drink, and, when the weather is warm, a nice outdoor space.”
When Tremblay is nearer to home in the Greater Boston suburbs, he regularly visits Northern Spy, a Canton-based restaurant from the owners of Loyal Nine that serves New England cuisine and operates out of Paul Revere’s historic Rolling Copper Mill.
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“It’s a newer restaurant and it’s got a beautiful interior,” he said. “For people who dare trek outside of Boston and want to meet, it’s a go-to place.”
Megan Marshall, biographer
Biographer Megan Marshall looks across Belmont Street from the window of Praliné French Patisserie’s location in Belmont, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Megan Marshall arrived in the Boston area in 1973 and has since seen slews of writer-saturated restaurants come and go. She remembers meeting the eminent editor Justin Kaplan at the long-defunct Harvard Square fondue place, Swiss Alps, to get guidance on her biography of Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia Peabody, which eventually earned her the Pulitzer Prize. And she recalls grabbing coffee and cinnamon toast from a drugstore with an old-fashioned soda fountain that once stood on Boylston Street in between research sessions at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
These days, Marshall often finds herself at the Cambridge French patisserie Praliné. “They’re such lovely people there and they speak French, which makes me feel cosmopolitan and their croissants are, I think, the best in the Boston area,” said Marshall.
She also enjoys Praliné’s imported French loose-leaf tea, Mariage Frères. “I get little boxes of it to give as presents. People I know who have spent time in Paris say, ‘Oh, you must be just back from Paris,’ because there’s this impression that you can only get Mariage Frères there,” she said. “But you can get it at Praliné and impress anybody you know who’s Parisian.”
BOSTON (WHDH) – Police are investigating a stabbing in Boston on Sunday afternoon that left a victim with life-threatening injuries.
Officers responding to a reported stabbing in the area of 71 Summer St. around 3:30 p.m. found a victim who was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that are considered life-threatening, according to Boston police.
No arrests have been made.
No additional information was immediately available.
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This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.
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The Trump administration’s accusation that Boston’s housing policies discriminate against white residents is part of a disturbing pattern (“US to investigate Boston for bias,” Page A1, Dec. 13). This is no mere policy debate. It is a calculated attempt by conservatives to whitewash history. They hope that if the past can be obliterated, then present-day racial inequality can be repackaged as something that never even existed.
For centuries, Black Americans have been subjected to legally enforced discrimination in housing, education, employment, lending, and voting, atop generations of enslavement. These evils shaped who accumulated wealth and opportunity and who did not. The Civil Rights Act made discriminatory practices illegal, but it did not erase the advantages and disadvantages those systems had already created. That’s why policies such as Boston’s were conceived — not as rewards or punishments but rather as pragmatic efforts to narrow gaps that were deliberately built.
Opposition to these programs is an attack on history and truth itself. Limiting what can be talked about in schools, removing displays honoring the struggles of Black Americans, taking Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth off of the calendar of fee-free days at national parks — these are all part of a coordinated and cynical strategy to foster ignorance in America. This scheme allows the Trump team to attack programs such as Boston’s or any DEI policy and call it a defense of fairness and neutrality. It’s another Big Lie.
For this president and the movement he leads, ignorance is no longer a mere failure of politics. It is the whole point.
