Alexander Burns

Alexander Burns is POLITICO’s Senior Executive Editor, North America, overseeing coverage of politics and policy across United States and Canada. A deeply experienced political journalist and bestselling author, he has reported for more than a decade on President Donald Trump’s impact on the American government and political system.

Burns started his career at POLITICO during the 2008 campaign, as the publication became the dominant digital outlet covering Washington and American political campaigns. He joined The New York Times in 2015 and was one of the lead reporters covering Trump’s first election and Trump’s defeat in 2020, while also serving as a political analyst for CNN.

Burns returned to POLITICO in the fall of 2002 as an editor and columnist focused on the future of politics and policy, covering subjects from red-state electric vehicle manufacturing to the embattled U.S. semiconductor strategy and Canadian backlash against Trump’s election in 2024.

Together with fellow POLITICO journalist Jonathan Martin, Burns authored the 2022 book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future on the last months of Donald Trump’s first administration, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol Building. 

Burns is a native of New York City and a graduate of Harvard College, where he edited the Harvard Political Review. He lives in Washington.