Section: The Atlantic (USA)
The U.S. Is Abandoning Its Interests in Brexit
Gordon Sondland is a busy man. He recently testified to Congress about his role in President Donald Trump’s attempt to extort campaign dirt from the government of Ukraine. That testimony follows from Sondland’s previous deft maneuvering to insert himself as Trump’s point man on Ukraine. All of these many plots and schemes appear...
William Barr Doesn’t Know Who His Real Client Is
Legal ethicists no doubt cringed earlier this year when Attorney General William Barr preempted Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report by : Trump finally has his lawyer]When an intelligence-community insider accused Trump of using American military aid as a lever to make Ukraine pursue a baseless investigation of Joe Biden and his son, for...
The Closed-Door Impeachment
In the three and a half weeks since Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, House investigators have broken through the administration’s stonewalling of Congress and heard dozens of hours of testimony from key witnesses.The public, however, has seen virtually none of it—and that dynamic could...
The Atlantic Politics Daily: The Syria Stumble
Today in PoliticsIt’s Friday, October 18. Today, who else benefits from the U.S. withdrawal from Syria? ¶ Plus, what to make of the Trump National Doral resort’s new hosting gig. ¶ Finally, remembering Elijah Cummings, a reluctant partisan warrior.(AARON JOSEFCZYK / REUTERS)A brief cease-fire brokered by the U.S. and Turkey seems to...
Why Firing Mick Mulvaney Is Riskier Than Keeping Him
Mick Mulvaney’s job was in danger even before his disastrous press conference yesterday, and his equally disastrous attempt to walk that performance back. The fumble could not have been more poorly timed: According to multiple current and former White House officials, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay private...
The Senate Must Rein In Trump
After President Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon the Kurds and withdraw our troops from northern Syria, Congress spent this past week trying to decide how best to respond. A resolution of denunciation? Tough sanctions on Turkey? Reconsider our relationship with Turkey? Convene the coalition against ISIS and consider how to recapture...
‘Get Over It’ Is the Essence of Trumpism
Who knows what acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had in mind when he stepped to a lectern in the White House briefing room Thursday? (Not Trump’s legal team, apparently.) Whatever his goal, Mulvaney delivered a succinct credo for both the Trump administration and the Trump 2020 campaign.“I have news for everybody: Get over it,” Mulvaney...
Trump’s Most Shameless Act of Profiteering
The Trump administration has a lot to grapple with it at the moment—Turkey’s disastrous incursion into Syria, a strong likelihood of impeachment, a tough reelection campaign—but there’s always time for the president to profiteer from his job.White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney announced Thursday that the U.S. will host the 2020...
Trump’s a Paper Tiger, and Everyone Knows It
The United States is, yet again, facing an unnecessary crisis of its own making. On October 6, Donald Trump decided, during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to withdraw U.S. military forces from northern Syria. And not for the first time. Erdoğan persuaded Trump to withdraw U.S. forces during a phone call back in...
The Experts Strike Back
Donald Trump came into the office without much experience in diplomacy—literal or figurative—but it doesn’t take a career Foreign Service officer to realize that if you spend enough time saying someone is your enemy, that person might begin to feel the same way about you.From the start of his administration, the president demonized...
