Section: The Atlantic (USA)
Russia Is Waging a New Kind of War
What are Americans supposed to think when their leaders contradict each other on the most basic question of national security—who is the enemy? This is happening every day on the floors of the House and the Senate, in committee hearing rooms, on television news programs, and in President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed. Is Russia the enemy, or...
After 30 Years, I Spoke to Viktor Orbán Again
We first met almost 30 years ago, right after the Berlin Wall came down, at a meeting of dissidents held in France’s embassy in Budapest.President François Mitterrand had asked me to prepare a report on how France could contribute to the reconstruction of the countries of central Europe after the lifting of the communist yoke.At the time,...
Movie-Prop Cash Is Fooling Cashiers
The Joker torching a mountain of cash in The Dark Knight. Walter White toting around his 55-gallon-drum nest eggs on Breaking Bad. The bags of $100 bills that Jason Bateman’s character launders on Ozark. Each scene was shot with prop money—phony bills that look real on-screen, but up close have certain glaringly obvious tweaks. Where an...
Trump’s Allies Want to Clintonize Joe Biden
Donald Trump is clearly spooked by Joe Biden—but some of the president’s supporters say there’s an easy solution: Make Biden out to be Hillary Clinton, just older and with a longer record of not getting things done in Washington.Go ahead and try, Biden and his advisers say, offering a list of reasons why they believe that strategy...
Shanahan Finishes His Four-Month Audition for Defense Secretary
After keeping him in the audition phase for more than four months, the White House finally announced President Donald Trump’s intent to nominate Patrick Shanahan to drop the acting in his secretary-of-defense job title and make it official. He is likely to be confirmed by the Republican-held Senate, which means he will formally take...
Chernobyl Is a Gruesome, Riveting Fable
There’s a scene early in Chernobyl where a man pries open a metal door and accidentally looks right into the exposed core of a nuclear reactor—a blinding, lethal, white snowstorm of poison and chaos that scorches him where he stands. This is, you might reason, not a bad metaphor for life online in 2019: the surprises, the gravitational yank...
The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: The U.S. Didn’t Get What It Wanted in Venezuela
We’re trying something new: a once-a-week national-security-focused edition of The Atlantic’s signature politics newsletter. We’ll tell you what to keep an eye on this week, what our reporters are covering, and why the latest natsec developments are significant. Comments or questions? Send us an email anytime. The Top...
The Right Way to Think About ‘Electability’
The highest priority for Democrats in 2020 is a challenger who can beat President Donald Trump. Many believe that Joe Biden is the candidate best able to do it.They may be right.Biden has excellent name recognition rooted in his association with a popular two-term president. And no one doubts that he has the experience to do the job. Then again,...
Trump’s Biden Plan? It Could Get Dirty
Seldom has Donald Trump paid a real price for ridiculing anyone he sees as a political threat, or, for that matter, anyone he doesn’t particularly like. Running a longshot campaign in 2016, Trump taunted then-Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly (“There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever”) demeaned Khizr and Ghazala...
Roger Stone Could Have the Answers
On the eve of his first major appearance since the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report, Roger Stone assured me that he would be “appropriately attired” for his day in court.The veteran Republican operative and longtime confidante of Donald Trump—who boasts a Richard Nixon back tattoo and whose sartorial choices are...
