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The Biden Investigation Is a Path to Even Greater Lawlessness

The Biden Investigation Is a Path to Even Greater Lawlessness Trump calls Biden's auto-signing scandal •The Atlantic by Paul Rosenzweig / Jun 7, 2025 at 5:39 AM Is this article about Opinions? President Donald Trump’s presidential memorandum ordering an investigation of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and his use of the autopen is just the most recent step in Trump’s hostile takeover of the Department of Justice. It is also nonsensical fan service, amplifying addled MAGA conspiracy theories that contend, with a straight face, that Biden was really a robotic clone. In these senses, the investigative order was a sign of just another Wednesday in the chaotic, topsy-turvy world of Trump. On a legal level, one thing is striking about the text of the memo: The order does not explicitly target Biden himself, at least not directly—only the aides who supposedly facilitated Biden’s use of the autopen and suppressed evidence of his decline. Biden’s absence as a direct target is almost certa...

Feudalism Is Our Future

Feudalism Is Our Future 100+The Atlantic by Cullen Murphy / Jun 3, 2025 at 4:40 AM 8 Companies See Insights Card Judging from news accounts and interviews, numerous people in and around the Trump administration are beguiled by imperial Rome. They see themselves as interpreters of its lessons—beware immigration; uphold masculinity; make babies—and inheritors of its majesty. A banner at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, in Washington, D.C., depicted Donald Trump in Augustan profile, his brow garlanded with laurel leaves. Elon Musk styles himself “Imperator of Mars” and has named one of his many children Romulus. Steve Bannon keeps a bust of Julius Caesar in his Capitol Hill office. Two decades ago, when maga was just a Latin word for “enchantress,” I wrote a book about ancient Rome and modern America. The book didn’t touch on masculinity or the birth rate, and it didn’t try to explain the fall of Rome; the idea was just to sift through the story of a past society...

Trump’s war on Harvard is bizarre — and incredibly damaging

Opinion Fareed Zakaria Trump’s war on Harvard is bizarre — and incredibly damaging He is wrecking American competitiveness. May 30, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDTToday at 6:00 a.m. EDT When historians write about the challenges to America’s global hegemony, they will point to the rise of China, the first full-fledged peer competitor to the United States in decades. They will also note the return of Russia and its efforts to disrupt the American-led security order in Europe. These are familiar patterns in the rise and fall of world powers. What is new and surprising is that these challenges, far from uniting America, have turned it on itself, with its government tearing down many of the crucial elements of its extraordinary success. Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter Consider the Nature Index, perhaps the most comprehensive guide to high-quality research in the sciences. It tracks contributions to the world’s leading academic journals. Its newest rankings sho...

Trump’s flip-flop on how easy it would be to end the Russia-Ukraine war

Trump’s flip-flop on how easy it would be to end the Russia-Ukraine war The president has gone from a “24-hour” deal to “back away” in just a few months May 22, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDTToday at 6:00 a.m. EDT 15 min President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Feb 28. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) Analysis by Glenn Kessler “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we all together win the presidency, we will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled. It will be settled. The war is going to be settled. I’ll get them both. I know Zelensky, I know Putin. It’ll be done within 24 hours, you watch.” — Donald Trump, remarks at a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, July 29, 2023 “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War. The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know detai...

The Curse of the Plane Qatar Is Giving Trump The 747-8 is an exquisite machine with a catch.

aviation The Curse of the Plane Qatar Is Giving Trump The 747-8 is an exquisite machine with a catch. By Clive Irving, is a journalist and author of Wide-body: The Triumph of the 747. 11:10 A.M. A Qatari Boeing 747-8 sits on the tarmac of Palm Beach International Airport after President Donald Trump toured it in February. Photo: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images As catnip for a high-end mendicant like Donald Trump, the Boeing 747-8 is unbeatable. It’s an exquisite machine, a perfect consummation of form and function and last in a line of one of the greatest airplanes ever built. It’s also a haunting specter for Boeing of a supremacy it achieved and then lost. The Qatari donors were obviously well aware of the jet’s allure to Trump as a $400 million freebie. But now the president, Boeing, and the 747-8 are locked in a storm of rebuke that needs unpacking and, when it is, the Qataris appear in a very different light. To begin with, Trump has no grasp of or patience for the technology ...

Trump needs that Qatari 747 — for all his evasive maneuvers

Opinion Dana Milbank Trump needs that Qatari 747 — for all his evasive maneuvers Trump said Monday that he invented a new word that is very old. But it is the best word for him. May 12, 2025 at 7:02 p.m. EDTToday at 7:02 p.m. EDT 5 min President Donald Trump with Mehmet Oz, left, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the White House on Monday. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) Is there no end to the talents of the very stable genius? As he rolled out his executive order on Monday decreeing lower prices for prescription drugs, President Donald Trump announced that he had also achieved a lexicographical breakthrough. Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter “There’s a new word that I came up with, which I think is probably the best word,” he announced from the Roosevelt Room. “We’re going to ‘equalize,’ where we’re all going to pay the same.” He has the best words. ...