Attention to the Unseen

Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes: It seems like the plot of a political thriller. We are living through a new kind of coup in which Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has taken over the payment and other administration systems that allow the American government to function, and has locked out federal employees from computer systems. Many of Musk’s collaborators in this endeavor previously worked for his private companies and/or helped him take over Twitter. Musk is subject to no…

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Brian J. Griffith writes: Similar to many 20th-century European fascists, Musk has expressed strong anxiety regarding what he perceives to be White demographic “decline” in the West, a disdain for labor unions and left-wing politics in general, and has even dabbled in promoting, however loosely, Holocaust denialism. To Musk, much like far-right thinkers 100 years ago, Trump represents a Strongman approach to “restorative” politics, at a time when, from Musk’s perspective, society, culture, and economics are increasingly disjointed and “in decline.” Put plainly, like…

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Timothy W. Ryback writes: Ninety-two years ago this month, on Monday morning, January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed the 15th chancellor of the Weimar Republic. In one of the most astonishing political transformations in the history of democracy, Hitler set about destroying a constitutional republic through constitutional means. What follows is a step-by-step account of how Hitler systematically disabled and then dismantled his country’s democratic structures and processes in less than two months’ time—specifically, one month, three weeks, two…

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Antonio De Loera-Brust writes: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s public threats to retake the Panama Canal, by force if necessary, have already done meaningful damage to U.S. standing in Latin America. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino responded immediately: no way. Other Latin American states, including Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, were quick to offer their solidarity to Panama. United States began building the Panama Canal during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, who once advised, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Trump…

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Anne Applebaum writes: What did Donald Trump say over the phone to Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, on Wednesday? I don’t know which precise words he used, but I witnessed their impact. I arrived in Copenhagen the day after the call—the subject, of course, was the future of Greenland, which Denmark owns and which Trump wants—and discovered that appointments I had with Danish politicians were suddenly in danger of being canceled. Amid Frederiksen’s emergency meeting with business leaders, her…

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BREAKING: President Donald Trump declares the U.S. is "taking back" the Panama Canal from Chinese control pic.twitter.com/lqrKSgXzSK — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 20, 2025 President Trump: President McKinley made our country very rich, through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama after the United States. The United States — I…

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Francisco Lobo writes: President-elect Donald Trump’s recent statements about his administration’s foreign policy toward Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal has given rise to international consternation. In particular, his statements about annexing Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal – the first in his words by the “use of economic force,” the remaining two with the possibility of military force explicitly on the table– have been sufficiently worrisome to inspire foreign leaders to respond. What’s been missing from the commentary and analysis is a regional treaty,…

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Michael Kruse writes: Last summer, in a private moment at the memorial service for ex-senator Joe Lieberman at the Washington Hebrew Congregation, two former vice presidents had a conversation. Al Gore thanked Mike Pence, according to people close to both men, in an interaction that’s never been reported, for his actions at the Capitol the day it was attacked by a mob. Pence, on the opposite side of the political aisle but in the same set of pews, said something…

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Michael Luo writes: President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to begin enacting the anti-immigrant agenda at the center of his campaign the moment he takes office: mass deportations, a crackdown on people “pouring up through Mexico and other places,” even the elimination of birthright citizenship. (The fate of high-skill immigration is one area of uncertainty; a dispute over H-1B visas consumed maga world over the holidays.) The scale of what Trump has promised is difficult to fathom and without recent precedent….

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Jonathan Weisman writes: Democrats had just absorbed a crushing defeat in the 1994 midterm elections when President Bill Clinton’s very liberal labor secretary, Robert Reich, ventured into hostile territory to issue a prophetic warning. Struggling workers were becoming “an anxious class,” he told the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, two weeks after Republicans led by Newt Gingrich had gained 54 seats in the House and eight in the Senate. Society was separating into two tiers, Mr. Reich said, with “a few…

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