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Category: Politics

The masquerade of ‘America First’

The masquerade of ‘America First’

Danny Postel writes: The term “America First” is just as confusing and misleading as [Walter] Lippmann [in 1952] argued “isolationism” had become. Its advocates would have us believe that they are merely pursuing a realist foreign policy, one of neutrality and restraint, while in actuality they have dogs in various fights, both between warring countries and inside them. In one breath, they profess indifference about “what’s going on” in faraway lands, and in the next breath, they let slip their…

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Tesla’s European sales collapse as anti-Musk backlash grows

Tesla’s European sales collapse as anti-Musk backlash grows

Politico reports: Tesla’s downward spiral is turning into a rout, with its share of European electric car sales falling by 58 percent in the first two months of this year, dropping from 18.4 percent in 2024 to 7.7 percent for the same period this year, according to data from JATO Dynamics, an auto consulting firm. To add insult to injury, Chinese EV brands sold nearly 20,000 vehicles in Europe last month, far outpacing Tesla’s 15,700 units. The American EV company…

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How Musk’s DOGE cuts leave a vacuum that China can fill

How Musk’s DOGE cuts leave a vacuum that China can fill

David Sanger writes: When President Trump announced on Friday that the United States would move ahead with a long-debated project to build a stealthy next-generation fighter jet, the message to China was clear: The United States plans to spend tens of billions of dollars over the next decade, probably far longer, to contain Beijing’s ability to dominate the skies over the Pacific. But here on earth, the reality has been very different. As the Department of Government Efficiency roars through…

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During stunning operational security failure, Hegseth wrote, ‘I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC,’

During stunning operational security failure, Hegseth wrote, ‘I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC,’

Jeffrey Goldberg writes: The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing. This is going to require…

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Texts reveal a team of amateurs in charge of national security

Texts reveal a team of amateurs in charge of national security

Following Jeffrey Goldberg’s revelation that he was inadvertently added to a group chat for discussing classified war plans, Garrett Graff writes: Lost amid the headline-grabbing insanity of the classified details is what the principals were discussing on the group chat. It doesn’t take reading too deeply between the lines to see that the principals weren’t entirely clear on what Trump had ordered — someone, apparently Stephen Miller, says, “as I heard it, the president was clear: green light” — which…

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Bernie Sanders is tapping into a deep vein of anger stretching across America

Bernie Sanders is tapping into a deep vein of anger stretching across America

Megan K. Stack writes: They gathered early in North Las Vegas, waiting under the hot sun in a snaking line in the middle of a workday for their chance to see Bernie. With stucco houses and apartment blocks interrupted by strip malls and trash-strewn vacant lots, this is not the Vegas you see in glamorous movies. It was, however, the setting for what Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont called the biggest crowd he had ever drawn here. Nevada was the…

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Military veterans are becoming the face of Trump and Musk’s government cuts and Democrats’ resistance

Military veterans are becoming the face of Trump and Musk’s government cuts and Democrats’ resistance

The Associated Press reports: As congressional lawmakers scramble to respond to President Donald Trump’s slashing of the federal government, one group is already taking a front and center role: military veterans. From layoffs at the Department of Veterans Affairs to a Pentagon purge of archives that documented diversity in the military, veterans have been acutely affected by Trump’s actions. And with the Republican president determined to continue slashing the federal government, the burden will only grow on veterans, who make…

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Canada is Trump’s Ukraine

Canada is Trump’s Ukraine

David French writes: I had a conversation last week with a Canadian journalist about the culture war on American campuses. After we finished talking about that, she had one final question for me. “What the hell is Trump thinking about Canada?” She wasn’t just asking about President Trump’s tariff threats. She was also asking about Trump’s obsession with referring to Canada as the 51st state. The tariffs were somewhat understandable, even if terribly misguided. They are, after all, one of…

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Trump’s predatory advances on Greenland are backfiring

Trump’s predatory advances on Greenland are backfiring

The New York Times reports: For more than 150 years, U.S. officials have been trying, as President Trump puts it, to “get” Greenland. The idea came up in the 1860s, then again before and after the world wars. In a way, the timing couldn’t be better than now, with Greenlanders re-examining their painful colonial history under Denmark and many itching to break off from Denmark, which still controls some of the island’s affairs. But President Trump seems to have overplayed…

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Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the courage to brawl for the working class

Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the courage to brawl for the working class

The Guardian reports: Bernie Sanders is not running for president. But he is drawing larger crowds now than he did when he was campaigning for the White House. The message has hardly changed. Nor has the messenger, with his shock of white hair and booming delivery. What’s different now, the senator says, is that his fears – a government captured by billionaires who exploit working people – have become an undeniable reality and people are angry. “For years, I’ve talked…

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U.S. to revoke legal status of more than a half-million migrants, urges them to self deport

U.S. to revoke legal status of more than a half-million migrants, urges them to self deport

CBS News reports: The Trump administration will be revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Latin American and Haitian migrants welcomed into the U.S. under a Biden-era sponsorship process, urging them to self-deport or face arrest and removal by deportation agents. The termination of their work permits and deportation protections under an immigration authority known as parole will take effect in late April, 30 days after March 25, according to a notice posted by the federal government. The…

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Trump won’t win the war against the courts

Trump won’t win the war against the courts

Judge J. Michael Luttig writes: Judge Boasberg doesn’t want to assume the role of president; the president wants to assume the role of judge. At a hearing on Friday, in a further development in this showdown between the president and the judiciary, Judge Boasberg expressed skepticism about the administration’s use of a wartime statute to deport immigrants without a hearing to challenge whether they were gang members, as the government has asserted. “The policy ramifications of this are incredibly troublesome…

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Trump administration tries to use post hoc justification for detaining Mahmoud Khalil

Trump administration tries to use post hoc justification for detaining Mahmoud Khalil

The New York Times reports: When Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead pro-Palestinian demonstrations while a Columbia University student, was detained this month, the Trump administration argued he should be deported to help prevent the spread of antisemitism, invoking a rarely used law. Lawyers for Mr. Khalil, a legal permanent resident who is being detained in Louisiana, quickly responded that the administration was retaliating against their client for his constitutionally protected speech criticizing Israel and promoting Palestinian rights. Last week, the…

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Musk needs to quit openly threatening Social Security, Trump allies warn

Musk needs to quit openly threatening Social Security, Trump allies warn

NBC News reports: After his election, Donald Trump told NBC News that “we’re not touching Social Security,” other than to make it more efficient. But Elon Musk, who now wields enormous power in his role cutting government spending, has recently made comments critical of the program that are coming into conflict with Trump’s promise and worrying members of the president’s own party. Those concerns have prompted some Trump allies to question whether the billionaire should continue to do so many…

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Investors who were all-in on U.S. stocks are starting to look elsewhere

Investors who were all-in on U.S. stocks are starting to look elsewhere

The Wall Street Journal reports: Keith Moffat was born in Canada, lives in the Netherlands and has an Irish passport. But until recently, his stock portfolio was (almost) all-American. At one point, around 90% of Moffat’s investments were in U.S. stocks. He sold all of his American holdings in the past few weeks and piled into exchange-traded funds that hold shares of European and other international companies, alongside European defense stocks. Moffat said the U.S. market is overpriced. But President…

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Trump decree aimed at lawyers everywhere strikes a menacing tone

Trump decree aimed at lawyers everywhere strikes a menacing tone

The New York Times reports: President Trump broadened his campaign of retaliation against lawyers he dislikes with a new memorandum that threatens to use government power to punish any law firms that, in his view, unfairly challenge his administration. The memorandum directs the heads of the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to “seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation against the United States” or in matters that come before federal agencies. Mr….

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