Trump triggers a crisis in Denmark — and Europe

Trump triggers a crisis in Denmark — and Europe

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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A rubber-stamp president?

A rubber-stamp president?

If Donald Trump won’t be able to trumpet that the largest crowd in human history assembled to celebrate his resurrection, perhaps today’s Capitol Rotunda gathering marks the greatest assembly of billionaires Washington has ever seen. On Friday, January 20, 2017, Trump signed his first executive orders in the Oval Office shortly after his inaugural parade ended. Note that he needed his chief of staff to point out where on the order his signature was required:   Trump loves spectacles. But…

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The tech broligarchs dark vision for the new Trump term

The tech broligarchs dark vision for the new Trump term

Sigal Samuel writes: There’s a dominant narrative in the media about why tech billionaires are sucking up to Donald Trump: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, all of whom have descended on the nation’s capital for the presidential inauguration, either happily support or have largely acquiesced to Trump because they think he’ll offer lower taxes and friendlier regulations. In other words, it’s just about protecting their own selfish business interests. That narrative is not exactly wrong — Trump has…

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The legal status of Elon Musk’s government waste panel is already being challenged in federal court

The legal status of Elon Musk’s government waste panel is already being challenged in federal court

The Washington Post reports: A lawsuit claiming billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” violates federal transparency rules was filed within minutes of President Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday, kicking off a legal battle over a key aspect of the incoming administration’s agenda. In a 30-page complaint obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its filing, the public interest law firm National Security Counselors says that the nongovernmental DOGE panel is breaking a 1972 law that requires advisory committees to the…

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Crypto executives warn Trump and Melania’s memecoins harm the industry

Crypto executives warn Trump and Melania’s memecoins harm the industry

BREAKING: Donald Trump’s memecoin, $TRUMP, crashes over -40% as Melania Trump launches her own memecoin. This is beyond insane. pic.twitter.com/6Oj2GGqjqF — The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) January 19, 2025 You can't make this up: The website used to launch $MELANIA was created on Saturday, January 18th, at 9:36 AM ET. On January 19th, at 4:13 PM ET, the memecoin was launched. That's a 31 hour gap from when the website was created to the launch of the coin. Was the Melania……

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How undemocratic workplaces sowed the seeds of Trumpism

How undemocratic workplaces sowed the seeds of Trumpism

Noah Berlatsky and Ilana Gershon write: Since Donald Trump’s election victory, the Democratic Party and numerous pundits have been arguing about why Kamala Harris lost. Some have argued that Harris failed to emphasize progressive economic policies. Others have insisted that she should have more explicitly disavowed the left. Perhaps most convincingly, writers like Financial Times columnist and data reporter John Burn-Murdoch have noted that this has been an unfavorable time for incumbents globally, from the United Kingdom to Japan, as…

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Panamanian movements vow to resist Trump’s threats to their sovereignty

Panamanian movements vow to resist Trump’s threats to their sovereignty

Peoples Dispatch reports: Panamanian movements have expressed their readiness to resist US President Donald Trump’s threats to Panama’s sovereignty. On January 20, as part of a mobilization of trade unions and social movements in Panama City in defense of the public pension system, they will also denounce the expansionist threats of Trump. At a rally in December, Trump said that the fees being charged at the Panama canal are too high and that if they did not come down, “we…

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Panama Canal: Remembering the workers who died in the service of presidential ambitions

Panama Canal: Remembering the workers who died in the service of presidential ambitions

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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Bannon claims ‘Trump broke the oligarchs’ — as they take over Washington

Bannon claims ‘Trump broke the oligarchs’ — as they take over Washington

The Guardian reports: Steve Bannon, the former Trump White House chief strategist, has described the tech titans gathering at Monday’s inauguration as “supplicants” to Donald Trump making “an official surrender”, akin to the Japanese surrender to allied forces on the deck of the USS Missouri in September 1945. Bannon, who served as architect of Trump’s 2016 presidential win but later fell out with the president-elect after he criticized his intellect and members of his family, told ABC News in an…

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The Trump oligarchy is moving to Washington, and buying up prime property

The Trump oligarchy is moving to Washington, and buying up prime property

The New York Times reports: President Biden warned in his farewell address to the nation last week that an oligarchy is taking shape in America. In Washington, the oligarchs are already here, buying big houses. Counting President-elect Donald J. Trump himself, there are at least a dozen billionaires among his cabinet picks and those headed for senior roles in the new administration. Elon Musk tops the list with a $429 billion net worth, according to Forbes, making him the world’s…

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Sam Harris: ‘Everyone close to Elon must recognize how unethical he has become’

Sam Harris: ‘Everyone close to Elon must recognize how unethical he has become’

Sam Harris writes: Let this be a cautionary tale for any of Elon’s friends who might be tempted to tell the great man something he doesn’t want to hear: 1. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus first invaded our lives in March of 2020, Elon began tweeting in ways that I feared would harm his reputation. I also worried that his tweets might exacerbate the coming public-health emergency. Italy had already fallen off a cliff, and Elon shared the following opinion with…

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How a rightwing movement is trying to destroy American democracy

How a rightwing movement is trying to destroy American democracy

The Guardian reports: There is a “real and very, very present” threat to the US from a shadowy collection of rightwing leaders, a new book on the movement behind Donald Trump warns, with the aim being “an end to pluralistic democracy”. Katherine Stewart, a journalist who specializes in the religious right, spent years researching the money and influence that has aided and encouraged tens of millions of Americans in their worship at the throne of Trump. The result is Money,…

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German ambassador confidentially warns Trump plans to redefine constitutional order

German ambassador confidentially warns Trump plans to redefine constitutional order

Reuters reports: Germany’s ambassador to the United States has warned that the incoming Trump administration will rob U.S. law enforcement and the media of their independence and hand big tech companies “co-governing power”, according to a confidential document seen by Reuters. The briefing document, dated Jan. 14 and signed by Ambassador Andreas Michaelis, describes Donald Trump’s agenda for his second White House term as one of “maximum disruption” that will bring about “a redefinition of the constitutional order – maximum…

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Israel can no longer ignore the Palestinian cause after failing to quash it by force

Israel can no longer ignore the Palestinian cause after failing to quash it by force

Meron Rapoport writes: It is still too early to say who won and who lost Israel’s war on Gaza, especially since the ceasefire has not yet begun. But if at least the first stage of the agreement goes ahead, it can be said that Israel has not achieved its war goals. Israel has not succeeded in achieving its pronounced goals: wiping out Hamas and returning the captives by military force. More importantly, its undeclared goal was to eliminate the Palestinian…

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