Trump is wreaking havoc at USAID. Is the goal to shut it down?
The president’s failure to name a USAID administrator and other steps seem to suggest that, at the very least, he’ll fold USAID into the State Department.
Today's Liberal News
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Pick for National Intel Director, Refuses to Call Edward Snowden a Traitor
President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congressmember from Hawaii, is facing major qualms from her former colleagues. During her Senate confirmation hearing, Democrats grilled her over her refusal to label whistleblower Edward Snowden a “traitor.” We discuss Snowden’s case and what it revealed about government surveillance of the American public with Chip Gibbons.
“Extraordinarily Dangerous”: Chip Gibbons Warns Kash Patel Would Turn FBI’s Powers on Trump’s Enemies
President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who has promoted right-wing conspiracy theories, is “one of Donald Trump’s most disturbing picks” who seems poised to use the office to go after journalists and other Trump critics, says Chip Gibbons of the civil liberties organization Defending Rights & Dissent.
“The Dr. Who Fooled the World”: Author Slams RFK’s Embrace of Disgraced Anti-Vaxxer Andrew Wakefield
Author and investigative journalist Brian Deer, who debunked disgraced ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent claims that vaccines were linked to autism, says that Wakefield and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, are major leaders of the anti-vaccine movement. “They basically run this movement together,” he says.
Samoa’s Health Chief Says RFK Jr. Spread Anti-Vax Misinformation Before Deadly Measles Outbreak
The second day of confirmation hearings for Trump’s secretary of health and human services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. again focused on his long record of vaccine skepticism, his shifting position on abortion and his professional inexperience in public health. Kennedy was questioned about his role in a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019. Dr.
“Nonsensical”: As Trump Blames Crash on DEI, Aviation Expert Says It’s Understaffing, Lax Regulation
Donald Trump is blaming DEI for the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades, when a regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter collided over a Washington, D.C. airport, killing 67 people. “We have a long list of problems that need to be addressed. … Instead, we’re talking about a nonsensical issue that is not based in fact,” says FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher Bill McGee, who says criticisms of DEI distract from and work against a critical staffing shortage at the FAA.
Trump Isn’t Going to Like the Fallout From His Fight With Colombia
The tariffs standoff might just be the start of a very pricey mess.
There’s One Way to Solve Homelessness in America. We’re Trying Something Else Instead.
Well before Donald Trump took office, the country was pivoting to a more punitive approach to homelessness.
Money Talks: How Much Would You Pay to Take Care of Someone You Love?
Professor Harold Pollack discusses the obscene costs of longterm care, and how you can better prepare for your family’s future
Is an American Oligarchy Coming Or Is It Already Here?
Biden warned of a looming American oligarchy but has that ship already sailed?
RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine group sees vindication in his Senate testimony
Mary Holland, head of Kennedy-founded Children’s Health Defense, spoke to POLITICO after attending his confirmation hearing.
Warren pushes Kennedy on his financial gain from vaccine lawsuits
“You won’t go to work for a drug company after you leave HHS, but you and I both know there’s another way to make money,” Warren said.
Medicaid payment systems back online after outage
The outage came after the Trump administration on Monday ordered a sweeping pause on federal spending. States and lawmakers early Tuesday began reporting that portals across the country were inaccessible.
Is Aziz Ansari Sorry?
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Your Opinions on Her Wardrobe Are Probably Unwelcome
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
What Role Does HR Play in the #MeToo Era?
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Trump’s spending freeze spreads chaos across US
Supporters of climate, infrastructure, mortgage, tech, health, veterans’ and other projects expressed alarm as tens of thousands of programs appeared possibly at risk.
Lael Brainard’s ‘Crisis Management Agency’ — and Her Warning For Trump
Joe Biden’s top economic adviser opens up on harrowing moments from her time in the White House, and what makes her nervous about the Trump agenda.
Stephen Miran is Trump’s pick to lead Council of Economic Advisers
Miran has called for a sweeping overhaul of the Fed to ensure greater political control over the central bank, including giving the president the power to fire board members at will.
Biden: Trump’s tax and tariffs plans are a ‘major mistake’
Five weeks after the election, the president took his sharpest swing at Trump’s policy plans.
What Trump’s Nominees Revealed
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Americans keeping close track of political news may have been toggling their screens today between Senate confirmation hearings: the second day of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Day Trump Became Un-President
“We’re so back,” one reporter whispered to another.
All of the chairs in the White House briefing room were filled, and reporters and photographers were crammed into every available nook and cranny. I was standing in the back, squeezed in between a window and a none-too-pleased Secret Service agent.
Is There Anything Trump Won’t Blame on D.E.I.?
Shortly after midnight, a few hours after the horrifying collision between an airplane and a helicopter at Reagan National Airport, President Donald Trump felt the time was right for a shocked nation to hear his insights into the tragedy. “It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane.
Nicholas Carr: Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here.
“Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain,” Nicholas Carr wrote in 2008, “remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.
The Return of Snake Oil
In a Massachusetts cellar in 1873, Lydia Pinkham first brewed the elixir that would make her famous. The dirt-brown liquid, made from herbs including black cohosh and pleurisy root, contained somewhere between 18 and 22 percent alcohol—meant as a preservative, of course. Within a couple of years, Pinkham was selling her tonic at $1 a bottle to treat “women’s weaknesses.” Got the blues? How about inflammation, falling of the womb, or painful menstruation? Lydia E.
Netanyahu to Meet Trump in D.C. as Israel Escalates War on West Bank Amid Gaza Ceasefire
We speak with Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada about the ceasefire in Gaza, which has allowed half a million displaced people to return to what’s left of their homes in the north of the territory, as Israel’s ban on UNRWA goes into effect. Hamas militants released another three Israeli captives Thursday, as well as five Thai nationals, all of whom were taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023, attack.
Deadly D.C. Plane Crash Comes Months After Congress Ignored Warning About Traffic at Reagan Airport
Rescue workers in Washington, D.C., have launched a massive recovery operation in the Potomac River after a regional passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair late Wednesday, with both aircraft crashing into the water. American Airlines Flight 5342 had 60 passengers and four crew members on board and was en route to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from Wichita, Kansas. The Black Hawk helicopter had three soldiers on board conducting a training flight.