The Political Scene Podcast

Without Elon Musk, what is the Department of Government Efficiency going to do?

What are the consequences of calling in troops to quell what the President has deemed “the enemy within”?

Donald Trump’s trade war, and his threats toward Chinese students, have endangered the close economic relationship between the two great powers.

Does the Trump-Musk breakup resemble an ancient Greek myth or a Godzilla movie? Either way, mere mortals will likely get trampled.

“Yarvin is spot-on that most of us take democracy for granted,” says the staff writer Ava Kofman. “And there is a profound inability, particularly, I think, in liberal circles . . . to defend it, beyond it being a kind of unquestioned, obvious good.”

A widely condemned media bill being passed through the Hungarian parliament provides a dangerous road map for how Trump may escalate his attacks on the press in the future.

“R.F.K. Jr. got so much gas in his tank by doubting the authorities that now he is the authority,” the historian Daniel Immerwahr says. “And he's really ill-suited for that.”

Biden’s deterioration was physically evident. Does Trump’s vigorous bluster protect him from questions about age-related decline?

“It’s odd to both want the billionaire’s money and to tell the billionaire . . . ‘Just keep your hands off,’ ” the staff writer Clare Malone says. “It places the media in a really uncomfortable situation.”

The President loves posting A.I. images of himself. The staff writer Katy Waldman sees these often bizarre representations as the “statements of intent” of a budding authoritarian.

“The amount of money flowing into the Trump family coffers is of a scale and scope that just sort of blows the mind in any context,” the staff writer Susan B. Glasser says.

After a hundred days of Trump 2.0, has America tipped into authoritarianism?

“The whole country is going through this kind of enormous, disruptive, destabilizing experience,” Susan B. Glasser says.

“The traditionalist side of the Catholic Church in the United States has tolerated Francis, resented him, denigrated him, ignored him,” the writer Paul Elie says. “But also attached themself to his popularity when it suited their purposes.”

“His tolerance for chaos is perhaps going to end up running up against China’s tolerance for pain,” the staff writer Evan Osnos says.

The former Ohio senator thinks the President’s tariff platform, though disastrous, appeals to an increasingly desperate working class.

With a single act, the President has upended the entire global economic order.