Opinion

At some point the question stops being what Donald Trump intends to do next and becomes how much institutional abuse the American presidency can absorb before it is permanently warped. What we are watching is not merely a controversial administration or a polarizing leader doing polarizing things. It is the steady, deliberate stress-testing of norms that were never designed to … [Read more...] about Trump: How Much More Abuse This Presidency Can Take

One of the most likely outcomes in the U.S.–Iran standoff is not escalation, not a durable agreement, and not even a strategic retreat, but a familiar fiction: a declared victory that leaves reality essentially untouched. For Donald Trump, this is not a theoretical risk but a governing habit. Diplomatic initiatives are launched with dramatic flair, meetings are teased as … [Read more...] about Trampaesque: Victory Without Substance

A familiar script is unfolding again, this time framed by a New York Times report that casts Tehran as newly pragmatic: Iran signals a willingness to freeze its nuclear program for the long term, provided U.S. sanctions are lifted, while drawing a bright red line around its ballistic missile arsenal. The setting matters. Talks are scheduled to open in Oman, the diplomatic … [Read more...] about Negotiations Without Leverage, Diplomacy as Theater

What’s unfolding here isn’t just another ugly budget fight or a hard-nosed negotiation tactic dressed up as “deal-making.” It’s something far more corrosive, and honestly far more familiar to anyone who has studied authoritarian systems rather than democratic ones. According to reporting by CNN and Politico, U.S. President Donald Trump demanded that New York’s Penn Station and … [Read more...] about The Infrastructure Hostage Crisis: Trump, Power, and the Architecture of a Personality Cult

A quiet but consequential escalation unfolded today as the U.S. Treasury moved against one of the Iranian regime’s most vital financial lifelines: its shadow fleet. While streets inside Iran have filled with protestors and the regime has once again cut internet access to hide repression from the outside world, Washington has chosen to strike where Tehran is most vulnerable—its … [Read more...] about OFAC Tightens the Net: Inside the U.S. Sanctions on Iran’s Shadow Fleet