Trumps calls it a war when he wants to rationalize casualties but claims it’s not a war in order to avoid congressional oversight. Talking on CNN Newsnight.
05.03.2026 15:51
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Trumps calls it a war when he wants to rationalize casualties but claims it’s not a war in order to avoid congressional oversight. Talking on CNN Newsnight.
Talking on CNN on how Netanyahu is destroying Democratic support for Israel while getting what he wants out of Trump.
We all should cheer for Anthropic in its lonely fight for responsible guardrails on AI.…A victory would help rein in an administration that has made a habit of improperly leveraging its gargantuan power to bend businesses and other institutions to its will. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
So basically the Republican argument is that it’s too late for Congress to do anything if the president launches a war or regime change without legislative authorization (or even consultation). So much for checks and balances.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
Ed (@edwardluce.bsky.social) has it exactly right. This Iran conflict is not a "war of choice." That would involve more thought than has gone into this. It's a war of whim. Excellent column. www.ft.com/content/611e...
Trump says a lot of things that are contradictory—he’s said he won’t allow Iran to go nuclear but he’s also said that he won’t be drawn into new wars. My concern is that he is now becoming enamored with military action. My comments on CNN…
“I think the war was unwarranted and it was unauthorized but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a disaster.” Discussing the Iran war on CNN.
“This seems like a war in search of a justification.” Talking about the Iran conflict on CNN…
So much winning:
“US exports of goods (to China in 2025) were 26 percent lower than in 2024…. By one estimate, US exports to China would have been nearly 60 percent higher in 2025, or roughly $90 billion annually, without Trump’s trade wars.” www.piie.com/blogs/realti...
Hard to keep up with all the military operations being carried out by the “president of peace.” Now Ecuador!
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/u...
A suspected Iranian drone attack hit the CIA’s station at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia on Monday, in what would amount to a symbolic victory for the Islamic republic as it lashes out at U.S. targets and personnel across the Middle East. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
At a time when the Pentagon warns about competition with China, voluntarily pulling U.S. military officers out of the world’s most important research and policy institutions is not a show of strength. It is a strategic retreat. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Ukrainian forces liberated Kupyansk in Kharkiv Oblast in November and retook positions in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk last month. In fact, Ukrainian forces have made net daily gains more frequently over the past six months than in the previous nine. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
This is the Iranian counterattack. Hitting Trump where it hurts: the stock market.
I'm sorry, if you're going to make a big show about how you've got a Department of WAR helmed by a Secretary of WAR and staffed by WARfighters, it's totally inane to then claim that your massive bombing of a foreign country constitutes something other than a war.
This is playing with dynamite. Is Trump trying to turn Iran into Syria 2.0 or Libya 2.0 or Iraq 2.0?
www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
Great point.
Translation: he didn't have enough weapons to fight his war of choice and so he is blaming Ukraine
I thought this was the kind of thing that only happens on TV shows:
"Nearly all the traffic cameras in Tehran had been hacked for years, their images encrypted and transmitted to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel, according to two people familiar with the matter." www.ft.com/content/bf99...
Macron says France will expand its nuclear arsenal and send its nuclear-armed aircraft to other European nations. A sign that Europe is losing confidence in the American nuclear umbrella—and understandably so. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
My big takeaway from the invasion of Iraq—which I regret having supported—is that the US should go to war only when it has to. It should not engage in preventative wars against nebulous threats based on suspect intelligence and without a clear endgame. Yet here we go again. wapo.st/4seF5K1
George Packer: If recent decades have taught anything, it’s that the absence of tyranny is not freedom but chaos; that war is a likelier agent of disintegration than of renewal; that America knows how to destroy regimes but not remake societies. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Hegseth says this isn’t a “democracy building exercise” even as Trump calls on the Iranian people to rise up and free themselves. 🤔
Perhaps security forces will lay down their arms this time, rather than slaughtering protesters as they did in January. Perhaps not.
But hope isn’t a strategy, and it’s not clear that Trump actually has a plan to achieve regime change.
My contribution to a @cfr.org roundup.
on.cfr.org/4ll0Rd7
🎁 link wapo.st/473cH5q
On Saturday, Trump called on Iranians to overthrow their regime. On Sunday, he says he wants to talk to that very regime. Typical incoherence. His objective ping-pongs between change of regime and change of regime behavior. www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
Kill one dictator and kowtow to another. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...
Comic relief from the Butcher of Bucha. Putin has suddenly discovered the value of human morality and international law” when his ally is killed! www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
Perhaps security forces will lay down their arms this time, rather than slaughtering protesters as they did in January. Perhaps not.
But hope isn’t a strategy, and it’s not clear that Trump actually has a plan to achieve regime change.
My contribution to a @cfr.org roundup.
on.cfr.org/4ll0Rd7
🎁 link wapo.st/473cH5q
