A Stark Warning About the 2026 Election, with Robert Kagan

The Washington Roundtable is joined by Robert Kagan, a historian and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, for a conversation about the pressures facing American democracy, the security of elections, and how these domestic tensions interact with the collapse of international norms. Nearly a decade after his prescient 2016 column for the Washington Post, “This is How Fascism Comes to America,” Kagan contends that the U.S. has moved beyond the warning and into a full democratic crisis. “There is no chance in the world that Donald Trump is gonna allow himself to lose in the 2026 elections, because that will be the end of his ability to wield total power in the United States,” Kagan says.This week’s reading: “The Minnesota War Zone Is Trump’s Most Trumpian Accomplishment,” by Susan B. Glasser “What It’s Like to Be Trump’s Closest Ally Right Now,” by Sam Knight “A D.H.S. Shooting Puts Portland Back Under the Microscope,” by James Ross Gardner  “Jay Powell, the Prepster Banker Who Is Standing Up to Trump,” by John Cassidy “How Donald Trump Has Transformed ICE,” Isaac Chotiner “How Colombia’s President Reached an Uneasy Détente with Donald Trump,” by Jon Lee Anderson  “Iran’s Regime Is Unsustainable,” by Robin Wright “The Supreme Court Gets Back to Work,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin “The Lights Are Still On in Venezuela,” by Armando Ledezma “How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler,” by Dexter Filkins  The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The New Yorker staff writer Dexter Filkins joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Marco Rubio’s reëmergence as one of the most powerful, and most transformed, figures in Donald Trump’s second term. They talk about Rubio’s unlikely ascent to the dual roles of Secretary of State and national-security adviser, his journey from outspoken Trump critic to loyal enforcer, and what that evolution reveals about how power operates inside the Administration. They also examine Rubio’s central role in the U.S. abduction of the Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, the dismantling of the State Department’s foreign-aid infrastructure, and the department’s growing reliance on coercion over diplomacy. This week’s reading: “How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler,” by Dexter Filkins “Denmark Is Sick of Being Bullied by Trump,” by Margaret Talbot “Iran’s Regime Is Unsustainable,” by Robin Wright “The Supreme Court Gets Back to Work,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin “What Comes After the Protests,” by Jay Caspian Kang  The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

U.S. intervention in other countries, whether overt or covert, is by no means new, and Daniel Immerwahr notes that the open embrace of expansionism by the President and associates such as Stephen Miller goes back to the nineteenth century. Immerwahr is a professor at Northwestern University and the author of the 2019 best-seller “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.” He discusses Trump’s disdain for international law; tensions between the U.S. and Russia and China; and the historical link between imperialism and appeals to masculine pride. The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Washington Roundtable discusses Donald Trump’s use of force in Venezuela, his desire to take over Greenland, and the historical echoes of the Administration’s new imperialist projects. The panel also considers Trump’s brand of “narcissistic unilateralism” and the increased risks of global conflict when foreign policy is based on one man’s whims. “Donald Trump wants to write his name into history,” the staff writer Susan B. Glasser says. “He wants every single person in the world to have to exchange their map for one of the United States that looks different, that looks bigger, and that everybody for all eternity will say, ‘Donald Trump did this.’ ” This week’s reading: “Why Donald Trump Wants Greenland (and Everything Else),” by Susan B. Glasser “Minneapolis Grieves, Again,” by E. Tammy Kim “Mr. Mamdani’s (New) Neighborhood,” by Molly Fischer “The Aggressive Ambitions of Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine,’ ” by Robin Wright  “What Will Become of Venezuela’s Political Prisoners?,” by Stephania Taladrid “J. D. Vance’s Notable Absence on Venezuela,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells “The Dramatic Arraignment of Nicolás Maduro,” by Cristian Farias “The Former Trump Skeptics Getting Behind His War in Venezuela,” by Isaac Chotiner “Jack Smith’s Closing Argument,” by Ruth Marcus “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Big Breakup,” by Charles Bethea  The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the United States to face narco-terrorism charges. They talk about the unprecedented nature of the raid, the shaky intelligence and legal rationale behind it, and what the operation reveals about the Trump Administration’s increasingly coercive approach to the region. They also examine what “running” Venezuela could look like in practice—from leaving Maduro associates in power to exploiting the country’s oil reserves—and how the intervention may reverberate across Latin America. This week’s reading: “Regime Change in America’s Back Yard,” by Jon Lee Anderson “Who’s Running Venezuela After the Fall of Maduro?,” by Jonathan Blitzer “The Folly of Trump’s Oil Imperialism,” by John Cassidy “The Brazen Illegality of Trump’s Venezuela Operation,” by Isaac Chotiner “Can the U.S. Really ‘Run’ Venezuela?,” by Caroline Mimbs Nyce The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Across the country, data centers that run A.I. programs are being constructed at a record pace. A large percentage of them use chips built by the tech colossus Nvidia. The company has nearly cornered the market on the hardware that runs much of A.I., and has been named the most valuable company in the world, by market capitalization. But Nvidia’s is not just a business story; it’s a story about the geopolitical and technological competition between the United States and China, about what the future will look like. In April, David Remnick spoke with Stephen Witt, who writes about technology for The New Yorker, about how Nvidia came to dominate the market, and about its co-founder and C.E.O., Jensen Huang.  Witt’s book “The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip” came out this year.   This segment originally aired on April 4, 2025.The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The writers Charles Duhigg, Cal Newport, and Anna Wiener join Tyler Foggatt for a conversation about artificial intelligence and the promises, myths, and anxieties surrounding it. The discussion was recorded before a live audience at The New Yorker Festival this fall. They explore the gap between Silicon Valley’s sweeping claims and what generative A.I. can actually do today, how people are using the technology for work, creativity, and emotional support, and why the tech’s most immediate political consequences may be the hardest to grapple with. This week’s reading: “Trump Dishonors the Kennedy Center,” by David Remnick “The Biggest Threat to the 2026 Economy Is Still Donald Trump,” by John Cassidy “The Right Wing Rises in Latin America,” by Jon Lee Anderson “Peter Navarro, Trump’s Ultimate Yes-Man,” by Ian Parker “Americans Won’t Ban Kids from Social Media. What Can We Do Instead?,” by Jay Caspian Kang  The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Republican Susan Collins has held one of Maine’s Senate seats for nearly thirty years, and Democrats, in trying to take it away from her, have a lot at stake. Graham Platner, a combat veteran, political activist, and small-business owner who has never served in office, seemed to check many boxes for a progressive upstart. Platner, who says he and his wife earn sixty thousand dollars a year, has spoken passionately about affordability, and has called universal health care a  “moral imperative.” He seemed like a rising star, but then some of his past comments online directed against police, L.G.B.T.Q. people, sexual-assault survivors, Black people, and rural whites surfaced. A photo was published of a tattoo that he got in the Marines, which resembles a Nazi symbol, though Platner says he didn’t realize it. He apologized, but will Democrats embrace him, despite ugly views in his past? “As uncomfortable as it is, and personally unenjoyable, to have to talk about stupid things I said on the internet,” he told David Remnick, “it also allows me to publicly model something I think is really important. . . . You can change your language, change the way you think about stuff.” In fact, he frames his candidacy in a way that might appeal to disappointed Trump voters: “You should be able to be proud of the fact that you can turn into a different kind of person. You can think about the world in a different way.” The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The New Yorker staff writer Isaac Chotiner joins Tyler Foggatt to reflect on several of the most notable interviews he conducted in 2025. They discuss competing theories about the origins of political violence over the past year, how to understand President Trump’s approach to power in his second term, and the challenges of covering an Administration that rarely appears to be driven by a coherent ideological framework. They also revisit two high-profile interviews: one with the former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, about her decision to leave the Democratic Party, and another with the legal scholar Cass Sunstein, on the limits of “big tent” politics and his curious friendship with Henry Kissinger. This week’s reading: “In the Wake of Australia’s Hanukkah Beach Massacre,” by Isaac Chotiner “The Federal Judge at the Trump Rally,” by Ruth Marcus “The Year in Trump Cashing In,” by John Cassidy “The Party Politics of Sovereign House,” by Emma Green “Want to Talk to Zohran Mamdani? Get in Line,” by Eric Lach The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the course of his long career, Leon Panetta was a lieutenant in the Army, a congressman from California, Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff, Barack Obama’s director of the C.I.A., and later, his Secretary of Defense. David Remnick talks with Panetta about the current Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, the legality of the ongoing Navy strikes targeting civilian boats off the coast of Venezuela, and the problem with using the military as “the President’s personal toy.” The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices