Author: potus

There are many things that U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t understand about world politics—which is astonishing given that he’s in his second term at the White House—and one of them is the importance of international institutions. Institutions are rules, and Trump’s contempt for rules predates his entry into politics. He has long seen norms, laws, and rules as pesky constraints that sometimes prevent him from taking whatever he wants, and he’s brought that attitude to foreign policy. Whether he’s accepting lucrative emoluments from foreign governments, threatening to seize Greenland and annex Canada, or bullying foreign visitors in the Oval Office,…

U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have moved so fast since retaking office that it is easy for observers to lose sight of the forest for the trees. The wide-ranging scope of the administration’s actions, along with the frequent inconsistencies, norm-breaking methods, and apparent rush, can give the impression that there’s no overarching plan. Yet those who see the administration’s doings as just an incoherent jumble of actions reflecting the personalistic whims of an impulsive, mercurial president are missing the larger picture. Trump and his team are pursuing a relatively cohesive vision, one best understood as a combination of…

Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has pursued a series of head-spinning moves to reorient U.S. foreign policy, from initiating a global trade war to threatening long-standing NATO allies to teasing a takeover of Canada. Political analysts like to say these shifts reflect Trump’s transactional, zero-sum worldview—an “America First” approach that prioritizes a narrow conception of national interest and deprioritizes moral concerns. This approach seems a far cry from previous U.S. administrations, which espoused, to varying degrees, a commitment to values such as freedom, democracy, and human rights. While often criticized for hypocrisy or a failure to…

With the Trump administration taking a wrecking ball to the international order that the United States built, it is unclear what of it will survive. It is worth reflecting on why that order was so fragile. After the Cold War, the United States had the power and legitimacy to remake the world—but it squandered its unipolar moment. America, in retrospect, repeated the mistakes it made after World War I. In both cases, it did not seek to build and institutionalize a liberal international order, preferring to remain unconstrained. In the post-Cold War order, Washington ran the world. This came with…

President Donald Trump is ordering a major overhaul of the National Security Council that will shrink its size, lead to the ouster of some political appointees and return many career government employees back to their home agencies, according to two U.S. officials and one person familiar with the reorganization.The number of staff at the NSC is expected to be significantly reduced, according to the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel matter.The shake-up is just the latest shoe to drop at the NSC, which is being dramatically made over after the ouster early this month of Trump’s national…

Hostages and Missing Families Forum called for a ‘return to the negotiating table’.Families of Israeli captives held in Gaza have intensified their criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid large protests across the country, as the expanded military ground offensive and deadly bombardment in the Palestinian territory put the release of their loved ones at risk. On Saturday, protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv, Shar HaNegev Junction, Kiryat Gat, and Jerusalem, with members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum accusing the Israeli government of prioritising its war over securing the return of their relatives. “We demand…

Elon Musk looks on as U.S. President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2025. Kevin Lamarque | ReutersThe Elon Musk-owned social media platform X experienced outages on Saturday morning, with tens of thousands of users reportedly unable to use the site.About 25,000 users reported issues with the platform around 8:45 a.m., according to the analytics platform Downdetector, which gathers data from users to monitor issues with various platforms.Roughly 21,000 users reported issues just after 8:30 a.m. ET, per the analytics platform.Read more CNBC politics…

Guatemalan migrants arrive at La Aurora Air Force Base on a deportation flight from the U.S., in Guatemala City, Guatemala, January 20, 2025. Cristina Chiquin | ReutersA federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan man who said he was deported to Mexico despite fearing he would be persecuted there, after officials acknowledged an error in his case.U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued the order days after the Justice Department notified him that its claim that the man had expressly stated he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was…

Artificial intelligence robot looking at futuristic digital data display.Yuichiro Chino | Moment | Getty ImagesBusinesses are turning to artificial intelligence tools to help them navigate real-world turbulence in global trade.Several tech firms told CNBC say they’re deploying the nascent technology to visualize businesses’ global supply chains — from the materials that are used to form products, to where those goods are being shipped from — and understand how they’re affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.Last week, Salesforce said it had developed a new import specialist AI agent that can “instantly process changes for all 20,000 product categories in…

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump used the first service academy commencement address of his second term Saturday to congratulate graduating West Point cadets on their accomplishments while also veering sharply into politics, taking credit for America’s military might and boasting about the “mandate” he says he earned in the 2024 election. “In a few moments, you’ll become graduates of the most elite and storied military academy in human history,” Trump said at the ceremony at Michie Stadium. “And you will become officers of the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known. And I know,…