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The firebombing of Jews in Colorado, following the firebombing of the governor's mansion in Pennsylvania and the murder of two Israeli embassy officials in DC, makes it unambiguously clear that the new motive force on the radical left and among radical Islamists is direct violent attack against Jews. What are we going to do about it? Give a listen.
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It’s conventional wisdom that President Trump has transformed American politics. But a new county-by-county voting analysis from The New York Times of the last four presidential races shows just how drastically Mr. Trump has changed the electoral map.
Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The Times, explains why the trends are a five-alarm fire for the Democrats and discusses the debate within the party over what to do about it.
Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.
Background reading:
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Photo: Emily Elconin for The New York Times
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In the past few weeks, Qatar has been all over the news with flashy headlines of a $400 million luxury jet that the country gifted to President Donald Trump. It symbolized their opulence and eagerness to please the U.S.
But 40 years ago, Qatar was a country with a gross domestic product (GDP) of a few billion dollars. Since the 19th century, it has been run by the Al Thani family, which can trace its roots in the region back thousands of years.
Qatar was long considered a backwater. The main industries were fishing and pearls. It was impoverished for the vast majority of its history. Its royal family was dwarfed by rivals in Saudi Arabia.
Then everything changed. It turned out that the largest liquified natural gas field was sitting just off the coast of Qatar. And with the help of American energy giants like ExxonMobil, Qatar began exporting LNG in 1997.
In a few decades, Qatar’s GDP grew exponentially. Today it’s over $200 billion. Qatar hosts the main air base for American forces in the Middle East. It hosted the World Cup in 2022. And it’s embarking on a series of business and military deals with the U.S.—earmarked at $1.2 trillion.
There are a lot of petro-states in the region. Some, like Saudi Arabia, exceed Qatar’s wealth by hundreds of billions. But what Qatar has chosen to do with its money—morality aside—is farsighted. Qatar has chosen to focus a huge amount of money and resources on influence.
In the past 15 years, Qatar has developed a sophisticated apparatus to embed itself into American society in a way that would shock most Americans. They’ve done it by investing in our politicians, universities, newsrooms, think tanks, lobbying firms, and corporations—all on an unprecedented scale.
In all, the tiny Gulf nation has spent almost $100 billion to establish this influence.
So what’s the problem? Well, Qatar’s push to buy influence has made their connection to the Muslim Brotherhood ever more alarming and apparent.
Frannie Block and Jay Solomon published a massive investigative report on Qatar’s seismic influence strategy for The Free Press. It’s called “How Qatar Bought America.”
Today on Honestly, I ask Jay and Frannie how Qatar built this ecosystem, what they want in return, and what it has already gotten them.
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Trump has been making some foreign policy moves I didn’t entirely expect. He seems determined to get a nuclear deal with Iran. He’s been public about his disagreements with Benjamin Netanyahu. He called Vladimir Putin “crazy.” And he keeps talking about wanting his legacy to be that of a peacemaker.
So what, at this point, can we say about Trump’s foreign policy? What is he trying to do, and how well is it working? If he succeeds, what might his legacy be?
Emma Ashford is a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, a foreign policy think tank, and the author of the forthcoming book “First Among Equals.” She comes from a school of thought that’s more sympathetic to the “America First” agenda than I typically am. But she’s also cleareyed about what is and isn’t working and the ways that Trump is an idiosyncratic foreign policy maker who isn’t always following an “America First” agenda himself.
Book Recommendations:
A Superpower Transformed by Daniel Sargent
The Strategy of Denial by Elbridge Colby
A World Safe for Commerce by Dale Copeland
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Elias Isquith. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Marina King, Jan Kobal, Kristin Lin and Jack McCordick. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
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The health care of 10 million Americans is at risk as President Trump's massive tax cut legislation makes its way to the Senate. Will Majority Leader John Thune be able to cobble together a bill that the "Medicaid moderates," budget hawks, and hardliners can all agree on? Meanwhile, Stephen Miller freaks out at ICE leadership for failing to detain and deport enough immigrants, corporate America begins cutting ties with law firms that bent the knee to Trump, and Democratic presidential hopefuls begin testing the waters. Jon and Lovett embrace the schadenfreude, discuss the lies Speaker Mike Johnson is peddling to win over his Senate colleagues, and evaluate Senator Joni Ernst's "we're all going to die" message to her constituents. Then, Jon talks to Senator Brian Schatz about putting an end to Democratic navel gazing and fighting to stop Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill."
Aneesh Chopra, America’s first-ever Chief Technology Officer under Obama, joins The Gist to assess Elon Musk’s rebranded takeover of government tech via “Doge.” He outlines how the US Digital Service began under Obama, evolved during Trump’s first term, and now—chainsaw and hat aside—retains surprising policy continuity across administrations. Plus, even as a Colorado hate crime occurs under the banner of "Free Palestine", it's important to remember that violent people perpetuate violent acts, not impassioned, or even wrong sentiments. And in the spiel - can we please put an end to the term "Stochastic Terrorism"?
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Author, journalist, & activist Cory Doctorow joins Bad Faith to discuss his latest novel Picks and Shovels, enshittification, the utility of fiction as a vehicle to expose scams and create urgency around political action, and why so many people misunderstand the threat of AI.
Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).
A Times investigation has found that as Elon Musk became one of President Trump’s closest and most influential advisers, he was juggling an increasingly chaotic personal life and a drug habit far more serious than previously known.
Kirsten Grind and Megan Twohey, two investigative reporters at The New York Times, discuss why those closest to Mr. Musk are finally sounding the alarm.
Guest:
Background reading:
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Photo: Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.