Policy

What's Next for Trump's Border Wall?

This week, the president inspected eight prototypes, but his administration still has a long way to go before bringing his campaign pledge to fruition.

Ideas

Telling the Truth About CIA Torture

Trump’s nominee to lead the agency should answer a number of tough questions about her role in its now-defunct “enhanced interrogation” program.

Ideas

Team of Sycophants

Tillerson’s dismissal leaves the White House more than ever the conniving and dishonest court of an erratic, ill-informed, and willful monarch.

Ideas

Why Did Trump Fire Tillerson Now?

The specific timing of the move—following the secretary of state’s split from the president to condemn a Russian attack in the U.K.—raises questions about its motive.

Policy

Trump Calls for a Space Force, a Concept His Pentagon Opposes

The president’s words could reanimate a legislative proposal that the defense secretary and others thought they had killed.

Policy

Exit, Rex Tillerson

The secretary of state is out after 14 months on the job.

Ideas

How Postponing a Wargame Helped Create a Diplomatic Opening

Delaying Foal Eagle 2018 made an underappreciated contribution toward the first meeting of U.S. and North Korean heads of state.

Business

How Much Do America’s Arms Makers Depend on Foreign Metal? No One Seems to Know

Certainly, no one seemed concerned about it until Trump’s tariffs sent them scrambling to find out.

Ideas

The Administration Must Explain Its Use-of-Force Theories. Today.

That's not just a good idea; it's the law. A report to Congress is due on Monday.

Ideas

A Trump-Kim Summit: 'Why the Hell Not?'

Direct talks between America’s and North Korea’s heads of state have never been tried, and nothing else has worked.

Ideas

Foreign Governments Are Funneling Money into Trump's Hotels. We Still Don't Know How Much.

The Trump Organization’s response to the problem of foreign governments trying to curry favor with the president is an empty gesture.

Ideas

Trump Risks Trading Away the US-South Korean Alliance

Kim Jong Un is offering a deal at a price that could be way too high—and that the president could easily accept.

Ideas

What's There to Talk About With North Korea?

Kim Jong Un wants to talk to Trump and pause nuclear and missile tests—but the line between diplomacy and brinkmanship isn't that simple.

Threats

What If Trump's North Korea Bluster Actually Worked?

Kim Jong Un’s offer of talks with the U.S. is accompanied by questions about his intentions.

Ideas

Stand Up for the Constitution: Stop Unauthorized Involvement in Yemen's Civil War

The War Powers Act requires a Senate vote. Lawmakers should not duck their responsibility.

Policy

Trump Says His New Tariffs Are About National Security. They’re Not.

Few people believe him, and that’s a problem for him—and the world.

Ideas

Whatever Happened to Trump's Counterterrorism Strategy?

His approach borrows from his predecessors’, while exacerbating their worst, most counterproductive tendencies.

Ideas

Putin Just Gave Trump the Arms Race He Sought

'Let it be an arms race,' Trump said, two years ago. Now we have one. It doesn't have to be this way.

Policy

The Air Force One Deal May Be Less Rosy Than Claimed

The White House’s “fixed-price deal” may still leave the taxpayer on the hook. And a spokesman seems to have inflated the projected savings.

Business

White House, Boeing In Final Stages of New Air Force One Deal

President Trump and Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg met in White House this week to break gridlock on price of new presidential planes.