On Monday, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the first president to serve two nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland over a century ago. As he heads back to the White House, his controversial Cabinet nominees face hearings in the Senate, while concerns about the weaponization of government institutions loom.
The first tranche of Trump nominees — including scandal-struckPete Hegseth forsecretary of defense, Pam Bondi for attorney general, Marco Rubio for secretary of state, Scott Bessent for treasury secretary, and John Ratcliffe for CIA director — all appear to stand a strong chance of confirmation. Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and FBI director, Kash Patel, however, may face longer odds.
Patel has vowed to go after “government gangsters” — so-called enemies within the state — raising questions as to whether he would use the FBI to target Trump’s political opponents. At her hearing, Bondi said she would not create an “enemies list” to prosecute, but she defended Patel, calling him “the right person at this time for this job.” Nonetheless, she told the Senate Judiciary Committee she would “not target people simply because of their political affiliation.”
Gabbard, who has talked about a “slow-rolling coup” by government insiders against US democracy, has also raised concerns. As she plans to remake the US intelligence machine, she faces accusations of parroting Kremlin propaganda — an accusation that experts say could make Western intelligence agencies uncomfortable, to say the least.
Neither Patel nor Gabbard have had hearings scheduled yet. We’ll be watching when they’re ready for their close-ups.In this "ask ian," Ian Bremmer breaks down the rapidly unraveling situation following the US announcement of “Project Freedom” and why tensions with Iran are escalating again.
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Putin is increasingly paranoid, according to a Financial Times report out today. Security has been tightened, more time is being spent in underground bunkers, and the vast majority of his attention is being absorbed by Russia’s war with Ukraine. One reason of his concern is said to be Ukraine’s drone capabilities, which have demonstrated an ability to strike Russian airfields thousands of miles from Kyiv.
There are signs AI could ripple through the economy much faster than past innovations. At the 2026 World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, GZERO’s Tony Maciulis asked Microsoft's Vickie Robinson what it will take to prepare economies for the age of AI and how quickly it needs to happen.