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by ian bremmer

Collage of Ian Bremmer, Putin, and Trump.

Annie Gugliotta

Moose and I are trading Manhattan’s muggy sidewalks for Nantucket sand, but first, one more mailbag. Since this is the last newsletter you’ll get from me until after Labor Day, we’ve got an extra-long edition to tide you over. Thanks to those who sent in so many smart and snarky questions, to all of you for reading, and I’ll see you fully energized in September.

What recourse does the Supreme Court have against a president who doesn't follow the rule of law?

Ultimately, the Court’s leverage lies with its own legitimacy in the eyes of the American public. President Donald Trump has thus far respected its rulings because outright defiance would risk a backlash that could damage his political standing. That said, the Court has also been selective about the cases it’s taken, partly to avoid confrontations with the executive it might struggle to enforce that would expose the limits of its power. The institution is being challenged; even if for now its authority is holding. It’s a mistake to assume that will necessarily last forever.

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Before I swap my keyboard for a Nantucket clam rake next month, I’m handing the column over to you. Thanks to everyone who lobbed in smart, snarky, and occasionally apocalyptic questions – too many for one edition. Below is the first batch (questions lightly edited for clarity), spanning chip wars, tariff poker, Taiwan’s future, Epstein drama, AI doom, and my apparently tragic brow. Keep ‘em coming.

Why is Trump suddenly giving away the chip store to China?

Because he overplayed his hand, the Chinese called his bluff, and he didn’t have the cards. Trump billed himself as the tough guy on China. During his first term, he pioneered containment policies that went on to become bipartisan consensus. Coming into office this time around, he put on what amounted to a trade embargo on China, expecting the Chinese would fold under the economic pressure and he’d get to bring home a big beautiful deal. That, of course, didn’t happen. Instead, the Chinese pushed back hard, responding not just with their own reciprocal tariffs but – most importantly – with restrictions on the export of critical minerals and rare earths.

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Elon Musk in an America Party hat.

Jess Frampton
Life comes at you fast. Only five weeks after vowing to step back from politics and a month after accusing President Donald Trump of being a pedophile, Elon Musk declared his intention to launch a new political party offering Americans an alternative to the Republicans and Democrats. Eighty percent of the more than 5.5 million respondents to his X poll had said they wanted one, so – naturally – the world’s richest man was obliged to give the people what they wanted. (Never mind that there’s no telling how many of the poll respondents are registered voters, American citizens, or even real people and not bots.) Vox populi, vox Dei.
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Jess Frampton

Zohran Mamdani was a long shot. But the 33-year-old democratic socialist state assemblyman flew past former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s name recognition and money advantage to win the Democratic primary for New York mayor last week.

On paper, the upset may seem like a parochial story of quirky turnout math and a uniquely flawed opponent in a city so blue it’d elect a Smurf. In reality, Mamdani’s victory is a canary in the coal mine, less for what it says about him and New York politics than the conditions that made his message land. Dismissing it as an intramural oddity misses the broader point: when voters believe the deck is stacked against them, they look for candidates who promise to reshuffle it.

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Trump, Netanyahu, and

Jess Frampton
As I expected last week, on Saturday evening the United States bombed Iran’s most fortified enrichment site at Fordow along with the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities, officially becoming a co-combatant in Israel’s war against the Islamic Republic. President Donald Trump framed the strikes as a one-and-done affair – the kind of spectacular, in-and-out, uncomplicated TikTok-friendly war his base could get behind. Not the beginning of another large-scale, boots-on-the-ground, drawn-out Ken Burns-style conflict most Americans and many in Trump’s own camp would’ve opposed.
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Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Annie Gugliotta
Donald Trump may be about to cross a line he drew less than a week ago. Barring an Iranian capitulation on nuclear enrichment that no one anticipates, the president is likely to order US bombers to strike Iran’s most hardened underground facility at Fordow any moment now, thus joining Israel’s war against the Islamic Republic. The move won’t topple Iran’s regime. It will, however, pull Washington into a conflict that Trump hoped – and promised – to watch from the sidelines.
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Jess Frampton

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump activated 2,000 members of the California National Guard to quell protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation efforts in Los Angeles, after small but highly visible demonstrations had popped up across the city in the days prior – with some instances of violence, opportunistic looting, and property damage. California Governor Gavin Newsom disputed that federal intervention was necessary and condemned Trump’s deployment decision as illegal and inflammatory, blaming it for stoking the protests.

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