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Politics and Government
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  • Tue, June 17, 2025

by: Slate

Who Is in Charge of the Government?

Two stories in the news this week raise the question of who is currently in charge of the world's most powerful country, the United States. First, there's the Wall Street Journal piece about how the U.S. government does not believe Israel's claim that Iran is moving forward with an attempt to build a nuclear weapon:
  • Fri, March 28, 2025

by: Slate

It's a Powerful Force in American Politics. Your 401(k) Depends On It. It's Complete Nonsense.

If you are a person who reads the news, you are a crypto news consumer, because in this new American moment, the people heading the crypto industry are very powerful and never sto
  • Wed, March 26, 2025

by: Slate

The New Video of Federal Agents Ambushing a Student and Disappearing With Her Should Chill You to Your Core

One of the men goes for her phone. The other grabs at her hands. Ozturk screams. Shock and fear ripple through her voice. Two masked women join them, tugging at her backpack, peeling the straps from her shoulders. "I'm going somewhere, I need to call someone," she pleads. "We're the police. Relax," one of the men says in response.

by: Slate

Congress Isn't Just Standing By As Trump Abuses His Power. It's Doing Something Far Worse.

As Donald Trump breaks the bounds of his legal authority and collapses the constitutional separation of powers between ostensibly co-equal branches of government, time after time it is the judges who've stepped in to impose limits.
  • Mon, March 24, 2025

by: Slate

The Overlooked Legal Problem at the Heart of Trump's So-Called Deportations to El Salvador

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  • Thu, March 20, 2025

by: Slate

Why Is the Trump Administration Going Out of Its Way to Piss Off John Roberts?

The chief justice has long shown himself to be a willing Trump ally. Except when the president pulls stunts like this.

by: Slate

Why It's So Outrageous That Trump Is Invoking This Obscure 200-Year-Old Wartime Law

Donald Trump invoked a law that played a role in one of the darkest moments in American history. Originally passed in 1798, the Alien Enemies Act has rarely been used over the past 200 years. It was most recently deployed during World War II to justify the detention of Japanese noncitizens,
  • Wed, March 19, 2025

by: Slate

This Has Got to Be the Most Hitler-Curious Administration in U.S. History

Since we last wrote about the many ties between the Trump administration (particularly Elon Musk's DOGE budget-cutting team) and online white supremacists, more such connections have emerged, as have reports of Nazi-type ideas being applied,
  • Tue, March 18, 2025

by: Slate

Democrats Had a Chance to Take a Stand Here. What Went Wrong?

His answer was no—that Senate Democrats should have taken a stand against Donald Trump's lawlessness and withheld the votes Republicans needed to keep the government from shutting down. Even one single Democrat could have made more of a stink and slowed things down.
  • Mon, March 17, 2025

by: Slate

How American Bureaucrats Became Public Enemy No. 1

Condon took the lectern at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Washington. If not as famous as his former boss at the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Condon was held in nearly equal esteem by his scientific colleagues: A pioneering figure in nuclear physics,
  • Sat, March 15, 2025

by: Slate

Slate's guide to the most important figures in politics this week.

Democrats in Congress, for the first time since President Donald Trump took over, had a say in policymaking, and fully melted down. Trump advertised for a car company at the White House and took further steps to lay the groundwork for annexing Canada.
  • Tue, March 11, 2025

by: Slate

Democrats Can't Afford to Roll Over and Play Dead

As the Trump-Musk presidency continues to bulldoze its way through the federal government, American democracy, and the liberal world order, Democrats have been stunningly muted.
  • Sat, March 8, 2025

by: Slate

What's the Deal With Amy Coney Barrett Lately?

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  • Fri, March 7, 2025

by: Slate

What Trump and Musk Are Really Doing to This Country

It's that the core of what he has accomplished takes aim at the most important domestic engine of prosperity we have: the federal system. There's a term for the project Trump and his cronies are undertaking, coined by political scientists Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum in 2024. It's called ungoverning.
  • Tue, March 4, 2025

by: Slate

The Uncomfortable Truth Behind Tesla's Falling Stock Prices

People don't fill out a questionnaire every time they sell Tesla stock, so we don't know exactly what causes its price to go down. The evidence is strong, though, that Tesla shares trade down when the spotlight shines extra brightly on Musk paying attention to other things.
  • Mon, March 3, 2025

by: Slate

A Leading Lawyer Fighting Trump's Assault on Transgender Americans Discusses What Happens When the Law Inevitably Fails Us

The more we have our needs met by caring for each other, the more we're going to be equipped to fight back against whatever is coming."
  • Fri, February 21, 2025

by: Slate

One Judge Is About to Go Toe-to-Toe With Trump Over His Executive Order Spree

There are so many moving parts to this rampage, yet lawsuits, by their nature, can focus on only one piece of it.

by: Slate

Trump Issued Perhaps His Most Terrifying Executive Order on Tuesday

Having already subdued Congress, Trump has now openly announced that the Führerprinzip governs the executive branch.

by: Slate

This Might Be the Fastest Way to Get Elon Musk Out of the White House

These suits will no doubt proceed in the weeks and months ahead, as it falls to the courts to hold Musk accountable for his blatant indifference to the law. But beyond his individual actions, Musk's role raises more fundamental questions.
  • Wed, February 19, 2025

by: Slate

The Terrible Trump Idea That Should Have Stayed in Vegas

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  • Tue, February 18, 2025

by: Slate

Meet the Disabled Vets, Cancer Researchers, and Nuclear Techs Fired by Elon Musk "For Cause"

Musk's vulture-capitalist approach to dismantling the federal government may be opening the door to wrongful termination lawsuits.

by: Slate

I Just Figured Out What Elon Musk's DOGE Really Is

It's how things worked when you went to the Cosa Nostra to ask for protection for you and your family in exchange for some portion of your own resources.

by: Slate

Is This a Constitutional Crisis? Wrong Question.

The legalists just want to have a big old fight that lands up at the Supreme Court about the unitary executive and big conservative principles, and the monarchic view of the presidency they've been pushing for a very long time.

by: Slate

What Happens Next in the Eric Adams Case? It's Up to One Judge.

Judge Ho will have a hearing on Wednesday to determine whether to accept the DOJ's motion to dismiss the case against the New York City mayor.
  • Wed, February 12, 2025

by: Slate

Mitch McConnell Could Have Stopped This

It's a toss-up which is more pathetic: that just one Republican senator opposed the confirmation of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence or that the GOP's lone naysayer was Mitch McConnell.

by: Slate

South Carolina Doctors Ask for Right to Follow Conscience and Perform Abortions

Claims about religious conscience are nothing new in debates about reproduction in the United States. Employers cited it in refusing to include contraception in employee insurance plans; anti-abortion doctors relied on conscience when trying to establish standing in a case to shut down access to mifepristone.
  • Mon, February 10, 2025

by: Slate

The Trump Administration Is Quietly Giving a Big Gift to Russia, China, and Iran

Buried among the many executive actions taken in the first three weeks of the new Trump administration is a Feb. 5 memo, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, that must have Russian, Chinese, and even Iranian officials cheering.

by: Slate

A Former Federal Judge Just Beat Trump and Musk in Court. She Has Advice for the Resistance.

Dahlia Lithwick: Could you give us a sense of the litigation landscape right now? There are a lot of lawsuits raining down on the Trump administration's scattershot executive orders and Elon Musk's chaotic and mostly opaque actions at the heart of the federal government. Who is standing alongside your team at State Democracy Defenders?
  • Sat, February 8, 2025

by: Slate

Why a U.S. Attorney Has Become a Major Character in the DOGE Drama

Martin, a Trump appointee, has stumbled into an incredible amount of power; he decides whether to prosecute any federal crime charged in the nation's capital. And he has already been busy—firing some 30 prosecutors who worked on the Jan. 6 cases, investigating Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and helping the Oath Keepers return to Washington.
  • Fri, February 7, 2025

by: Slate

I'm a Government Worker. We're Still Terrified Friday Is D-Day.

Here's what I will do: I will do my job as best as I know how. I will read each new directive from my political leadership and clack away at my keyboard to implement it as best as I can. And I will polish my résumé and apply for other jobs and hate myself for doing so.
  • Tue, February 4, 2025

by: Slate

Eighteen "Pro-Life" States Demand the Freedom to Persecute American Babies

Monday's amicus brief was spearheaded by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and joined by the Republican AGs of 17 other states.
  • Mon, February 3, 2025

by: Slate

I'm a Federal Worker. Elon Musk's Government Data Heist Is the Entire Ballgame.

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by: Slate

Will the Supreme Court Force Taxpayers to Pay for Catholic Schooling?

The Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed with the state of Oklahoma and blocked the opening of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, but recently, the U.S. Supreme Court St. Isidore is using the courts to further its own conservative Catholic agenda,

by: Slate

I'm a Federal Worker. People Don't Understand the Level of Heist Elon Musk Is Perpetrating.

On Friday night, reports emerged that Elon Musk's aides had tussled with Office of Personnel Management and Treasury staffers while demanding access to troves of information about federal employees. And on Sunday,
  • Sun, February 2, 2025

by: Slate

Trump's Gitmo Detention Center Would Be Bigger Than History's Worst Concentration Camps

Like the border wall, building a detention center for migrants in Guantanamo Bay is nothing new. The scale, though, is frighteningly new.
  • Fri, January 31, 2025

by: Slate

The D.C. Air Disaster Is a Flashing Warning Sign About DOGE

Musk had Trump fire the FAA leader as soon as he got into office, because the FAA leader had investigated and fined one of Musk's companies, Starlink.
  • Thu, January 30, 2025

by: Slate

Trump's Plane Crash Press Conference Was Unbelievably Vile, Even for Him

Elon Musk, the spear tip of Trump's "cost cutting" spree, demanded that he quit. It's a truism that it's bad form to politicize a tragedy, and Democrats have often abided that concept. Not surprisingly,
  • Wed, January 29, 2025

by: Slate

The Disastrous Prospect of Trump's Wild IRS Nominee

Instead, those who are most likely to evade detection are the people trying to hide their income in tax shelters, shifting their profits overseas, exaggerating their business deductions, or overvaluing their charitable donations. Are we supposed to applaud that?

by: Slate

Elon Musk Looks to Stick a Fork in Federal Government Workers

Around the same time as Musk's post, hundreds of thousands of federal workers received an email also titled "Fork in the Road," with a similar offer: Simply send an email to the Office of Personnel Management with the word "Resign" in the subject line, and you'll receive eight months' pay, so long as you reply before Feb. 6.

by: Slate

Trump Administration Issues Formal "Just Kidding" on Attempt to Shut Down Government

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  • Thu, January 23, 2025

by: Slate

The Real Goal of Trump's Emails Ordering Federal Employees to Narc on DEI Sympathizers

On only the second day of the second Trump administration, thousands of federal government workers received an ominous email from the heads of their respective departments. The directive, signed variously by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the State Department and acting Attorney General James McHenry at the Justice Department,
  • Wed, January 22, 2025

by: Slate

Trump's Day 1 Showed How Criminal Presidents Could Become the Norm

We may be entering a prolonged era of legal impunity for presidents, their families, friends, and even criminally violent supporters.
  • Fri, January 17, 2025

by: Slate

The Supreme Court Nailed Its Decision to Uphold the TikTok Ban

This ruling will disappoint the app's 170 million users in the United States. But it reflects eminently reasonable deference to the judgment of Congress.

by: Slate

Trump's Biggest Political Liability Is Hiding in Plain Sight

The Los Angeles Times' billionaire owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, declared on X that "the Mayor cut LA Fire Department's budget by $23M." The right-wing social media account Libs of TikTok lambasted a political leadership team that "defunds the fire dept," and Elon Musk boosted a post that lamented "LAFD underfunding."
  • Wed, January 15, 2025

by: Slate

There Are Still Ways the Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Could Fall Apart

Under the terms of the deal, Hamas will release 33 hostages over a period of 42 days, including women, children, the sick, and men over the age of 55. Three of these hostages will be released the first day, another four on the second day, then three at a time in each week, with the final 14 released on the final week.

by: Slate

The Supreme Court Changed Its Mind About Online Porn

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton on Wednesday, a major First Amendment case.
  • Fri, January 10, 2025

by: Slate

Why the Supreme Court Is Poised to Let the TikTok Ban Stand

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by: Slate

This New Immigration Bill That's About to Pass Is a Horrifying Trojan Horse

If Democrats cannot recover their nerve and stand up to this extremism, they will be complicit in the devastating consequences of its passage.

Who Is in Charge of the Government?

Two stories in the news this week raise the question of who is currently in charge of the world's most powerful country, the United States. First, there's the Wall Street Journal piece about how the U.S. government does not believe Israel's claim that Iran is moving forward with an attempt to build a nuclear weapon:
The article from Slate, dated June 2025, discusses former President Donald Trump's reversal on several key policies, including his stance on Iran and the implementation of ICE raids. Initially, Trump had taken a hardline approach against Iran, but recent statements indicate a softening of his position, suggesting a potential shift in U.S. foreign policy. Additionally, Trump's administration had ramped up ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants, but the article reports a sudden halt to these operations, causing confusion and speculation about the motives behind these policy changes. Political analysts suggest that these reversals could be strategic moves to appeal to a broader voter base as Trump considers another run for office.

Read the Full Slate Article at:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/06/donald-trump-reversal-iran-ice-raids.html