Trump is at the centre of things - throwing the global economy into turmoil in the aim of reshaping everyone's relations with the US, as well as reshaping geopolitical alliances and introducing autocratic measures into the federal government. While all that is going on, the signs are being picked up of how GOP senators and others are preparing the ground for the moment Trump's grasp on power begins to slip. At that point, there will begin a likely bitter fight for the soul of the party between the traditionalists and the would-be MAGA standard-bearers for the next generation. Let's discuss.

President Trump wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act back in 2020, but he was prevented by the opposition of his then-defence secretary and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But now those people have been replaced with loyalists, and there's nobody around him who is going to tell him it's a bad idea. On his first day, he inserted a ticking time bomb into one of his initial Executive Orders - a deadline for when he should receive a report recommending whether or not he should cross that line. The deadline expires very soon ... Let's discuss.

I've been talking about the likelihood of the US heading towards a second civil war for some time on this channel. Patreon supporter Peter asked me if I still felt that to be the case, with everything that's been happening recently with the Trump 2.0 administration. It's a good question, and certainly bears some further exploration - so let's discuss.

The recent Signalgate text messages leak gave us a real insight into just how much JD Vance really actually hates and despises Europe - much more than had previously been stated in public. We'd seen him argue that Europeans should care more about free speech, and we'd seen him wish for more of the far-right populist parties on the Continent to be elected. So what is it about his own personal and political journey that has left him with such an antipathy for the 'old world'? This guy is a heartbeat away from the Presidency, so we should probably discuss!

President Trump called it 'Liberation Day' - but that's not what many others were calling it. Instead, the wide-ranging raft of tariffs levied on imports to the US, which seemed based on wholly fictitious claims of how much other countries levied against the US, has thrown the stock markets, the leaders of all other nations, and even some Republicans (quietly) into turmoil. Most believe that Trump's faith in tariffs as the way to 'make America wealthy again' is unfounded, and that instead he is imposing a global recession on the population of the world - and the US itself will suffer not benefit. This could be the most consequential act by one man in our lifetimes. We'd probably better discuss.

Health researchers, climate scientists, and more - they are finding significant projects being axed for what appear to be purely ideological grounds. This can include projects you would think would be immune to such factors, such as cancer research. The US has had the benefit of cutting edge research and technology for many decades - it has been one of the assets that has made it so successful. But now scientists are being sacked, and even the ones that haven't been yet are nevertheless looking to abroad to be able to work again in an environment where the basics of science are understood and valued. Let's discuss.

Elon Musk has been all over the Federal Government for the last ten weeks. But his original term of office is coming to an end, and both Trump and Musk himself are now talking as though that will be it. He has to get back to his businesses, they say, which have been suffering. But he does not want to stop playing this fun political game - and so he is throwing his money into today's State Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, and threatens to do the same for a lot of other races in the future. But has he become such damaged goods that even him money will be toxic for Republicans in the future? Let's discuss.

The front-runner for the next French Presidential elections, according to current polls, Marine Le Pen has been sensationally barred from standing by a judge who was sentencing her in an embezzlement case. The verdict had expected to be less severe, and to be no block to her challenging the political establishment as the potential first far-right candidate to cross the finish line. But the State Prosecutor had requested the banning, and the judge went for it. Now, voices of condemnation are loudly raised - as you would expect - but the truth is nobody knows just how this shocking outcome will affect the result of the next election, and the tone of French politics in the mean time. And, of course, the edgy discourse between MAGA America and Europe, come to that.

In their book 'How Democracies Die', Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt identify the four tells for a despot-in-waiting, the democratic guardrails that all dictators-in-progress seek to dismantle, and how they go about it - and the two other essential ingredients that protect a system that people often underestimate, or even miss entirely. And it won't astonish you to learn that all of this is really rather relevant to Donald Trump's America (and a number of other places besides). Let's discuss.

So the visit to Greenland of the Vice President JD Vance finally happened. Originally intended to be a 'charm offensive' to the population, eventually the Americans could find no Greenlanders who wanted to talk to them or who wanted them there at all, so they flew into the US base and stayed there. And slated Denmark for being a bad ally. And said that the wonderful people of Greenland would be much better off as part of America. But we all know that Trump won't take 'no' for an answer, so for all that the official line is that America respects Greenlander's right of self-determination - what happens now?