A Snake in the Grass

America's Real Vandal

After years of being blinded by the gaslit glare of Trump’s social media feed, we’re used to ledes like this from AP: “President Donald Trump on Sunday said vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial — in the same spot where Trump had a stage built and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebration.” There is so much of this garbage that it gets about as much coverage as any other addled man yelling at imaginary criminals to get off what used to be his lawn. But, at this point in Trump’s second term, the almost comical craziness of his social media feed is indistinguishable from the madness of his foreign policy, and with war and peace and the world order at stake, no one is laughing. Well, our enemies might be. In the latest act of Seoul-crushing craziness, Trump has rekindled his love for Kim Jong-un at the expense of several allies. The NYT (Gift Article): Trump’s Overture to Kim Jong-un Strains Alliance With South Korea. “In recent years, North Korea has ​not only expanded its nuclear arsenal but also repeatedly threatened ​to use it against South ​Korea, labeling its neighbor ​a ‘most ​hostile enemy.’ Its leader, Kim Jong-un, has also forged a mutual defense treaty with Moscow, dispatching troops and​ weapons to ​support Russia’s war against Ukraine. Despite these escalations, Mr. Trump, in a social media post, characterized North Korea as ‘unthreatening and respectful’ while boasting of his ‘very good relationship” with Mr. Kim.​’” (Trump is losing one war while simultaneously ceding future wars.)

+ Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Will Make South Korea Pay for His Iran Humiliation. “America and the rest of the world are now witnessing a public exhibition of narcissistic rage. Trump embarked on a war for personal glory, and what he got instead was ongoing humiliation. He clearly finds it all unbearable. Trump both fears and respects the autocrats who rule Russia, China, and North Korea, and so he dares not cross them. Instead, he is seeking to assuage the psychic injury of his loss in Iran—including the American public learning of the shameful conditions to which he has subjected U.S. forces—by kicking America’s allies, the nations he can punish without fear that they will kick him back.”

+ Nichols’ diagnosis seems pretty accurate. Trump basically confirmed it the day after his Seoul selling. Trump lashes out at Oman as the preliminary deal with Iran expires. “In an interview with Fox News, the president lashed out at an American ally, Oman, that has been trying to mediate negotiations with Iran. ‘If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.’” We’ve all been forced into becoming armchair psychoanalysts, but much of what we’re seeing from Trump (who is not exactly one to conceal his symptomatology) was predictable. What’s shocking, even given their years of self-serving sycophancy, is the extent to which Trump’s enablers continue to support him as his reasoning, his political support among voters, and America’s role in the world order continue to crumble. Maybe that’s what’s ruining the grass.

+ Scheduling Note: NextDraft delivery will be sporadic this week.

2

Quag the Dog

If the situation in Iran is driving Trump’s rage, which is driving him to poorer and poorer decisions, this doesn’t seem like good news. WSJ (Gift Article): Iran’s Secret Plan to Escalate the War. “Arab intelligence officials have picked up evidence—including communications between Iran and militia allies in countries such as Yemen and Iraq—of a strategic shift inside the country’s hard-line leadership to get their forces ready to widen the war and raise the costs for the US.”

3

Transmission Impossible

“As we flew to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s aide beckoned me to the front of the plane. No one cared that a trans woman was briefing President Trump.” That was during the first Trump administration. Things changed. Before Trump was even sworn in a second time, there was an office pool on when Julia Curlee would be fired. This is a story about being trans in government (featuring some people, like Mike Pence, who might surprise you). But it’s also a broader story about the removal of expertise when and where we need it the most. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Wrong Kind of American. “I once wrote under a pseudonym so I could keep serving. I write now in my own name for the same reason.”

4

The Write Stuff

“Last year, a small study from M.I.T. showed that individuals who wrote in partnership with A.I. chatbots recorded lower brain activity while they wrote, compared with those who worked without chatbots. The writers who used A.I. struggled to remember what, exactly, they had written, and felt little ownership over their work. The findings join a growing body of research suggesting that frequent A.I. use can degrade critical thinking.” What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing?

5

Extra, Extra

The Fraud Squad: “The Treasury has obliterated a recent rule to deter devious shell companies, handily reopening the American economy to anyone looking to hide their illicit wealth.” That’s a Green Light for Crooks. But not all of them. The administration is still targeting small-time crooks. NYT (Gift Article): Little Thefts, Big Charges. So what gives? Maybe it’s just good politics? David Frum on Trump’s Last Loyal Constituency. “The Treasury’s announcement last week is merely the latest Trump gift to crooks, cheats, and traffickers. As his popularity collapses among almost every other demographic, Trump seems to recognize that the criminal-American community is his last and most loyal constituency.” (Related? “The number of people worth at least $100 million whom the Republican president has appointed to his administration is more than four times the combined total under the three previous presidents.”)

+ Total Recall: “Late last year, when Sarah Lammersen learned her 2022 Jeep Wrangler plug-in hybrid was being recalled because the high-voltage battery could catch fire at any time — even when the vehicle was parked — she jokingly texted the dealership, ‘I hope the car doesn’t catch on fire while we wait to schedule an appointment. Days later, the Jeep burst into flames.’” WaPo (Gift Article): They were told to park outside. Then their cars burst into flames. “An estimated 3.2 million vehicles nationwide currently have an outstanding ‘park outside’ recall.”

+ Higher (Priced) Ed: “Unlike outright school closures during COVID-19, the Iran war’s impact on education is less visible. But it is falling first and hardest on the poorest families.” The ripple effects of the Iran war could threaten education for millions of kids around the world.

+ Hayden Panettiere: “Hayden Panettiere, known for her roles on shows such as Heroes and Nashville, has died, her father said in a statement Sunday. She was 36.”

+ Surgical Strikes: Tommy John’s pitching career was good enough that he should probably be in the Hall of Fame. But he’s much more famous for a surgery that was named after him because he really didn’t want to retire. And the sport would never be the same. Tommy John, longtime MLB pitcher and namesake of baseball’s most important surgery, dies at 83. “Among the 10 pitchers to receive votes for the American League Cy Young Award in 2025, eight have undergone the UCL repair named after its first recipient.”

+ A Start is Born: “There has never, in the long and celebrated history of Major League Baseball, been a better debut than the one Cardinals outfielder Joshua Báez authored on Saturday at Wrigley Field, as Báez became the first player ever to go deep in the first three plate appearances of a career.” (Even if he has a Hall of Fame career, he’s probably peaked!)

+ May the Best Dan Win? “Both candidates will appear on the ballot, one name after the other, when Alaskans vote in primary elections this week.” A tale of two Dan Sullivans: Republicans with same name contest Alaska primary.

+ How Do You Sleep at Night? “When a bodily function becomes a lucrative industry, do we have an actual problem, or has the market created one in hopes of making lots of money solving it?” Or, why you’re up all night worrying about sleep technology. Esquire: The Deeply Stressful Reality of Trying to Get the Perfect Night’s Sleep.

6

Bottom of the News

“Keshav was taking part in AI companion company Joi AI’s experiment assessing what happens if erotic self-stimulation becomes ‘an AI-guided wellness ritual.’” These ‘Masturbation Consultants’ Were Hired to Pleasure Themselves With AI. “Keshav and his nine fellow masturbation consultants will receive $2,000 each for the qualitative, in-house research project.” (For that kind of performance-based pay, I could be worth more than Anthropic and OpenAI combined by now...)

+ Scheduling Note: NextDraft delivery will be sporadic this week.