I read this strange thread and am reminded of a story out of history that I am certain @USWPColby knows well: (my own thread starts here) 1/x

https://twitter.com/USWPColby/status/2077060564900077620

The ancient city of Athens led a confederation of fellow Greek-city states in an ultimately triumphant war against the Persian Empire. After the war, the allies agreed to share expenses to pay for a permanent navy. They stored the treasury on the Aegean island of Delos. 2/x

Ulysses Grant ran a scandal-plagued administration, rife with nepotism and corruption. For the centennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1876, however, he presided over a spectacular exposition of science and technology. Gerald Ford - a good and honest man personally - is not generally considered one of America's outstanding presidents. Yet despite the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate, amid social dissension, beset by a troubled economy, Ford too presided over successful bicentennial events.

I said on @MSNOW just now:

What *is* the Trump slush fund?

It's not an appropriation: Congress did not vote.

It's not a settlement: There was no valid litigation because (as the judge said) Trump was suing himself.

On what basis is this money leaving the Treasury? One branch of the Executive is ordering another branch to pay $1.8 billion to the president's friends with no authorization by Congress or courts - with a side order that president and his family henceforward set their own tax obligation on a purely voluntary basis, no scrutiny.

In case you've forgotten, here are some of the things learned from the Trump tax returns leaked by a government contractor in 2020:

In 10 of the 15 years before Trump won the presidency, Trump paid no federal income tax. In 2016 and 2017, he paid $750. nytimes.com/interactive/20… When Trump told voters in 2016 that he was "under audit," the audit concerned a $72.9 million tax refund that the IRS litigated as illegitimate. That litigation came to an end after Trump won the presidency. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

So many people quote the famous line from Thucydides - "The strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must" - and forget that the amoral imperialists who used that line in the end lost their war and their empire. Thucydides does not offer the line, "The strong do what they can," as a neutral analysis of how international affairs operate. He offers it as an expression of the reckless arrogance that brought about the destruction of the Athenian Empire.

Why true Americans will continue to say "Department of Defense" and "Secretary of Defense" - a thread.

https://twitter.com/DeptofWar/status/1973041625447235876

1) It's the law. The Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense were so named by the National Security Act amendments of 1949. Only Congress has the power to change the name. nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/28655…

While I was on CNN at 1 pm predicting that the Trump administration would use the Charlie Kirk murder as an excuse to deploy government power against peaceful and legal political competition in 2026 ...

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1967663178352861389

... Vice President Vance and other Trump officials were simultaneously on Charlie Kirk's podcast vowing to use the murder as an excuse to deploy government power against peaceful and legal political competition in 2026. nytimes.com/live/2025/09/1…

Military patrols in US cities;

Police raids on homes of government critics;

Mass detentions without due process;

Government taking control of private companies ... Supply shortages and price increases due to government attacks on free commercial exchange;

The government imposing huge fines on media corporations for First Amendment protected speech that displeased the president ...

In a few minutes, @theAtlantic will release video of the episode of David Frum show featuring ex ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink. Audio is already posted on your favorite platform. (thread) The interview with Ambassador Brink and the opening monologue were recorded before today's news of Trump cut-off of essential weapons of self-defense to Ukraine. But both were recorded in ominous awareness that Trump abandonment of Ukraine was imminent. 2/x

The Benin artifacts previously delivered to Nigeria from UK and Germany have disappeared from public view. They are not on display in any museum. Some or all may have been sold into private markets. (Links in next tweet)

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1935840015105544631

See here theatlantic.com/magazine/archi… and here theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… Western museum curators know perfectly well what happens to art works delivered to Nigeria but are intimidated into silence.

In 2018, protesters against gasoline tax demonstrated in Paris. A radical few set fires near the Arc de Triomphe, creating scenes of chaos for social media platforms - like the iconic image below. (THREAD) To the consumer of social media, it must have looked as if France hovered on the brink of revolution in 2018. Paris engulfed in flames! (2/x)

Here's the decision just won by @IlyaSomin and allies striking down Trump's tariffs as an abuse of presidential emergency authority. It's blinking inspiring. (thread) cit.uscourts.gov/sites/cit/file… The Trump administration argued that US federal courts must accept presidential claims of "emergency" at face value, no matter how manifestly nonsensical and in bad faith those claims in fact are. The US Court of International Trade said, in effect, "not so fast."

President Trump and his family are extorting billions of dollars from US companies and foreign nations. In new piece for @TheAtlantic I examine past US corruption - and conclude Trump can't be compared to anything American, only Russia or Africa. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… Today's @TheAtlantic piece linked above is supplement to monologue on the David Frum Show today. Trump's analogues are not Nixon, Harding, or Grant. They are Putin, Mobutu Sese Soko, and the Duvaliers in Haiti.

Donald Trump's approval rating in his first term moved in a narrow band: never above 50%, but also seldom below 40%, and then not much below. 1/x Even during COVID, Trump's supporters stayed true. Unhappy as they were during COVID, Trump supporters agreed to shift blame for their unhappiness to somebody else: blue-state governors, Dr Fauci, etc. 2/x

First-term Trump was also an economic idiot. He imposed escalating tariffs in first half of 2018, not only on China but on EU and Canada too. Trump bad policy triggered a big stock slump in second half 2018. 1/x Trump worried that the bad stock market of 2018 might dim his re-election chances. He spent much of 2019 desperately pleading with the Chinese for an exit from the trade war he started the year before. 2/x

There are 2 economic ideas behind the Trump tariffs. One is obviously very stupid. The other is also very stupid, but less obviously so.

(thread) The obviously stupid idea is that America should return to the industrial self-sufficiency of 1913 without regard to cost or value. Americans should manufacture their own athletic shoes and door hinges and plastic tubs, and if that requires a 125% protective tariff ... so be it!

The Trump administration appears to be actively contemplating an act of Putin-like aggression and annexation against a NATO ally US treaties are part of the supreme law of the land.

I question whether a presidential directive to the US military to invade and annex the territory of a NATO ally would be a "lawful order."

America's allies are deciding that the F-35 fighter cannot be trusted under a Putin-governed US administration. "[B]y severing maintenance support, shipments of spare parts, and cutting foreign F-35s off from U.S. computer networks, the aircraft would quickly be hobbled. …" “Without these software updates, F-35s could fly, but would be much more likely to be shot down by enemy air defenses. Also without U.S. maintainers and spare parts, it would be difficult to keep the aircraft flying for long ...." breakingdefense.com/2025/03/no-the…

Such a curious coincidence, that's exactly what Herbert Hoover said on October 25, 1929, the day after the Dow Jones dropped 9% in a single day. millercenter.org/the-presidency… Trump's stock market is down 10% from in less than 30 days. x.com/charliespierin… Soon after Herbert Hoover deployed his "fundamentals of the economy are sound" line in October 1929, he signed a big tariff increases, started a global trade war, and converted a stock market shock into a worldwide depression.

A lively industry is growing of talkers/influencers trying to sell the idea that there is some rational patriotic motive to Trump's pro-Putin foreign policy and his costly trade wars. Don't believe them. My latest. theatlantic.com/international/… Trump-splainers pretend that cozying to Russia as part of a rational strategy to counter China. But no rational US strategy to counter China includes launching a trade war against Australia. Yet that's what Trump just did. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

In the minds of many, Jews are a problem. They were supposed to be replaced by Christianity, or by Islam, or by nationalism, or by socialism - and yet they keep lingering on, refusing to accept the message that history is done with them and it's time for them to be gone. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, it's awkward to say directly that Jews should not exist any more. But many people are very ready to say - and even more to hear - that the Holocaust shows that Jews need to improve, be less difficult and particular.