Maduro is a brutal dictator who is getting what he deserves. But Trump's actions are still illegal, because lacking proper congressional authorization. Whether they result in a beneficial regime change in Venezuela remains to be seen.
When asked who would be in charge, Trump said: “We’re designating those people.”
The strikes against Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro might be popular or defensible. They were not legal.
I spent two weeks teaching and lecturing in Israel. Here are some tentative impressions.
The U.S. military is fighting or preparing to fight in more countries than it was when the self-proclaimed "peace president" took office.
The defense secretary claims the video, which shows a second strike that killed two floundering survivors, would compromise "sources and methods."
Plus: reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug, mass shootings at Bondi Beach and Brown University, and the U.S. seizes a Venezuelan oil tanker
The weekend’s ISIS attack came as the Trump administration is trying to expand the U.S. presence in Syria.
The version of the NDAA passed by the House is larger than the administration’s budget request.
Calling suspected cocaine smugglers "combatants" does not justify summarily executing them.
The footage shows what happened to the survivors of the September 2 attack that inaugurated the president's deadly campaign against suspected drug boats.
Plus: Hep B vaccines, national parks nonsense, Trump involvement in Netflix deal, and more...
A former leader of Al Qaeda has convinced Washington that he’s a liberal reformer. Now comes the hard part of following through.
The commander who ordered a second missile strike worried that the helpless men he killed might be able to salvage cocaine from the smoldering wreck.
Paul says Hegseth misled Congress about deadly strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean.
Regardless of what the defense secretary knew or said about the September 2 boat attack, the forces he commands are routinely committing murder in the guise of self-defense.
Instead of asking whether a particular boat attack went too far, Congress should ask how the summary execution of criminal suspects became the new normal.
Plus: War crime allegations against Hegseth, Congress threatens the legal hemp industry, and reflections on the legacy of Tom Stoppard
Even if you accept the president's assertion of an "armed conflict" with drug smugglers, blowing apart survivors of a boat strike would be a war crime.
Plus: War with Venezuela looms, a National Guard member shot in D.C. dies, and Sean Duffy wants you to stop flying in your pajamas.
Plus: DOGE takes new form, inside a birth cult, and more...
Trump's 28-point "peace" plan for the Russia-Ukraine War is a reprise of the 1938 Munich agreement, which dismembered Czechoslovakia for the benefit of Nazi Germany. But US and European supporters of Ukraine can do much to resist it.
Blowing up boats won’t stop drugs—but it could sink Trump.
The Trump administration's claims that illegal migration and drug smuggling qualify as an "invasion" or a "predatory incursion" under the Alien Enemies Act go against the major questions doctrine.
The U.S. government is reportedly looking to put boots on the ground in Damascus to guard the border with Israel.
Plus: Gender on passports, New York's gang database, SNAP fight continues, and more...
It comprehensively explains why illegal migration and drug smuggling do not qualify as "invasion" under the Constitution and the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Filmmaker Jon Shenk and former Navy SEAL Marcus Capone discuss how psychedelics are helping veterans recover from war trauma.
The former vice president liked being compared to the supervillain as a joke. But he had seriously villainous effects on millions of people in real life.
The government is tying itself in knots to cast murder as self-defense and avoid legal limits on the president's use of the military.
Debt-ridden and challenged around the world, the U.S. should encourage Europe to defend itself.
Thus, Trump's attacks on boats in the Carribean have no moral or legal justification.
The president bet that no one would stop him from land attacks in Venezuela. And Congress hasn’t given him any reason to think otherwise.
Plus: Zohran Mamdani's new allies, NBA returns to China, free Ayn Rand, and more...
Plus: new tariff threats escalate China trade war, federal layoffs begin amidst the government shutdown, and Democrats face a candidate-quality crisis
Plus: Luigi Mangione and the death penalty, LLMs and their gambling addictions, and more...
Plus: Letitia James' legal trouble, everything's TV (and that's bad), millionaire explosion, and more...
The war in Gaza was already over in January. Trump let it reopen and expand. A ceasefire is good—but it should have happened much earlier.
Plus: Zohran Mamdani's bus plan makes no sense, Kristi Noem's description of antifa makes no sense, and more...
Whether or not one accepts the report's characterization of Israel's actions, the report itself is an interesting read on the economics of war.
“I still believe in America. I do not feel betrayed. I feel hopeful because of how many Americans stood up for me when I was arrested.”
Over $300 billion in Russian state assets are frozen in the West. It's long past time they were used to help Ukraine resist Vladimir Putin's war of aggression.
The president thinks he can transform murder into self-defense by executive fiat.
Filmmaker Dan Krauss explains how U.S. leaders misled the public about Afghanistan, why the media failed to push back, and how money and power kept America’s longest war alive long after it was lost.
Mike Waltz is no longer national security adviser, but his plans for Bagram Air Base seem to have stuck in the president's head.
Reason is sharing an exclusive clip from Bodyguard of Lies, an upcoming documentary about the failed war in Afghanistan.
Trump struggles to articulate any foreign policy view with much coherence, and has a fragile ego that makes world conflicts all about him.
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