A Confederacy of Toddlers
The Trump administration is a regime of troubled children.
Tom Nichols
Tom Nichols is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a contributor to the Atlantic Daily newsletter. He is a professor emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, where he taught for 25 years, and an instructor at the Harvard Extension School. He has served as a legislative aide in the Massachusetts House and the U.S. Senate. He writes about international security, nuclear weapons, Russia, and the challenges to democracy in the United States and around the world—along with occasional contrarian views on popular culture. His books include The Death of Expertise and Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault From Within on Modern Democracy. He is also a five-time undefeated Jeopardy champion.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: bgwalker / Getty. Trump Is Very Confused About Nuclear Weapons
The president says he wants to resume nuclear testing but doesn’t seem to know why.
Andrew Harnik / Getty The Military’s Missile-Defense System Cannot Be as Good as It Says
Kathryn Bigelow’s new movie, A House of Dynamite, is more accurate on this point than the Defense Department itself.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: U.S. Army Air Corps; Gilbert Flores / Variety / Getty. Kathryn Bigelow’s Warning to America
The threat of apocalypse never ended. We just chose to forget about it.
Corbis / Getty Politicians Aren’t Cool Enough to Curse This Much
Political leaders once watched their language. Now they delight in using obscenity.
Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic The Civil-Military Crisis Is Here
The leaders of the U.S. military may soon face a terrible decision.
Jim Vondruska / Reuters Kash Patel’s Challenge Coin Is Perfect for Him
The FBI director has created a memento that symbolizes his unfitness.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Kayla Bartkowski / Getty. The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay
Trump put on a disturbing show for America’s generals and admirals.
Andrew Harnik / Pool / Reuters Why Does Hegseth Want More Than 800 Admirals and Generals in the Same Room?
Few things are important enough to justify the security risk of putting all of these people in the same place.
Haiyun Jiang / The New York Times / Redux Why Trump Changed His Mind on Ukraine
And why he still might change it again
Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty
