Washington eyes ‘very productive’ Trump-Xi meeting this week

Trump is on a five-day Asian tour that is expected to include a bilateral meeting with the Chinese leader in South Korea. Trade talks between the U.S. and China are setting the foundations for a “very productive meeting” between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, American officials said on … Read more

The East Wing of the White House is gone. Here’s a look at some of the history made there.

“Tearing down those walls doesn’t diminish the significance of the work we accomplished there.” WASHINGTON — Betty Ford reportedly said that if the White House West Wing is the “mind” of the nation, then the East Wing — the traditional power center for first ladies — is the “heart.” That “heart” beat for more than … Read more

Musk back in Trump’s good graces after summer of public feuding

U.S. president confirms he and the billionaire have been chatting again since last month, marking a revival of a key alliance. U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that he’s been in touch with Elon Musk, saying the two have spoken “on and off” since sitting together at conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s funeral last month … Read more

What Trump’s Venezuela Strategy Is Really About

A top diplomat who served in Trump’s first term explains the president’s more aggressive approach. The Trump administration is barely bothering to pretend that its increasingly belligerent stance toward Venezuela is just about tackling narcotics. President Donald Trump wants Nicolas Maduro out of power — and the only question is how much pressure the United … Read more

Pollsters Have a New Kind of Competitor. They Should Be Worried.

In the wee hours of the morning of Oct. 10, in Oslo, Norway, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee started to notice something strange. On the online prediction market Polymarket, the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s chances at winning the prize started to dramatically spike. The likelihood that Machado would win — as reflected by … Read more

‘Throw of the iron dice’: Inside Trump’s most perilous foreign trip yet

A week-long swing through Asia could cement Trump’s image as master dealmaker — or trigger the economic crisis he’s long vowed to prevent. President Donald Trump departs Friday on the riskiest foreign trip of his second term. Unlike his highly choreographed foreign trips to Europe and the Middle East, where leaders were eager to fête … Read more

The Theory Behind Trump’s Gunboat Diplomacy

Venezuela has become Trump’s test of hemispheric reengineering. After two world wars nearly destroyed the planet, at mid-century America decided to step up and apply its ingenuity to the Eastern Hemisphere’s many unstable dynamics. Europe needed settling down, then Asia, and then, later, the Middle East and Africa. An objective view of history says that, … Read more