Anne Applebaum

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The Atlantic staff writer, Pulitzer-prize winning historian, Senior Fellow at the Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University

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MAGA Is Making the World Safe for Corruption
Sep 14, 2026 · original
Illustrations by Ben Hickey This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. In the summer of 2025, the government of Brazil suddenly found itself in a deep crisis. The Trump administration had unexpectedly imposed 50 percent tariffs on the country’s products, threatening everyone from coffee planters to shoe manufacturers. At the same time, the United States canceled the visas of eight Brazilian supreme-court justices and placed unprecedented financial and travel sanctions on a powerful justice and his family. Many things about this crisis were novel. For the first time anyone could remember, an American administration had used tariffs not for economic reasons but as a tool to influence the internal politics of a friendly democracy. President Trump was publicly fulminating against what he called the “WITCH HUNT” against Jair Bolsonaro, the former
The MAGA Right Is Only Pretending to Be Censored
Sep 2, 2026 · original
Updated at 7:41 a.m. ET on September 3, 2026 F or nearly a year and a half, the Trump administration prepared its case. Political appointees inside the State Department combed through old files and databases. Civil servants received notice that their personal emails would be examined. Darren Beattie—the founder of a far-right conspiracist website, then the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy—sent out a request for files on anyone who had communicated with or written about the Global Engagement Center, a now-dissolved agency that once worked to expose propaganda campaigns by Russia, China, Iran, and other countries around the world. [ Read: The white nationalist in charge of Trump’s public diplomacy ] The request, seen last year by the MIT Technology Review , was far-reaching. Beattie was seeking information on Bill Gates; the commentator Bill Kristol; Chris Krebs, a former U.S.
Putin’s Human Safari Is the Dystopian Future of War
Aug 5, 2026 · original
Yuri is a 52-year-old Ukrainian who runs a market stall in Kherson, not far from the front line. Yesterday, he was sorting through vegetables when he heard the loud, distinctive buzz of a Russian drone. As he later told the journalist Zarina Zabrisky, he had nothing more than a couple of garlic bulbs in his hands, and no weapons. “Not even a phone.” He gestured at his tomatoes and peppers, so that the drone operator, whoever and wherever he might be, could see that he wasn’t a soldier. The drone kept following him. Police footage shows it chasing Yuri around his truck. He hides under the umbrella that covers the stand, runs from one side to the other, gestures at the vegetables. Then the drone dives beside him and explodes. Miraculously, Yuri survived, with just cuts and a concussion. Zabrisky interviewed him in the hospital, where he was lucid, and surprisingly sane. Sane might be the k
The Far Right Is Distorting Ceuta
Aug 2, 2026 · original
Updated at 7:01 a.m. ET on August 3, 2026 Sign up for our newsletter about national security here . Mostly young, mostly male Moroccans crawling onto beaches, climbing hills, scaling walls, jumping over fences, surging past police in order to get into Europe: The photographs and videos that emerged from Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, on July 29 and 30 looked very much like migrant-terror videos, deliberately designed to be broadcast by the international far right. So closely did this incident resemble the “invasion” that MAGA and its European friends have long said is under way that it was hard not to suspect that it had been orchestrated. As I am writing this, much is still not known about the 60,000-odd people who swam from Morocco to Ceuta last week. But we do know that many of them saw social-media posts encouraging them to swim to Ceuta and, perhaps, to thereby precipitat
The Quintessential Politician of This Era
Jul 12, 2026 · original
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. In his way, the late Lindsey Graham, who unexpectedly died Saturday evening, was the consummate politician of our time. The Republican senator from South Carolina was the epitome, the poster child, the quintessence of our era. Graham’s background and biography made him, during the first part of his career, a fervent American patriot, with a special devotion to the cause of American leadership in the democratic world. Born and raised in a small town in South Carolina, he got himself and his younger sister through college after his parents died while he was still in his 20s, with the help of an ROTC stipend and then an Air Force salary. He became a military lawyer, served in West Germany during the Cold War, and stayed in the Reserves for two decades, traveling to work in Iraq and Afghanistan even whi
Trump’s Anti-Patriotic Trap
Jul 1, 2026 · original
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. As he reached the end of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in 2024, J. D. Vance’s tone became more intimate. He began to speak of a cemetery in Kentucky where five generations of his family are buried, and where he hopes he and his children will be buried too. The cemetery matters to him because the bones in that graveyard—some belonging, he said, to people born “around the time of the Civil War”—represent a concrete reality, a homeland, a place that he will defend. “People will not fight for abstractions,” Vance said, “but they will fight for their home.” Not “all men are created equal,” in other words, and not “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” but tombstones. Vance believes that blood and soil, not ideas and principles, are what make him American. As it happen
Ukraine Is Not Losing. Russia Is Not Winning.
Jun 7, 2026 · original
I n a field outside of Kyiv last weekend , a van was parked discreetly behind some trees. Inside the van there were no passenger seats, just a long desk, two office chairs, two laptops, extra screens. Outside appearances to the contrary, this was a mobile drone-interceptor base, one of hundreds of similar vehicles now scattered around Ukraine. It’s also part of something much bigger: a set of technological advances that have changed the war with Russia, and maybe all wars, forever. On one of the laptops, a soldier showed me a bird’s-eye view of a part of the Ukrainian countryside more than 100 miles away. His job is to identify the objects flying above it, to distinguish birds and bats from lethal Russian drones. When he sees the latter, the soldier on the laptop beside him can then direct an interceptor—a small drone that looks like a miniature rocket ship—to track and destroy the incom
What Did Jamaica Do to Deserve This?
May 12, 2026 · original
Jamaica is a beautiful island with white beaches; a green, mountainous interior; and, despite its small size, one of the most recognizable cultures in the world. Jamaica has exported music, fashion, and food to the farthest corners of the planet. Bob Marley alone wrote songs that hundreds of millions of people would instantly recognize as Jamaican. Jamaica also has a stable parliamentary democracy and excellent relations with its neighbors. The United States is the country’s largest trading partner. Some 3 million Americans visit the island every year, and hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans come to the United States. Jamaica and the United States, according to the State Department website, “maintain strong and productive relations, based on trust and mutual interest.” Given all of that: What did Jamaica do to deserve Kari Lake? Lake, a failed Senate and gubernatorial candidate from Arizo
Putin’s War Comes Home to Moscow
May 11, 2026 · original
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. Four years ago, President Vladimir Putin offered Moscow and its business elite a de facto deal: Support my war in Ukraine, and in exchange you won’t have to think about it. In the past week, that deal was broken. Not that Moscow was ever fully immune: As long ago as May 3, 2023, the first two Ukrainian drones to reach Moscow exploded over the Kremlin, doing no damage but revealing that the capital’s air defenses weren’t as stellar as advertised—and that the war wasn’t as far away as Muscovites assumed. Eventually, the Ukrainians shifted their efforts toward Moscow’s airports, using drones dozens of times to buzz the runways or circle the airports, deliberately creating travel chaos and expense. Last week, the whining noise of unmanned flying objects could be heard in the city of Moscow once again. O
Illiberalism Is Not Inevitable
Apr 13, 2026 · original
In the end, the defeat of Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s autocratic prime minister, required not just an ordinary election campaign or new messaging but rather the construction of a broad, diverse, and patriotic grassroots social movement. And by building exactly that, Hungary’s opposition changed politics around the world. Orbán’s loss brings to an end the assumption of inevitability that has pervaded the MAGA movement, as well as the belief—also present in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric—that illiberal parties are somehow destined not just to win but to hold power forever, because they have the support of the “real” people. As it turns out, history doesn’t work like that. “Real” people grow tired of their rulers. Old ideas become stale. Younger people question orthodoxy. Illiberalism leads to corruption. And if Orbán can lose, then his Russian and American admirers can lose too. P
The First Post-Reality Political Campaign
Mar 27, 2026 · original
Flick through pro-government Hungarian accounts on TikTok, and you might see an AI-generated version of Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, sitting on a golden toilet, counting his money, snorting cocaine, and barking orders at a Hungarian soldier. You might also find an AI-generated Péter Magyar, the leader of the Hungarian opposition, appearing to say he’s fine with handing Hungarian factories over to foreigners, as long as he’s the one in charge of the country. Keep going, and you will find images of war, violence, and a SpongeBob look-alike declaring that Magyar “wipes up cocaine with me after he accidentally sneezed and it all fell to the floor.” You won’t find much about Hungary itself, which is not an accident. In recent years political parties around the world have produced surrealist campaigns, comic campaigns, conspiratorial campaigns, even beer-drinking campaigns. Bu
Everyone but Trump Understands What He’s Done
Mar 17, 2026 · original
Sign up for Inside the Trump Presidency , a newsletter featuring coverage of the second Trump term. Donald Trump does not think strategically. Nor does he think historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. He does not think about how his behavior in one place will change the behavior of other people in other places. He does not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and impulse, and when he changes his mind—when he feels new whims and new impulses—he simply lies about whatever he said or did before. For the past 14 months, few foreign leaders have been able to acknowledge that someone without any strategy can actually be president of the United States. Surely, the foreign-policy analysts murmured, Trump t
Trump Has No Plan for the Iranian People
Feb 28, 2026 · original
The American bombardment of Iran has been launched without explanation, without Congress, without even an attempt to build public support. Above all, it has been launched without a coherent strategy for the Iranian people, and without a plan to let them decide how to build a legitimate Iranian state. This lack of coherence has plagued the Trump administration’s policy for many weeks. On at least eight occasions during Iran’s nationwide uprising in early January, President Trump encouraged Iranians to “take over their institutions” and promised that American help was “on its way.” But just last month, days after the Iranian regime massacred thousands of its own citizens, Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, sent out the opposite message. He described Iran as “a deal that ought to happen” and said that the country could be welcomed into “the league of nations.” Vice President Vance has al
No, It’s Not Back to Business as Usual
Feb 17, 2026 · original
Sign up for our newsletter about national security here . Just like last year, I watched the most important American speech at the Munich Security Conference in the overflow room, sitting on the floor, underneath the speakers. This is the best place both to hear the speech (otherwise the room is too noisy) and to watch the faces of people gathered around the screens. The prime ministers and presidents sit in the main hall, but plenty of other people attend the conference: security analysts, lieutenant colonels, drone engineers, deputy defense ministers, legislators, and hundreds of other people whose professional lives are dedicated to ending the war in Ukraine, bringing peace to Europe, and projecting security in the world. Just like last year, this group was hoping to hear how the U.S. administration is planning to contribute to these projects. And, just like last year , audience membe
What Is Kari Lake Trying to Achieve?
Feb 11, 2026 · original
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. She wanted to be governor of Arizona. She wanted to be a senator from Arizona. She wanted to run Voice of America, to be MAGA’s broadcaster to the world. Then she wanted to shut down Voice of America, after Donald Trump and Elon Musk turned against it. She wanted to play a big role in the MAGA movement, to live up to the phrase she’s used to describe herself: “Trump in heels.” But Kari Lake has achieved none of those things. Instead, during her 11 months as the de facto leader of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lake has done profound damage to America’s foreign broadcasters, and to America’s ability to communicate with the world. USAGM runs Voice of America and gives grants to, among others, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Open Technology Fund, which helps people access i
Democracy Under Occupation
Feb 6, 2026 · original
Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts When heavily armed agents of the federal government arrived in Minneapolis, the people of the Twin Cities responded with surprising strength. In this episode, residents describe what drove them to act, and host Anne Applebaum speaks with contributing writer Robert Worth about what he learned when he observed the tactics of the federal agents and the response of Minnesotans. The following is a transcript of the episode: Amanda Bauer: I’ll tell you, I’ve been teaching for 25 years and for 25 years we’ve had lockdowns, teaching kids about, you know, mass shootings in schools. But I think, in my head, I never thought it would be our own government that we had to try to protect ourselves from, or to protect our children from. [ Music ] Anne Applebaum: From The Atlantic , this is Autocracy in America . I’m Anne Appleb
Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw
Jan 19, 2026 · original
Let me begin by quoting, in full, a letter that the president of the United States of America sent yesterday to the prime minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre. The text was forwarded by the White House National Security Council to ambassadors in Washington, and was clearly intended to be widely shared. Here it is: Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any person since its foun
How Crypto Is Used for Political Corruption
Jan 16, 2026 · original
Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts Brandon LaRoque kept his life savings in a cryptocurrency account. One morning, as he went to check his balance, he discovered that it was all missing. LaRoque is one of many victims of the unregulated crypto industry, and soon there may be more. President Donald Trump has rolled back regulation of the industry. At the same time, he and his family have earned untold billions of dollars from new crypto ventures. Molly White, a writer focused on the intersections of tech and finance, describes the crypto industry, and explains how this new financial industry is shaping our politics and facilitating corruption within our government. The following is a transcript of the episode: Brandon LaRoque: Things tend to happen to me first ’cause I’m usually the one willing to try something new first. And I hope I’m not the ca
Federal Agents Are Violating the Rights of Americans
Jan 9, 2026 · original
Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts The transformation of ICE into a type of national police force, backed, in some cases, by soldiers from the National Guard, has been covered as immigration story—but these forces are reshaping democracy for all of us. This shift was evident even before the shootings in Minneapolis and Portland this week. In this episode, George Retes, a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran, recounts how he was detained by ICE and held for three days without explanation. The Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum returns as host of Autocracy in America and talks with Margy O’Herron and Liza Goitein from the Liberty & National Security Program at NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice about the potential impact of these forces on elections in November. The following is a transcript of the episode: Anne Applebaum: From The Atlantic , this is A
Henry James’s Venice Is Still Here
Dec 17, 2025 · original
Photographs by Matteo de Mayda In a quiet, almost empty part of Venice stands a Renaissance palazzo with an unusually large garden. The garden is invisible from the outside, blocked by a high brick wall that I recognized when I saw it. In The Aspern Papers , a novella serialized in The Atlantic in 1888, Henry James lets the narrator, a literary scholar whose name we never learn, describe the wall. “It was figured over with the patches that please a painter, repaired breaches, crumblings of plaster, extrusions of brick that had turned pink with time,” he writes. “It suddenly occurred to me that if it did belong to the house I had my pretext.” The narrator has arrived at the dilapidated palazzo by gondola, together with his friend Mrs. Prest. He is plotting to meet the elderly owner, Juliana, the former mistress of a famous, long-dead poet, Jeffrey Aspern. She owns a collection of reputedl

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