‘What the Hell Is Happening to Your Country?’

9 comments

1. Shane Harris: “Watching President Donald Trump berate the leader of Ukraine in the Oval Office last Friday, many Western officials were appalled. But they weren’t surprised. They have long understood what is now obvious to anyone who watched the ostensible photo op that careened into a diplomatic fiasco: Trump’s visceral disdain for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is inversely proportional to his abiding admiration for Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin. [https://theatln.tc/ORP0uHBT](https://theatln.tc/ORP0uHBT) 

   “Most U.S. allies I spoke with after the White House confrontation thought that Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance had planned to attack Zelensky, like bullies cornering the new kid on the school playground. One former U.S. official called it a ‘setup’ (the White House denies this), intended to give Trump a pretext to withdraw American military support from an ungrateful ally, which, three days later, he did.

   “The United States also curtailed the intelligence it provides Ukraine, including technical assistance essential for firing long-range weapons at military positions miles inside Russia. Those strikes have allowed Ukraine to slow Russia’s advance, so cutting off the intelligence is in effect an act of assistance to Moscow. 

   “… Back in the summer of 2024, before Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, I started talking with senior allied officials about how they were preparing for Trump’s possible return to power …. My conversations with more than a dozen career diplomats and intelligence officers throughout the Western alliance, several of whom have served long tours in Washington, continued through the 2024 campaign, after the election, and into this week. Eventually the discussion came around to one basic question: Is Trump a reliable ally?

   “The answer, unsurprisingly, was no. But it came with an essential caveat.

   “The president was not someone they could easily trust. But the career officials who work for the U.S. government have long been reliable partners. These are the senior-level employees who actually run the FBI, the intelligence agencies, and the Pentagon day-to-day, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office or in the executive suites of headquarters buildings.

   “When foreign leaders extol the mutual benefit of military partnerships and intelligence sharing, they’re talking about this layer of permanent government and the people who work in it. These are the unknown officials who jointly collect and analyze electronic communications with the British; make strategic naval plans with the Australians to counter a rising China; collaborate on North American security and air defense with the Canadians; partner with the Germans to break up terrorist cells; collaborate with the Dutch on cyberoperations directed at Russia; and work hand in glove against Russia with the Ukrainians, whose contemporary intelligence service was practically built by the CIA.

   “These relationships are the soft tissue of global security. They are based on mutual trust that is earned, not assumed. And the officials who make up this part of the U.S. government are the ones Trump has relentlessly attacked since he took office, because they don’t swear allegiance to him. These working-level relationships took shape in the aftermath of World War II, and for eight decades they have withstood political stress and the whims of elected leaders. Now they are being tested in ways that only Trump has dared.”

   Read more: [https://theatln.tc/ORP0uHBT](https://theatln.tc/ORP0uHBT)

2. Take away all the Media BS its actually not all that crazy to understand. Its just every ounce of Tabloid journalism is ringing the bells as if the sky is falling. Which is pretty on par for them*

   EDIT*: Y’all don’t hate journalism enough. Its the most divisive and manipulative parts of your day to day.

3. I understand why some people don’t like how Trump handles foreign policy. He’s blunt, doesn’t follow traditional diplomacy, and refuses to cater to career officials who think they should have the final say. But let’s be honest—this outrage isn’t really about Ukraine or even Russia. It’s about a president who challenges the foreign policy establishment that has spent decades making bad decisions. These same experts led us into endless wars, wasted trillions, and failed to deliver real results. Now, they’re angry because Trump is questioning whether pouring more money into Ukraine actually benefits the U.S. That’s not siding with Russia—it’s putting American interests first. If we can’t even ask whether continued involvement in this war makes sense, then we’ve lost the ability to think critically about our own policies. Leadership isn’t about doing what’s always been done; it’s about making the right choices for the country.

   And let’s talk about this idea that the “permanent government” is what keeps the world stable. That’s just another way of saying unelected officials believe they should have more power than the president we elect. These people have spent decades in Washington, making decisions without being held accountable to the public. Now, they’re upset because Trump isn’t playing by their rules and refuses to let them dictate policy. But the reality is, whether people like Trump or not, he was elected to make these decisions. If these officials think they should have the final say, then we have a much bigger problem than Trump. A system that ignores voters and operates on its own is not democracy—it’s bureaucracy running unchecked. The real issue isn’t Trump’s leadership; it’s the idea that government should control itself, no matter what the American people decide.

4. Probably the reason for the recent mass firings at federal organizations

5. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

6. When incompetent business leaders are in charge of a country and try and run it like a business, and they love reality tv.

7. The empire is falling. Europe is going to be Byzantine.

   I only say this somewhat facetiously.

8. Trump is having to fix the problems all the pussy liberals made

9. The writers at the Atlantic are now forced to work with frozen snapshots of reality, writing stories which both refute yesterday and discredit tomorrow inside the same paragraph

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