The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The Washington Roundtable discusses the fallout from the messy rupture between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, how battles between maximalist rulers and the mega-wealthy have unfolded in history, and how this week’s fighting could portend a new, more combative phase of American oligarchy. They talk about America’s new Gilded Age, drawing on “The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich,” a new book by Evan Osnos, just out this week. This week’s reading: * “The Musk-Trump Divorce Is as Messy as You Thought It Would Be [https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/the-musk-trump-divorce-is-as-messy-as-you-thought-it-would-be],” by Susan B. Glasser * “Donald Trump’s Politics of Plunder [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/02/donald-trumps-politics-of-plunder],” by Evan Osnos * “The Sublime Spectacle of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Social-Media Slap Fight [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-sublime-spectacle-of-donald-trump-and-elon-musks-social-media-slap-fight],” by Jessica Winter * “The Private Citizens Who Want to Help Trump Deport Migrants [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-private-citizens-who-want-to-help-trump-deport-migrants],” by Jessica Pishko * “Can Public Media Survive Trump? [https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/can-public-media-survive-trump],” by Jon Allsop Tune in wherever you get your podcasts [https://link.chtbl.com/p7tKbZe1]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

The New Yorker staff writer Ava Kofman joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss her recent Profile of the iconoclastic right-wing blogger Curtis Yarvin. They discuss Yarvin’s desire to end American democracy by installing a monarch, whether his provocations can be seen as trolling, and how his writings have found a receptive audience among conservative politicians and the tech élite. “Obviously, Yarvin’s influence on the right is great, and maybe can’t be overstated,” Kofman says. “But, at the same time, a lot of these ideas he’s getting from having conversations with powerful people in Silicon Valley and with powerful people in Washington.” This week’s reading: * “Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/curtis-yarvin-profile],” by Ava Kofman * “Democracy Wins a Referendum in South Korea [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/democracy-wins-a-referendum-in-south-korea],” by E. Tammy Kim * “Josh Hawley and the Republican Effort to Love Labor [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/josh-hawley-and-the-republican-effort-to-love-labor],” by Eyal Press * “Trump Makes America’s Refugee Program a Tool of White Racial Grievance [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/trump-makes-americas-refugee-program-a-tool-of-white-racial-grievance],” by Jonathan Blitzer * “Elon Musk’s Vanishing Act [https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/elon-musks-vanishing-act],” by Jon Allsop To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts [http://newyorker.com/podcasts]. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com [themail@newyorker.com]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

Lesley Stahl, a linchpin of CBS News, began at the network in 1971, covering major events such as Watergate, and for many years has been a correspondent on “60 Minutes.” But right now it’s a perilous time for CBS News, which has been sued by Donald Trump for twenty billion dollars over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris during the 2024 Presidential campaign. Its owner, Paramount, seems likely to settle, and corporate pressure on journalists at CBS has been so intense that Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” and Wendy McMahon, the head of CBS News, resigned in protest. Owens’s departure was “a punch in the stomach,” Stahl tells David Remnick in a recent interview, “one of those punches where you almost can’t breathe.” And far worse could happen in a settlement with Trump, which would compromise the integrity of the premier investigative program on broadcast news. “I’m already beginning to think about mourning, grieving,” Stahl says. “I know there’s going to be a settlement. . . . And then we will hopefully still be around, turning a new page, and finding out what that new page is going to look like.” Although she describes herself as “Pollyannaish,” Stahl acknowledges that she is “pessimistic about the future for all press today. . . . The public has lost faith in us as an institution. So we’re in very dark times.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

This is the second installment of “How Bad Is It,” a recurring series in which the staff writer Andrew Marantz joins Tyler Foggatt to conduct a health check on American democracy. They discuss how Donald Trump has bullied media companies, why it’s troubling that some outlets are seeking to settle lawsuits with the Administration, and how the role of social media in public discourse has changed during the second Trump Administration. Plus, an interview with the prominent Hungarian journalist Márton Gulyás, who’s on the show to discuss a new bill making its way through the Hungarian parliament which is designed to quell the free press, and what a potential crackdown may tell us about the future of American media.  This week’s reading: * “Donald Trump’s Politics of Plunder [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/02/donald-trumps-politics-of-plunder],” by Evan Osnos * “Donald Trump’s War on Gender Is Also a War on Government [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/donald-trumps-war-on-gender-is-also-a-war-on-government],” by Paisley Currah * “The Criminalization of Venezuelan Street Culture [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/the-criminalization-of-venezuelan-street-culture],” by Oriana van Praag * “J. D. Vance Warns Courts to Get in Line [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/j-d-vance-warns-courts-to-get-in-line],” by Ruth Marcus * “In Chicago, Will the Pope Bump Last? [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/in-chicago-will-the-pope-bump-last],” by Geraldo Cadava To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts [http://newyorker.com/podcasts]. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com [themail@newyorker.com]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

The Northwestern history professor and New Yorker contributor Daniel Immerwahr joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the ways in which the COVID crisis deepened Americans’ distrust of institutional experts and propelled R.F.K., Jr., to the height of political power in the Trump Administration. Plus, they talk about how Anthony Fauci’s clashes and eventual reconciliation with AIDS activists in the nineteen-eighties and nineties could serve as a guide to repairing the rift between Americans who are skeptical of experts and the officials who set public-health policy today. This week’s reading: “R.F.K., Jr., Anthony Fauci, and the Revolt Against Expertise [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/26/rfk-jr-anthony-fauci-and-the-revolt-against-expertise],” by Daniel Immerwahr “Who Gets to Be an American? [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/who-gets-to-be-an-american],” by Michael Luo “The Stakes of the Birthright-Citizenship Case [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/26/behind-the-birthright-citizenship-case],” by Ruth Marcus “Donald Trump’s Culture of Corruption [https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/donald-trumps-culture-of-corruption],” by Isaac Chotiner “The Mideast Is Donald Trump’s Safe Place [https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/the-mideast-is-donald-trumps-safe-place],” by Susan B. Glasser Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts [http://swap.fm/l/tny-tps-extref]. To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts [http://newyorker.com/podcasts]. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com [themail@newyorker.com]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]