Donald trump

Ivanka Trump’s hustle grindset

Ivanka Trump gave a rare interview yesterday, appearing on the Diary of a CEO podcast. The show, hosted by the British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett, embodies the mix of individual hustle and mental health awareness that is rapidly becoming the dominant mode online. “You’re a bit of an empath, right?” asked Bartlett during a segment on business negotiation tactics. “Oh for sure,” answered his guest. Trump came across as a frazzled and slightly besieged figure. She was tired of the “nasty swirl of social media” and the “gladiatorial” aspect of politics. She claimed to have found solace in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, the treatise on stoic philosophy now much in vogue among people like Bartlett. It

Is Pete Hegseth waging a Christian Zionist war?

In his war briefings, Pete Hegseth pushes religion almost as much as US military might. This has raised questions about whether the War Secretary is a Christian Zionist – and if he views current events in the Middle East as prophetic of the end times. His Pentagon updates often include prayers, Bible readings and religiously-inflected statements about pursuing “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” When asked during his 2025 Senate confirmation hearing if he was a “Christian Zionist,” Hegseth affirmed, “I am a Christian, and I robustly support the state of Israel.” However, Hegseth’s specific Christian tradition diverges in key ways from that of many prominent

Hegseth

Donald Trump is going on a firing spree

The surprising thing isn’t that Donald Trump fired his attorney general Pam Bondi and appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche her temporary successor. It’s that he waited as long as he did. After exercising what is for him unusual restraint – his cabinet was in a state of perpetual upheaval during his first term as president – Trump is going on a firing spree. “He’s very angry, and he’s going to be moving people,” one top administration official told Politico yesterday. Next on the chopping block could be a host of Trump loyalists – Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Remer, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Director of National

trump

Revenge of the cheese-eating surrender monkeys

French President Emmanuel Macron’s approval rating rose by six points last week. It will likely continue to climb following his visit to the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier on Monday. The pride of the French navy recently arrived in the eastern Mediterranean to protect Cyprus, and Macron was in his element as he strode across the deck of the carrier. A photograph of the occasion appeared in the New York Times underneath the headline: “France Is Sending a Large Naval Force to the Middle East.” The last time there was a great conflagration in the Middle East, France was very much on the sidelines Macron was helicoptered onto the Charles

Trump’s ultimate target in this war is China

The United States and Israel killed Ayatollah Khamenei, and Xi Jinping’s decade-long project to build an alternative to the American-led order died with him. For years, Beijing quietly assembled a network of dictatorships and client states designed to blunt American power. Iran supplied China with cheap oil and kept Washington bogged down in the Middle East. Russia waged war on Ukraine with Chinese materiel support, a gamble that was supposed to cement a powerful anti-western axis but has instead bled Moscow into dependence on Beijing. Regional proxies from Lebanon to Gaza added just enough chaos to stop Washington focusing on China. The Chinese Communist party (CCP) propped up Nicolas Maduro’s

What does it take to get fired from Trump 2.0?

You’re not fired! One of the defining aspects of the second Trump administration so far has been the unwillingness of the Commander-in-Chief to oust senior officials who generate unwanted headlines. “Never bend, never break” is the mantra, and that means always refusing to dance to the media’s tune. War Secretary Pete Hegseth, as Americano readers will know, has survived various painful episodes, partly because Donald Trump enjoys him not backing down. In recent days, at least three significant Trumpworld figures have been embarrassed in ways which would, under any other president, have cost them their jobs. On Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had to admit in Congress that, despite having spun an

Why is America determined to pick a fight with Poland?

Until very recently it was hard to find more stalwart allies of America in Europe than the Poles. Poland was an early supporter of Washington’s policy to expand Nato and actively pushed for a stronger US role in central and eastern Europe. The Poles also stood up as an enthusiastic member of every US-led military coalition, taking leading roles in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was to Warsaw that US President Joe Biden traveled – twice – in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to give barnstorming speeches affirming that America would stand by Kyiv.  All the more surprising, then, that the recently-appointed US ambassador to Warsaw chose to pick

Epstein, the Clintons and the death of trust

Bill and Hillary Clinton had a choice: face criminal contempt charges or come clean about their friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. After months of resisting, the former president and his wife have now agreed to testify before the House. Clinton will be the first former president to appear before Congress since 1983, when Gerald Ford discussed bicentenary celebrations for the enactment of the Constitution. An appearance of this gravity, however, is unprecedented; it may well mark the start of a true Epstein reckoning in America. The Epstein scandal has become a strange monster, hell-bent on devouring the old elite In typical Clintonian style, the couple presented their initial refusal as a

epstein clinton

Is the Supreme Court poised to protect the Fed from Trump?

Rarely has the ideologically divided US Supreme Court seemed so much on the same wavelength. And that is not good news for President Trump. In arguments Wednesday in a case that centers on President Trump’s authority to fire members of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, both Republican and Democratic appointees suggested giving the president unfettered control would harm financial markets and damage public confidence. “Your position – no judicial review, very low bar (for dismissal) and that the president alone makes the determination – would weaken if not shatter the independence of the Federal Reserve,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh in an exchange with US Solicitor General John Sauer,

Lisa Cook

Call her Obama

Michelle Obama is the latest guest on the Call Her Daddy podcast – the raunchy girlfest “Howard Stern for women” – and the conversation is about as relatable as you might imagine. Obama and host Alex Cooper spend a couple of minutes up top talking about skiing. The former first lady is particularly fond of Aspen. “There are a bunch of mothers and daughters. We’ve all raised our kids together, and we take the long weekend, go to Aspen and ski,” joined, she says, by a man named Vance, her personal instructor and “ski husband”. Michelle Obama, “one of the most influential and powerful women in the world” according to

Obama

Nicki Minaj’s ungodly clash with Don Lemon

“Independent” (fired) journalist Don Lemon is making himself the news after he did some activist reporting as part of a mob that stormed a Minnesota church, whose pastor is a local ICE official, on Sunday. But if you’re going to cross Christians in America these days, then you’re going to cross Nicki Minaj. “HOW DARE YOU?” Minaj emphatically posterized Lemon on X. “I WANT THAT THUG IN JAIL!!!!! HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO ANY OTHER RELIGION. LOCK HIM UP!!!!!” She accompanied this with a photo of a Chucky doll. In response, Lemon called her “homophobic,” and said, “I’m not surprised Nicki Minaj does not understand journalism and is weighing

Minaj

Is Steve Bannon right about Jordan Bardella?

Marine Le Pen returned to a court in Paris on Tuesday as her appeal began against her five-year ban from political life. The leader of the National Rally was disqualified in March last year after she was found guilty of misusing €4 million ($4.6 million) of funds from the European Union. She claims she is the victim of a political witch-hunt, a view supported by President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D Vance. The appeal will last a month and the verdict is expected in June. If Le Pen is successful she will be able to run in the presidential election in April 2027. If she fails, however, it will

jordan bardella