Trump Has No Plan for Venezuela
David Rothkopf on how the Trump administration’s contempt toward planning all but ensures a mess in Venezuela. Plus: Donald Trump’s predatory worldview and Rudyard Kipling’s “Recessional.”
The David Frum Show
How Is Trump Planning to ‘Run’ Venezuela?
What did the United States just do?
Facts vs. Clicks: How Algorithms Reward Extremism
Galaxy Brain’s Charlie Warzel joins David Frum to discuss how our online information became so untrustworthy and how we can fight back. Plus: Why America’s Founding Fathers would be appalled by Trump 250 years later, and Edward Berenson’s The Trial of Madame Caillaux.
Why Has Comedy Become So Right-Wing?
The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis on the Riyadh Comedy Festival, why comedians are attracted to conspiracy theories, and the rise of the right-wing comedy-podcast industrial complex. Plus: the importance of NATO and David’s reflections on Edith Wharton’s Autres Temps.
How Crypto Is Turning America Into a Kleptocracy
The University of Michigan’s Will Thomas on how President Donald Trump is using cryptocurrencies to enrich himself and his allies. Plus: David on the attack at Bondi Beach and lessons on courage from Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim.
How to Stop Trump’s Plan to Steal the 2026 Elections
Brennan Center President Michael Waldman on how Donald Trump could try to subvert the 2026 midterm elections, how he can be stopped, and what can be done to reform America’s electoral system. Plus: David on Trump’s silly award from FIFA.
Why American Health Care Is Still a Mess
Jonathan Gruber on the broken American health-care system, Obamacare, the Trump administration’s war on vaccines and science, and being on the wrong end of Republican outrage. Plus: David on Donald Trump’s Ukraine “peace plan,” recent scandals, and They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayer.
My Friend, Bill Buckley
Sam Tanenhaus on William F. Buckley Jr., his legacy, and his impact on the modern American conservative movement. Plus: David on the end of DOGE and the novel Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington.
The End of the American Empire
The historian Margaret MacMillan on the impact of the Trump-led American withdrawal from world leadership. Plus: David on the corrupting effects of lavish foreign gifts to Trump, and Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop.
MAGA Has Repulsed Young Women
Sarah Longwell on the growing voting divide between the sexes, the 2025 elections, and how Donald Trump remade electoral politics. Plus: David Frum discusses the deal to end the government shutdown and “The Emergency,” by The Atlantic’s George Packer.