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Leigh Ann Caldwell, Peter Hamby, Julia Ioffe, Marianna Sotomayor, John Heilemann, & Abby Livingston
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Sunday through Thursday
Puck’s daily political newsletter from Washington—featuring Leigh Ann Caldwell, Peter Hamby, Marianna Sotomayor, Julia Ioffe, John Heilemann, and Abby Livingston—on what’s really happening in this town, from the White House to the Pentagon to Capitol Hill, K Street, the campaign trail, and beyond.
THE LATEST ARTICLES
Julia Ioffe
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April 10, 2025
Fruit of the Loomer
Conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer largely took credit for inciting the purge of Trump’s National Security Council, a demonstration of the “services” she is now selling. Former intelligence officers looking for more to the story of General Timothy Haugh’s firing may be missing the point.
Julia Ioffe
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April 4, 2025
Pete Hegseth’s P.R. War
Performing for the cameras as much as for the troops, the former Fox News host has engineered an unprecedented government-funded digital campaign designed to transform the secretary of Defense into a social media star.
Julia Ioffe
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March 27, 2025
The Vance Doctrine
Depending on whom you talk to, J.D. Vance is either a foreign policy naif or an embittered War on Terror vet driven by fear that the West’s foundational civilization is being washed away. The truth may be somewhere in between.
Julia Ioffe
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March 20, 2025
Vlad Education
Trump’s ceasefire team is getting a crash course in Putin’s bad-faith diplomacy. With the slow pace of Europe rearmament, Zelensky can only hope the White House loses patience with Moscow before Ukraine’s stockpiles run out.
Julia Ioffe
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March 13, 2025
Putin’s Art of No Deal
Putin has responded to Washington and Kyiv’s ceasefire proposal by doing what he does best: dragging negotiators into diplomatic purgatory while continuing to fight.
Julia Ioffe
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March 3, 2025
Après Zelensky
While Democrats rush to express support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following his Oval Office thrashing, even some supporters are whispering that he “stepped in it.”
Julia Ioffe
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February 25, 2025
The Fallacy of the Trump-Putin Pact
Precisely three years into Russia’s war on Ukraine, we’re right back where we started in many ways. “At some point, American ambitions will collide with Russian realities,” one Republican foreign policy insider told me, “which is to say, the same story we have watched about a half-dozen times before.”
Julia Ioffe
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October 9, 2024
Tomorrow Will Be Worse
Of all the worst-case scenarios I imagined for Israel, the cruel reality of the present moment—with tens of thousands dead and Israel fighting two wars, one in Gaza and one in Lebanon—has exceeded even my eternal pessimism. Will Israel, which was created as a safe haven for Jews, always be like this?
Julia Ioffe
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October 2, 2024
Biden’s Election Cop Tells All
A timely conversation with Matt Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s national security division, about Russia’s ’24 election meddling efforts, Iran’s aggressive hacking of the Trump campaign, and why declassifying information about these attacks may be the best antidote.
Julia Ioffe
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September 25, 2024
Blinken Contempt & Havana Syndrome, Revisited
News and notes from Washington, on Mike McCaul’s ulterior motive for subpoenaing Anthony Blinken, and a new development in the endlessly curious case of the C.I.A. and the “Anomalous Health Incidents” it has struggled to explain.