Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Matthew Lynn

Elon Musk would be a great new owner for Ryanair

A Tesla would whisk you to the airport. The planes would be self-flying. And robots would serve the over-priced sandwiches, while, inevitably, every seat is hooked up to a live X feed. A full-scale takeover of Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, by Elon Musk may still be some way off, but with the billionaire polling his followers on X on whether he should make a bid for the budget airline, it is no longer impossible. Ryanair’s long-suffering passengers should welcome the prospect of a Musk takeover – because, while the airline revolutionized low-cost travel, Ryanair is stuck in a rut. The spat between Elon Musk, and Ryanair’s pugnacious CEO Michael O’Leary

Tom Switzer

NATO’s Suez moment

In 1969, Charles de Gaulle told his friend André Malraux that America’s “desire – and one day it will satisfy it – is to desert Europe. You will see.” It has taken nearly six decades, but de Gaulle’s prophecy now looks uncomfortably close to fulfillment. After years of diplomatic effort to manage, placate and charm successive American presidents – and Donald Trump in particular – European leaders are coming to a grim realization: the United States is, at best, indifferent to their interests and sensibilities and, at worst, openly hostile to them. Some, such as Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, still believe Trump can be cajoled, that the transatlantic relationship can somehow

Greenland
Freddy Gray

Can Trump sink the UK’s Chagos Islands handover?

“Better late than never.” That’s how Reform party leader Nigel Farage has described Donald Trump’s sudden and dramatic repudiation of the United Kingdom’s Chagos handover. “This should be enough to sink just about the worst deal in history.” Early this morning, Trump used his Truth Social account to lay into “our ‘brilliant’ NATO ally, the United Kingdom, over Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to “give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital military base, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.” But what’s striking about Trump’s sudden focus on the future of Diego Garcia is that he’s decided to do it now – amid the

chagos islands
Catherine Ellis

Venezuela’s chavista elite is clinging on – but only just

Hugo Chávez’s eyes are everywhere across parts of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. In stark black and white, his gaze is stamped onto government buildings, public housing blocks and murals. But if the late socialist president could truly see what has become of the movement he founded, he would likely be dismayed. Most Venezuelans have abandoned chavismo. His protégé Nicolás Maduro – who had led the government since 2013 – has been captured by the US, while many Venezuelans cheered his exit. What remains is a thin but loyal chavista base – and a leadership operating firmly in survival mode. Trump needs some continuity within the chavista elite to avoid a chaotic

chavismo

Monday

Freddy Gray

Is Greenland a new Suez crisis?

37 min listen

Freddy is joined by Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the National Interest, and David Whitehouse, science journalist and former BBC science editor, to discuss Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland and the potential rupture in transatlantic relations. They also discuss Greenland’s strategic importance for missile defense, the “Golden Dome,” Arctic shipping routes and space-based surveillance; and how Russia and China’s expanding presence in the Arctic, in space and in critical minerals is reshaping global security. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q3iV6N2uKA

Lisa Haseldine

Is the western alliance dead?

European politicians had little rest this weekend after Donald Trump’s announcement on Saturday that he would be imposing punitive tariffs on the eight countries that had sent troops to Greenland last week. From February 1, 10 percent tariffs will be slapped on goods entering the United States from Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. They had, Trump said, “journeyed to Greenland for purposes unknown” and he accused them of playing a “very dangerous game.” Denmark has stated that Greenland is not for sale; Trump is unlikely to back down By sending troops to Greenland on Thursday, those eight countries had only done what Trump implied he

Sunday

Jacob Heilbrunn

Trump’s Greenland caper will heighten inflation

On February 24, Donald Trump will deliver the first State of the Union speech of his second term as president. That impending date goes a long way toward explaining Trump’s avidity for annexing Greenland – sooner rather than later – as the centerpiece of his program for restoring an American golden age of imperial power. Nothing would please Trump more than to be able to declare mission accomplished when he addresses Congress in February. Far from backing away from the issue, Trump, who will travel to Davos next week, is doubling down. He seems convinced that he can cow European leaders into submission, but the more he badgers them, the

Greenland

Saturday

Freddy Gray

These tariffs aren’t just about Greenland

During his visit to Washington, DC, on Wednesday, the Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said that he had a “frank but also constructive” discussion with Vice President J.D. Vance. He added, however, that the Kingdom of Denmark and the US remained in “fundamental disagreement” about the future security of Greenland. Well, in typically explosive style, Donald Trump has just emphasized how deep that disagreement is. On Truth Social, he has announced, starting on February 1, 10 percent tariffs on all goods sent to the United States from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and the United Kingdom. These charges, he went on, will increase to 25 percent

Cuba
Ani Chkhikvadze

Cubans want Donald Trump to save them

The US capture of Nicholas Maduro sent a shockwave of fear through the regime in Havana. Heeding the words of Marco Rubio – “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit” – the communist government put the military on high alert. “The regime carried out military mobilizations,” Camila Acosta, a Cuban journalist detained multiple times for her reporting on the regime, told The Spectator. “They are conducting military exercises at their units, keeping the troops confined to their barracks.” But while the regime looks fearfully to the skies for US commandos, ordinary Cubans look to the skies for salvation

Friday

Gavin Mortimer

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

Thursday

Cockburn

Kyrsten Sinema was too fun for Congress

More like Kyrsten Sinner? In September, a North Carolina woman, Heather Ammel, filed a suit in county court alleging that former Arizona senator and current crypto lobbyist Kyrsten Sinema had an affair with her husband Matthew while he served on her Senate security detail. That suit has since moved to federal court, so now the whole world knows what Cockburn had long suspected: Kyrsten Sinema was too fun for Congress.  For years, Cockburn heard rumors that Sinema dallied about with her security detail during the end of her Senate term. But the Ammel lawsuit codifies it. “She had concerns [Sinema] was having sexual relations with other security members,” the complaint says.   But that’s not the half of it. Sinema and Matthew

kyrsten sinema
Lisa Haseldine

Can Europe persuade Trump not to grab Greenland?

When Donald Trump sets his sights on something, it’s hard to prevent him getting what he wants. That hasn’t, however, stopped Greenland and Denmark from trying. The Danish army has announced that, from today, it is boosting its presence on Greenland. It will be backed up by a cohort of European troops, arriving over the coming days as part of an effort to prove to the US that Copenhagen can secure the island’s defenses. Earlier today, France confirmed that 15 troops had arrived on the island. In the coming hours they will be joined by 13 soldiers from Germany, two from Norway, one from Britain, one from the Netherlands and an undisclosed

iranians
Roger Kimball

Why can’t Democrats speak frankly about Iran?

The manicured grounds of Harvard University are tranquil. Ditto the expensive quads of Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Stanford. All across the fruited plain, the self-denominated paragons of virtue who just yesterday sported “Free Palestine” buttons and joined in “No Kings” rallies are greeting today’s greatest enormity – the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iranian citizens by their insane Islamicist government – with the repetition of that hit by Simon and Garfunkel: “The Sounds of Silence.” Or, as the headline of a story in National Review put it: “Iranian Civilians Are Being Massacred to the Sound of Progressive Silence.” Accurate numbers are hard to come by since the murderous Islamic regime in Iran has shut down

Wednesday

Neal Pollack

Calling Trump a ‘pedophile protector’ was ‘fate’

In a time of political turmoil, the world cried out for a hero, and it may have found one in the person of TJ Sabula, a 40-year-old Ford assembly line worker, who, when Donald Trump visited his plant yesterday, shouted “pedophile protector,” at the President. Trump responded by saying “fuck you,” and “you’re fired,” and flipping Sabula the bird. That was it, we assumed, Sabula’s job was done. You don’t cross the big boss. But though Ford did suspend Sabula without pay, he’s not done yet. Sabula happens to belong to the United Auto Workers, and a UAW representative issued this statement today: “The autoworker at the Dearborn Truck Plant

Trump pedophile protector
Freddy Gray

What’s really going on in Iran?

24 min listen

Spectator contributor and author Charlie Gammell and Freddy discuss what is really happening as protests play out on the streets of Iran. They discuss imams turning on the Shah, whether Trump could actually be seeking talks rather than war, what the Middle East wants from a fractured Iran, and what issues could arise from replacing the regime with Reza Pahlavi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twWdsFjDUQY

Tuesday

Chris Mondics

Is the Supreme Court poised to back trans bans?

It’s been a less than stellar year for trans activists. Shortly after taking office last January, President Trump signed an executive order withholding federal funds from any school that permits biological men and boys from playing on women’s sports teams. Then in June the US Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law banning the use of puberty blockers and hormones for the treatment of young patients suffering from so-called gender dysphoria and seeking to change their gender identity. And on Tuesday the Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases brought by transgender athletes seeking to overturn laws in Idaho and West Virginia barring biological boys and men from playing on female

Trans
Alexander Larman

Claire Foy and the future of celebrity activism

When the actress Claire Foy – still best known for her deservedly award-winning performance in The Crown – was interviewed recently by Harper’s Bazaar to promote her new film H is for Hawk, an adaptation of the Helen MacDonald memoir, she must have expected an easy ride. Estimable title though Harper’s Bazaar undoubtedly is, few would confuse it with a hard-hitting investigative magazine. Yet Foy made some remarks that have blown open the whole vexed question of what the point is of actors getting involved in public discourse, and whether they should, instead, stick to reading other people’s lines. Foy said, when asked about her public opinions, that it was

claire foy
Neal Pollack

Trump flips off Ford worker – and boasts about revving the US economy

“This is the easiest speech to make,” President Trump was saying. “We have great people. And all I’m doing is spewing off what the hell we’ve done.” No speech is particularly hard to make for this President. He loves speaking. He would speak to an empty room, a kindergarten class, or a blank wall. In this case, he was speaking to the Detroit Economic Club after a nice tour of a Ford F-150 plant. During the tour, a Ford worker – who almost certainly no longer has a job – yelled “pedophile protector” at Trump, who yelled back “f— you” twice and flipped the guy the bird.  After that, Trump,

Trump
Neal Pollack

Hegseth’s vision is more Starship Troopers than Starfleet Academy

​“Welcome to Starbase, Texas,” Elon Musk said from the stage Monday night, as the crowd whooped. “This is a city. It’s actually legally a city that thanks to the hard work of the SpaceX team, we built out of nothing. And it’s now a gigantic rocket manufacturing system. For people out there who are curious to see it, we’re actually on a public highway, so you can come and visit. Drive down the road and see the epic hardware. I think this is the first time that a rocket development program has actually been on a public highway.” ​Musk was hosting Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and senior Pentagon leadership, currently traveling the country