Welcome to The Logoff: Hi, readers! As we frequently mention, it’s The Logoff’s goal to tell you what you absolutely need to know about the Trump administration on any given day or, if there’s nothing pressing, let you know that instead.
Sometimes, however, it’s useful to step back a little further. In that spirit, I’d like to recommend my colleague Zack Beauchamp’s excellent new story on what he describes as “haphazardism”: the combination of authoritarian intent and incompetent execution that has so far characterized the second Trump term. You can read it with a gift link here.
Zack’s piece is a great frame for understanding so much of Trump 2.0, and I think it’s especially useful for understanding our current Trump moment. Trump is deeply unpopular — facing serious economic headwinds that he appears unable to meaningfully acknowledge — and fresh off a string of losses, including the November elections and a near-unanimous vote in Congress to release the “Epstein files” (which should be disclosed by this Friday). He’s done a lot of damage, but it’s not clear whether he’s succeeding at many, or any, of his core goals. Haphazardism helps explain why that is, and what we might be able to expect going forward.
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