Washington Week With The Atlantic

Trump’s Amplifier Administration

Thomas Friedman discusses the chaos of the president’s conflicts—and how the wider world is viewing the instability.

By The Editors
Thomas Friedman on Washington Week With The Atlantic
Courtesy of Washington Week With The Atlantic
Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.

In Donald Trump’s first administration, he was surrounded by buffers and filters—but in his second, he’s surrounded by amplifiers. On a special edition of Washington Week With The Atlantic, the foreign-affairs columnist Thomas Friedman joins to discuss the chaos of Trump’s conflicts, and how world leaders are viewing the instability.

Meanwhile, the end of Donald Trump’s friendship with Elon Musk was never really a question of “if,” but “when.” “Nothing here is modeled, nothing here is stress-tested, everything is a riff,” Friedman said last night. “The country is being run like the Trump Organization today, not like the United States of America.”

When it comes to Trump and Musk’s feud, “we’re dealing with two extremely unstable characters,” Friedman continues. “But what’s really more important is: What’s the wider world audience saying?”

Watch the full episode with Friedman and The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, here.

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