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Leigh Ann Caldwell, Julia Ioffe, Peter Hamby, Abby Livingston & John Heilemann
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Sunday through Thursday
Puck’s daily political newsletter from Washington—featuring Leigh Ann Caldwell, Julia Ioffe, Peter Hamby, Abby Livingston, and John Heilemann—on what’s really happening in this town, from the White House to the Pentagon to Capitol Hill, K Street, and the campaign trail.
THE LATEST ARTICLES
Julia Ioffe
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October 16, 2025
Melania Diplomacy
A purported breakthrough in Russian diplomacy comes from a surprising place. Plus, Moscow scores an apparent intelligence coup via a U.S. congresswoman, and Trump warms up to regime change.
Julia Ioffe
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October 9, 2025
Portlandia
As Trump masses troops outside blue cities in the name of protecting federal properties, current and former members of the military grapple with the question of which orders are legal—and resent being dragged into the muck of politics.
Julia Ioffe
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October 1, 2025
The Secretary of Wardrobe
Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of generals from all over the globe to Virginia to hear him talk about shaving and fitness standards. If this seems below the pay grade of a four-star, chances are the generals weren’t his real audience.
Julia Ioffe
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September 25, 2025
State of Deportations
As Trump bends more of the federal government to focus on expelling migrants, the bleeding-heart foreign service officers of the State Department are finding themselves pulled into a project they never signed up for: deport, deport, deport.
Julia Ioffe
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September 17, 2025
Church and State
A Trump administration report claims that anti-Christian bias is pervasive inside the State Department. But multiple Christian employees say they never felt targeted—and now they worry members of other faiths are being targeted instead.
Julia Ioffe
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September 11, 2025
No Man’s Poland
Having had his way with Trump, Putin is testing NATO’s mettle with over a dozen drones in Polish airspace. Is it an invasion, a provocation, or simply a way to highlight America’s hollow institutions and empty promises?
Julia Ioffe
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August 28, 2025
Anchorage Away
U.S.-Russia relations are largely unchanged, and the future of Ukraine is just as uncertain, following the Trump-Putin photo op in Alaska. Meanwhile, among the Russian elite, there is an obvious eagerness to get the “Ukrainian crisis” over with so they can get back to the real business of making money.
Julia Ioffe
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August 21, 2025
Getting to Nyet
In recent days, Trump and his team have announced a series of breakthroughs in Russia-Ukraine negotiations, only to find out they’ve misunderstood the Russian position. Now it seems the only security guarantees Ukraine will get are none at all.
Julia Ioffe & Ian Krietzberg
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August 17, 2025
Mr. Altman Goes to Washington
A candid conversation about what it means to potentially introduce novel A.I. tools across the federal government, what’s in it for the U.S. taxpayer, and, of course, the long game for Sam Altman and OpenAI.
Julia Ioffe
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August 14, 2025
Anchorage Man
Putin is swaggering into his meeting with Trump, brimming with arrogance as state propaganda hammers the idea that Russia is on the cusp of victory. As one person close to Putin told me, however, there’s a case for cautious optimism that the summit in Alaska could be the beginning of the war’s end.
