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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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August 7, 2025
The Coming MAGA Israel Battle
Like the Democrats before them, the empowered MAGA movement finds itself fighting over U.S. support for Israel, with some of its loudest voices questioning a once sacrosanct relationship.
Julia Ioffe
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July 31, 2025
Lew’s Clues
Lew Olowski, the State Department’s newish head of H.R., is a RIF-happy, Christian evangelizing MAGA warrior with an axe to grind. Worse, according to his fellow diplomats, he’s just plain weird.
Julia Ioffe
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July 24, 2025
Operation Midnight Gabbard
Tulsi Gabbard has been on the outs with Trump ever since their clash over Iran. But through the conspiracy alchemy of Epstein and Russiagate, she’s seizing her chance to come in from the cold.
Julia Ioffe
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July 17, 2025
State Expectations
Guess what: The mass firing of 1,300 career State Department officials has resulted in the predictable chaos, anger, recriminations, and occasional bouts of gallows humor at town halls and on message boards. Naturally, everyone inside Foggy Bottom only expects things to get worse.
Julia Ioffe
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July 10, 2025
What Is Marco Rubio Doing?
Marco Rubio’s appointment at Foggy Bottom was greeted with optimism in the building, where staffers saw him as a serious foreign policy person. But their hope quickly died as America’s chief diplomat instead became a mute accessory to Trump.
Julia Ioffe
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June 26, 2025
The Truth About Obliterategate
The president rushed to insist on the complete and total success of his Iran strikes without waiting for a full assessment; his critics similarly rushed to declare he must be wrong. The reality is that the full picture will take time to emerge—but in the meantime, intelligence is being further politicized.
Julia Ioffe
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June 19, 2025
Inside Bibi’s Trump–Iran Psyop
An apparent Israeli campaign to credit Trump for the attack on Iran, and to flatter the president into joining the war, has met internal resistance and plenty of eye-rolling in the national security world. Still, there’s no question that Bibi knows how to play his counterpart—and that the American president is uniquely susceptible to ego stroking.
Julia Ioffe
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June 10, 2025
A Musk in Moscow & Hegseth’s War at Home
News and notes on the fears of the professional class in Washington: the military mobilization in L.A., impending layoffs at State, and the curious saga of Elon Musk’s father in Moscow.
Julia Ioffe
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June 5, 2025
State of Play
Once upon a time, State Department officials would register dissent by writing a memo, or even resigning in protest. But what good would that do under Trump, where debate is squashed, and 20 percent of the agency is about to be laid off?
Julia Ioffe
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May 29, 2025
The B.F.F.s Remaking State
Inside the Ben Franklin Fellowship’s efforts to restore the foreign service to a mythical meritocracy of yore, when the watchwords were “pale, male, and Yale,” and women weren’t getting so many dang promotions.
