Washington Week with The Atlantic

David Ignatius, foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Post, joined moderator Jeffrey Goldberg to discuss the global consequences of America’s unpredictability, including the current state of negotiations with Iran.

"I think there is a growing fear in the world that America's promises that it will sacrifice its own cities to save those of its allies, ... people just don't believe it," said David Ignatius.

"The Trump doctrine, in part, is just do it. Just go for it," said David Ignatius. "When you look back to President Obama, ... he did plan carefully. ... The opposite of what you see with Trump."

Would President Trump try to take Greenland in some way? "I think he's going to get something that he can call taking Greenland. He'll get bases," said David Ignatius. "I think Europe has really now dropped any willingness to accommodate Trump's bullying on Greenland."

What is your analysis of the Iran deal that's taking shape? "That this was a war of choice and it's a peace of necessity," said David Ignatius. "Both sides are exhausted. ... It's been time to make peace, but it's been difficult to get there."

"When we're talking about DEI, we're talking about [Pete Hegseth's] anti-woke war. I just would like to put some of this into a little bit of perspective," said Helene Cooper. "If you looked at the people who were in the leadership roles of the military. All of them were white men."

"The fact that [Pete Hegseth] has this ability, as a former television reporter, to kind of deliver the message to the president in a way the president not only understands, but that resonates with him, that has kept him in his job," said Vivian Salama.

"You've had the purging of the press. ... I think it's a notable thing. I'm a former Pentagon correspondent," said @jonathankarl.bsky.social. "It's like [Pete Hegseth] doesn't want to face — not any dissent, because it's not a matter of dissent, but even questions that veer from the orthodoxy."

"There is also a tradition where Defense secretaries attempt to minimize their overtly partisan behavior," said Missy Ryan. "They try to, in the name of national security, act more as a nonpartisan actor, and Pete Hegseth has totally discarded that tradition."

. @peterbakernyt.bsky.social : "What we're seeing is a real escalation in this second term [of the Trump administration] about going after people who they consider to be enemies and that they consider to be providing information that they don't want to be out there, or views to be squelched."

"What Donald Trump has made very clear is that no matter what's written on paper, no matter what laws are passed by Congress, there are no permanent commitments or alliances, as far as he's concerned," @sbg1.bsky.social says.

"They don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, but they don't want to bail the United States out of a mess that the United States is currently in," @markmazzetti.bsky.social says of China. "They're not going to make it easy on President Trump to get out of this."

"If you're Taiwan's government right now, how are you feeling about America's commitment to your security?" asks @jeffreygoldberg.bsky.social. "I think, if you're in Taipei right now, there's reason to be nervous," says @nancyayoussef.bsky.social.

The state of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire remains fragile. President Donald Trump said Monday that the latest Iranian proposal was a "piece of garbage," and the ceasefire is "unbelievably weak" and on "life support."

"With Kash Patel, though we should be clear, there’s not exactly been a vociferous defense from the president for the FBI director, but he also still has his job, despite questions about his job performance, including those raised within the ranks of the FBI," said @jonlemire.bsky.social.

"Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has a pretty realistic view of [the Iran war]. He told them from the beginning it wouldn't be as easy as the president said it was," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social.

How is China viewing the U.S. depletion of weapons stocks that could theoretically defend Taiwan? "China is definitely looking at that," said Vivian Salama. "A number of ... just diverted interests that China sees as a door opening, and its intense interest in securing its position in Taiwan."

Can it be argued that Iran has won the war by surviving and keeping control of the Strait of Hormuz? "I think it depends on who you ask — who’s winning or who’s losing. Certainly, you can’t say the United States has won the war, as President Trump has said," said @amnanawaz.bsky.social.

"Gas prices are up 50%. Consumer confidence from the University of Michigan's survey is at its lowest point ever," said Idrees Kahloon. "This is really not the set of economic priorities that you want to be sending before you go to the midterms."

"You're taking the people writ large who had the absolute lowest approval rating in the country: journalists, members of Congress, and often the President. You are putting them in a ballroom. You are dressing them up. You are feeding them … filet and lobster," said @ashleyrparker.bsky.social.

"Journalists are part of a broader civil society in this country that has been under siege, and what I think a lot of people, when they look at Washington, ... and they say we’re revolted by this spectacle, they include the press in that ...

"It's a tragic moment, of course, that politics and violence have become so interweaved that we didn't even really pause for very long to think about what it meant and what it tells us about our politics today," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social about Saturday's alleged assassination attempt.

"Trump reveres royalty, and he loved the state visit that he had in the United Kingdom," said @tylerpager.bsky.social. "The Brits see this as an opportunity to reestablish a good relationship with Trump because they know how much he reveres the king and the queen."

"Voters are locked in right now," said @yvonnewingett.bsky.social. "They are locked in, not because they think that Trump is any sort of badass for ... pulling it off in Venezuela. [Voters] are feeling maximum pain. That's why they are locked in."

"When you are at war with another country, the other country gets a say," said @seungminkim1.bsky.social. "[Trump's] ambitions are not something that's easily explainable to the voter who is looking at the gas tank, who is looking at the price tag when they fill up their cars."

"[President Trump's] top generals and war planners came to him and said, 'Sir, one of the first things that will happen is the Strait of Hormuz will be closed,'" said Annie Linskey. "Trump believed that the regime would fall first, and that turned out to be wrong."

"If Iran would have been successful, it's highly likely, I'm told by people close to [Trump] that he already would have been in Cuba. So, it's the successes that he feels like he has had over and over again is perpetuating this image of this godlike image," said @lacaldwelldc.bsky.social.

"Trump is really good about asserting his own reality ... but Americans aren't going to buy it if things don't change and change soon. And even if they do improve, the higher prices are going to remain for a while," said @jonlemire.bsky.social.

"Netanyahu needs President Trump to back him later this year because he's going to be facing voters again, and right now he's not very popular," said @michaelscherer.bsky.social. "I think there's a parallel political peril in the United States."

"Donald Trump has been very clear that he wants to keep the blockade. He thinks the blockade is working. I think there are reasons to surmise that the blockade is having some effect. It seems to be putting pressure on the Iranians in power right now," said Stephen Hayes.

"The data that we've gotten from the Pentagon is quite limited. ... While there has been impact, we don't know the scope and scale of it," said @nancyayoussef.bsky.social.

Why is JD Vance going to Pakistan to negotiate a peace deal with Iran? "This will be the most senior in-person discussion between America and Iran since the 1979 revolution," said Karim Sadjadpour. "The Iranians actually requested to negotiate with JD Vance for a few reasons."

"What [President Trump is] interested in at any given moment is 'am I winning?' and 'is this a victory?'" said @anneapplebaum.bsky.social.

"I think the best way to make sense of it is to recognize that Iran and America have different definitions of 'winning' and what 'losing' is," said Gillian Tett.

"To go outside of our planet and the immediate vicinity to go to another world is, and should be, an inspiring event. Unfortunately, it happens at a time when we're so divided at home," @peterbakernyt.bsky.social said about Artemis II. "It is this one thing, I think, that brings people together."

"In terms of the economic piece of this, there is a real awareness that this is a big political, a domestic political problem staring them in the face, that even if, let's say, the war wraps up next week, this is not going to be solved economically immediately," said @michellelprice.bsky.social.

"I think it's extraordinary to fire the head of the Army, the largest branch in the military, during a war and not related to the war itself, right? [Gen. Randy George] did nothing wrong within the war, and so I think it's extraordinary, raises real questions," said Idrees Ali.

"Nineteen minutes long, that address was from the White House. It really was basically a 19-minute-long Truth Social post instead of a meaningful strategy for why [Trump has] taken such a consequential decision that has plunged the global economy into turmoil," said @sbg1.bsky.social.

"It's always better for a president in a time of war to go to the public and explain what he's trying to do, to explain the goals, to explain why it's worth American treasure and lives to take this action, but it felt like a day one speech, not a day 32 speech," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social.

"I don't think we should underestimate Trump's ability to at least try to declare victory just out of the blue," said Missy Ryan. "There really is the reality of continued strife that could, you know, bring down the kind of economic reality that I think is more resonant for him."

"Donald Trump has it out for NATO. He has it out for America's European allies," said @sbg1.bsky.social. "It's very hard to see a scenario here where this doesn't represent a big blow to American international power and standing in many ways."

"The question that becomes is, if you don’t have a new regime, if you don’t have a change in the country … does this mean that we have to do it again in five years or 10 years or one year — who knows," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social. "[Iran has] made clear that they're not giving up."

Is the U.S. winning the Iran war? “As Donald Trump says, ‘we’ve won, it’s over, it’s over, it’s over,’ we think about how far we are from a kind of decisive victory that would really end this in a way that everybody can be confident it’s over," said David Ignatius.

"We should be clear, though, we have had military success," said Stephen Hayes. "Military success in the short term, which I think we've had a lot ... I think the real question is what now? What comes next?"

"I think the omission [of the Iranian people] is part of the fact that [Trump] does not know what comes next," said Vivian Salama. "He can say that we're winding down because he has never quite defined what the end game looks like, what victory looks like."

"As a Pentagon reporter, we have learned over two now administrations: watch what [Trump is] doing, not what he's saying," said Idrees Ali. "The tea leaves and the movements indicate that this is going to get a lot tougher and a lot stronger really for Iran."

Is the Iran war winding down? "You could argue that the war is winding up because [Trump] is sending more Marines in, he is increasing the pace of the attacks," said @sangernyt.bsky.social.

Around 2,500 U.S. Marines and the amphibious warship USS Tripoli have been deployed to the Middle East as the war with Iran continues. The deployment is a part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, which specializes in rapidly responding to crises and conducting amphibious landings.

"I think, you know, there were Arab diplomats flooding Washington ... saying it's going to be different this time," said Felicia Schwartz. "Trump has been able to do things that everyone told him he couldn't do, and I think some of it was confirmation bias."

"I can say that the administration is still trying to limit the objectives and not make this look like an endless war, but it's been a mess in terms of the messaging of what this actually looks like, what an endgame actually looks like," said @markmazzetti.bsky.social.

@steveinskeep.bsky.social: "They're extremely powerful, but a couple thousand Marines is not very many in the context of a country like Iran. ... The president is clearly comfortable escalating in a way that entails greater risk for Iran, but also greater risk for the United States and the world."

"Kharg Island is only about 1/3 the size of Manhattan, but don’t let that small size mislead you. It is the cornerstone of the Iranian economy. 90% of its oil exports come out of that island. And so the strikes on it have two big impacts, both military and economic," @nancyayoussef.bsky.social.

A little over a week has passed since the United States and Israel went to war against Iran. While the military campaign appears effective, the key question for President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu remains: Why did they choose to strike? And, why now?

"This war — the preliminary estimates say that it's costing a billion dollars a day," said @nancyayoussef.bsky.social.

"I was on the ground in southern Iraq on the day that Saddam's forces left the southern city of Basra," said @sbg1.bsky.social. "The American and British officers we spoke with had no idea what they were doing there. They didn't know what the goal was."

"This is a big gamble," said Karim Sadjadpour. "If you're able to change the leaders in Iran and empower the people into some kind of a representative government, ... that would be a geopolitical game changer for the United States and huge victory for President Trump."

Why did President Trump decide to go to war against Iran? "Why now is still an open question," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social. "I think a lot of reasons are he felt emboldened by Venezuela, and he's becoming increasingly comfortable with power as he goes further into his second term."

"We could learn a lot more after Trump is done being president now, because the precedent has been set," said @andrewdesiderio.bsky.social. "The precedent has now been set that a former president can be compelled to testify before a congressional committee, right? Bill Clinton did that today."

"What's been so striking is how many of those very same Republicans who were calling for the release of the files, had promised to get to the bottom of them, are now saying things that are just the opposite," said Stephen Hayes.

Does the DOJ acknowledge that there are files that exist referencing Trump that they haven't released? Tarini Parti: "We know that there are files with his name in it that we've reported exist. They just have gone back and forth in terms of releasing his name in some files and then removing them."

"The key thing to remember about the Epstein story is that it is a case that has been mishandled for decades," said @sfifz787.bsky.social. "For the first time, Republicans in Congress and Democrats ... were willing to openly defy their leadership and call for the release of these files."

How are Republicans approaching not only President Trump's speech, but the agenda moving forward until midterms? "The redistricting fight does not seem like it's going the way that they wanted it to. We don't know if that's going to save it," said @lisad.bsky.social.

"He has been obsessed with the idea of tariffs forever," said @eugenedaniels2.bsky.social. "Donald Trump truly believes that this is a way to do economics. I mean, you look at his kind of economic plan, this is kind of it."

"The Supreme Court told the President of the United States very clearly, if you want these tariffs, get Congress to pass a law to issue these tariffs," said @sbg1.bsky.social. "He's trying to bypass the way our system is supposed to work."

"[Trump] sees the Supreme Court as a political body. He doesn't see it as a judicial body in that sense," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social. "By the end of the day, he'd already put out a new order trying to reimpose tariffs under a different legal authority."

"It is hard to overstate [Stephen Miller's] power inside the Trump second-term White House, in part because his purview is so much broader than just immigration," said @ashleyrparker.bsky.social. "It includes trade. It includes foreign policy. It includes national security. It includes education."

"In January of 2016, [Stephen] Miller was one of the very first people to leave Jeff Sessions' office and go to [Trump's] campaign," said @lacaldwelldc.bsky.social. "But Jeff Sessions, a month later, was the very first person — the first senator — to endorse Donald Trump."

"[Stephen Miller] is trying to change the perception in the nation toward immigrants to basically make it so that the pendulum of politics shifts and there's more of a tolerance for the policies he's trying to implement," said Zolan Kanno-Youngs.

Where did Stephen Miller's politics develop? "The thing that most struck me in talking to him years ago when I was profiling him was how much of his political worldview was forged in opposition to his upbringing," said @mckaycoppins.bsky.social.

"Karoline Leavitt said that what the president actually meant was that he was supporting the Save Act," said @elizlanders.bsky.social. "But [Trump] ... continued to double down on his own statement about nationalizing the election even after she said that's not really what he meant."

Why did the framers of the Constitution think it was important to devolve election supervision to local authority? "In part to prevent exactly this, ... from a president or some sort of ruler to try to rig the system. The authorities should be in the states," said @jonlemire.bsky.social.

"[Trump] is using the full powers of the federal government, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other people in the Justice Department to suck up information to try and confirm the debunked theories he has about the 2020 election,” said @michaelscherer.bsky.social.

What does it mean to nationalize an election? "I think for Trump, it means to go in there and run the elections in states and localities that he's lost," said @jonathankarl.bsky.social. "He's talking about some sense of a federal takeover of the way the elections are run."

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, and protests against the actions of federal agents, put both the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota in the national spotlight.

"You have a federal government that's responsible for election security and maintaining the sanctity of these elections, and then you have a president that obviously has been mobilizing his government towards the grievances of the previous election," said Zolan Kanno-Youngs.

Stephen Hayes: "It has been widely reported that Donald Trump was down on [Tulsi Gabbard], and there's nothing you can do if you are in Trump’s orbit that will get you back in his good graces sooner and faster than going and supporting his crazy arguments about the 2020 election having been stolen."

"This is the first time [President Trump] has ordered the arrest of a journalist," said @sbg1.bsky.social. "One of the things that they're accusing Don Lemon of doing is peppering the pastor with questions. That is called doing journalism."

"One of the reasons Minneapolis has stood up to this — what they call an 'invasion' of their city — is because they’ve had practice," said Toluse Olorunnipa. "It’s a city that has a long tradition of activism, and that tradition was supercharged by what happened in 2020."

What would be the consequences of a semipermanent hostility between Canada and the U.S.? "They’re massive trading partners with each other, so it would hurt the Canadians more because they’re more dependent on us than we are on them, but it would hurt us as well," said Idrees Kahloon.

@lacaldwelldc.bsky.social: “With the Greenland situation, when I was talking to Republicans on Capitol Hill, this is really the first time in the second Trump administration that I got a lot of anger — privately, of course — from House Republicans. ... But they were afraid to say anything publicly.”

"[Trump’s] arguments about Greenland have been farcical I think for a long time, and people have understood them as farcical until such point as they can’t afford to," said Stephen Hayes. "Europeans and our allies and Canadians, they can’t afford to have the seriously/literally debate."

Where are we in U.S.–Canada relations? "Well, if Donald Trump gets his way, there will be no border. It'll be another part of the United States," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social.

"No soldier, no Marine, no airman, no sailor wants to be seen as a political arm. They took their oath. They take their job seriously, and there is, at least among the people I talked to, a great fear and reluctance to take that step," said Nick Schifrin.

"[Trump] came in as an America First president, that he wasn’t going to get involved in international affairs. I think the shock is not that he has so many different ideas, but that it's so at odds with what he promised the administration would be,” said @nancyayoussef.bsky.social.

"If you're in the hunt for coherence, you're covering the wrong administration," said @sangernyt.bsky.social. "[Trump] pulls back when it looks like he could be in a confrontation with a nuclear-armed country, ... or get involved in something on the ground that he can't control."

[President Trump] went and said help is on the way to the Iranian protesters. Time after time over the last, mostly over the last 10 days or so, he has been encouraging the Iranian protesters, and at the same time the Ayatollah has come out and … called him a tyrant,” said @jonathankarl.bsky.social.

“If you are in a situation where you’re trying to support protesters, you need to know what it is you’re trying to do. Regime change? Trying to promote democracy? Trying to just stop the killing? And we never heard that from this White House,” said @sangernyt.bsky.social.

How would you characterize the Trump foreign policy doctrine this week? "Our assumption about the first term, that he was some sort of a neo-isolationist, is wrong. That’s not the way to put it. Now he’s looking more like a neo-imperialist," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social.

"It is hard to prosecute in a state court these types of matters. ... Whether or not [the ICE officers] were protected by immunity, that doesn't seem to be the case," said Vivian Salama.

"As I was listening to the protests from European leaders this week, ... they were saying this could be the effective end of NATO, as if that might be a deterrent to Donald Trump. I don't think that that will necessarily stop him because I think that may be part of what he wants," said Stephen Hayes

"There is a strong case to be made that by threatening the use of the American military against our NATO ally Denmark and saying — demanding — that they turn over this territory, ... you could say this marks in a way the effective end of NATO as we knew it," said @sbg1.bsky.social.

In a special conversation with The New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman on Washington Week with The Atlantic, Friedman confessed to moderator Jeffrey Goldberg that he has "no sources" in the Trump administration.

"I'm going to confess something on your show, Jeff. I have no sources in this administration," said @thomaslfriedman.bsky.social. "Having sources in this administration other than the president would be dangerous because ... Trump can go absolute 180 degrees the opposite the next day."

"China today is a pure military and economic rival of the United States," said @thomaslfriedman.bsky.social. "These are serious people. When 1.3 billion serious people are focused on economic growth and military development, the idea that we alone can take them on is utter nonsense."

"On the question of immigration, I'm for a really high wall with a very big gate," said @thomaslfriedman.bsky.social. "I'm super pro-immigration, but it's got to be done in a way where the people can become Americans and be really anchored in our society and our values."

"The European Union is one of the greatest inventions of modern man," said @thomaslfriedman.bsky.social. "They are a wingman in the world. We are the blessed generation that lives in a world of two United States, not just one: a United States of Europe and a United States of America."

@thomaslfriedman.bsky.social tells moderator @jeffreygoldberg.bsky.social that, in this age of rapid migration, both around the world and in America, “people’s sense of home, cultural norms, and work all got disrupted at the same time,” leaving people feeling unrooted.

When President Donald Trump returned to office this year, he wasted no time in implementing Project 2025 policy recommendations despite distancing himself from the agenda on the campaign trail.

"I saw a tracker online who said that they’ve achieved or are in progress about 50% of the things that are in Project 2025," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social. "One of the things that they’ve been very successful at, and I would expect to see more of [in 2026], is their war on DEI."

"Congress is complicit in handing over their power to the executive branch," said @lacaldwelldc.bsky.social. "[Project 2025] wrote a line about Congress that, given the choice between being powerful but vulnerable or irrelevant but famous, most members of Congress have chosen the latter."