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I am spending the week in Los Angeles and am writing this newsletter from a postcard-perfect beachside hotel. Looking out onto the Pacific, over early-morning beach-volleyball players, it’s hard to feel downbeat about America, or indeed anything else. Which probably helped as I read the final edits of our cover story this week.
Next week President Donald Trump will hit the 100th day of his second term. To mark the occasion my colleagues have put together a special edition of our US section. Their analysis stands back from the day-to-day drama and looks in depth at five areas of public policy where Mr Trump’s ambitions could clash with the courts or even test the Constitution. It is a gripping, sobering read.
Our cover leader
assesses how worried you should be. Mr Trump has undoubtedly had the most consequential first 100 days of any modern American president. He is leading a revolutionary project that aspires to remake the economy, the bureaucracy, culture and foreign policy, even the idea of America itself. Mr Trump’s belief in unconstrained executive power—the idea that, as Richard Nixon suggested, if the president does something then it’s legal—is pushing America to its limits. This mercurial extremism has already undermined things that actually make America great: look at what’s been happening to the dollar.
Will there be resistance? Voters, investors, the courts and Congress can all impose varying degrees of restraint upon Mr Trump. This week there have been new signs that the markets have clout. Elsewhere, the revolution seems remarkably unchecked. Over time, our leader argues, that is likely to change. The question is: how far and how fast?
Our cover in Britain
zooms in on Nigel Farage,
who is once again upending politics, with grave implications for Britain and its role in Europe. That is because his second act threatens to be more audacious than his first: the pursuit not of Brexit, but of power. Mr Farage’s party, Reform UK, is neck-and-neck in the polls with Labour and the Conservatives. Of the two major parties, Labour is in a stronger position. For as long as the vote on the right is split, it may find that power comes its way more easily. But voters will eventually tire of Sir Keir Starmer and his uninspiring record, possibly as soon as the next election. And that could be Mr Farage’s moment. |
