Donald Trump and the coming fall of American empire: Jeremy Scahill interviews Alfred McCoy, author of In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power. The world is already reeling from the consequences of Trump’s ineptitude. Trump at odds with his national security team over pro-Russia moves. Trump’s national security team wants a stepped-up fight in Afghanistan; there’s just one problem — a president who doesn’t want to be there. Trump’s “Axis of Adults” is breaking apart: If you thought grownups like Mattis, McMaster and Tillerson were secretly running the administration, think again.
The man McMaster couldn’t fire: Thirty-one-year-old Ezra Cohen-Watnick holds the intelligence portfolio on the National Security Council — but almost everything about him is a mystery.
