For most of his second term, Donald Trump has successfully conveyed the message that defiance is not an option. Republicans who ignored that message generally wound up out of office, so they largely toed the line. Lately, though, that seems to be changing. 

Republicans recently pushed back against the president’s proposed “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” and the administration ultimately scrapped it. Trump asked for nearly $1 billion in security funding for his ballroom, and Senate Republicans forced him to abandon that plan as well. Perhaps most stunning, some House Republicans this week broke ranks to rebuke Trump’s war in Iran, directing him to withdraw U.S. forces or win approval from Congress.

The seeds of mutiny are detectable. But also the president still has the strength and support to suppress them. So who is willing to take the risk, and who isn’t? 

On this week’s “Radio Atlantic”: Indiana State Senator Jim Buck, a pro-Trump Republican who did not vote for his state’s redistricting plan and faced an onslaught of what he calls “lies” and threats as a result; also the Atlantic staff writer Russell Berman on the dueling forces of Trump’s revenge campaign and growing party defiance.

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Not long after U.S. commandos swiftly extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him to the United States, Donald Trump set his sights on the next target: Cuba.

Some administration officials seem interested in Cuba’s nickel and cobalt deposits. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shares the dream of many Cuban exiles for regime change on the island. Although, from the Cuban perspective, the prospect of the U.S. bringing regime change is fraught, coming after centuries of conflict and colonial extraction. 

On this week’s Radio Atlantic: Host Hanna Rosin speaks with the Atlantic staff writer Vivian Salama and the historian Ada Ferrer, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Cuba: An American History, as well as the new book Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter.

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Universities tried to be all things to all people. That model may not be working anymore.

Adam Harris is joined by Ian Bogost, Atlantic contributing writer and a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, to discuss the state of higher education.

On campuses across the country, students are graduating into a job market with questions on their mind. What kind of career is stable in 2026? Will AI make it even harder to get an entry-level job? Was my education worth all the money it cost?

For universities that are already facing federal funding cuts and enrollment declines, the identity crisis their graduates are facing is an extension of their own: Is the purpose of college just to get a good job, or is there more to it? 

Colleges have been in rough spots before, but is it finally time to start rethinking their entire model?

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There is an ongoing battle for House seats. And it’s playing out not so much in elections but in congressional maps. The Atlantic staff writers Russell Berman, who’s been covering the redistricting wars for the past several months, and Vann R. Newkirk II, who’s long followed the Voting Rights Act (and now its demise), explain how this new era of tit-for-tat gerrymandering is different than ever before.

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The author Caro Claire Burke discusses her debut novel, Yesteryear, about a tradwife influencer suddenly transported back to 1855 and faced with the harsh realities of actual pioneer life. The book is a No. 1 New York Times best seller, and its film rights have already been sold and Anne Hathaway is attached to star. 

Seen one way, the tradwife is just a social-media trend, sometimes soothing to watch, sometimes infuriating. But the fantasy that fuels the phenomenon—that women should be subservient to their husbands, staying at home and tending the hearth—reflects views in the real world, where actual policies get made. Burke talks about her novel and her own political evolution.

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Alexander the Great. Julius Caesar. Napoleon Bonaparte. Donald Trump

The Atlantic staff writers Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer reported this week on the president privately comparing himself to the three norm-defying, world-historical figures highlighted in the work of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. 

The president has also sought to make his mark across seemingly every manner of federal real estate, including national monuments and even currency and passports.

If Trump’s focus is on himself as a great man of history, what is he doing—and, more notably perhaps, not doing—as president today?

Read Ashley and Michael's article: “The YOLO Presidency.”

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Last week, The Atlantic published a story about how FBI Director Kash Patel’s colleagues are alarmed by what they describe as erratic behavior and excessive drinking. Sources told staff writer Sarah Fitzpatrick that, on multiple occasions, members of his security detail had trouble waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated. 

Patel called the story a “lie” and earlier this week sued The Atlantic for defamation. Fitzpatrick joins Radio Atlantic to talk about her reporting inside the FBI, and how sources she spoke with are concerned about the agency keeping Americans safe during a time of heightened threats. And we talk to our staff writer Quinta Jurecic about the state of Trump’s Justice Department after Pam Bondi’s firing.

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Whatever happens next in Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s stunning downfall contains obvious warnings for MAGA and Donald Trump: Propaganda has its limits. Concerns about affordability are real. True democracy can reassert itself in a single election. Reality can bend only so far.

The Hungarian journalist Veronika Munk of the news outlet Denník N shares her view from the streets of Budapest. And the Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum, who covers autocracy, democracy, and Europe, explains why the election is a turning point for world politics.

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Last weekend, on Easter Sunday, President Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!”

On Tuesday, he posted again: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

Hours later—after ongoing talks, and condemnation by world leaders and American lawmakers from both parties—the United States agreed to a two-week cease-fire with Iran. 

The Atlantic’s Adam Harris talks to the staff writers Tom Nichols and Nancy Youssef about where the two countries can go from here and what happens when genocidal threats become political policy.

Further reading: “Did Trump Just Threaten to Use Nuclear Weapons in Iran?” by Tom Nichols

“Trump Made a Deal That Gives Him Nothing He Wanted” by Nancy A. Youssef

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The manosphere helped Donald Trump win the 2024 election. Now that he’s started a war with Iran and failed to keep some core campaign promises, the coalition cemented by podcast bros and Austin-area commentators is starting to crack. The Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey has been tracking the political shifts among a small but influential group of manosphere podcasters. 

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ICE at airports. TSA lines out the door. And a new boss at DHS amid its funding shutdown.

After the deaths on the streets of Minneapolis, after the theatrics of Greg Bovino, after the drama of Kristi Noem, ICE may be entering a new era. Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as the new DHS head, having struck a softer tone than his predecessor during hearings. He told senators that he would stop the practice of agents entering people’s houses without judicial warrants. But what will this new era look like? 

Our guest is the Atlantic staff writer Nick Miroff, who covers immigration.

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