Issue June 8, 2018 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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Main storiesEditor’s letterNiccolò Machiavelli, that jaundiced student of human nature, pointed out in 1517 that sometimes “it is a very wise thing to simulate madness.” I suspect President Trump has not read the Discourses on Livy, but he instinctively practices what Machiavelli preached. Richard Nixon called this approach “The Madman Theory” of foreign policy: Make your adversaries think you’re so rabid, so unhinged, that you’re capable of anything, including launching the ICBMs. Our current president has used precisely that message in his dealings with North Korea and Iran, but he’s taken the “madman” strategy to a new level. When allies and adversaries at home or abroad fail to bend to his will, Trump invariably goes nuclear. He’s threatening to impose a 25 percent tariff on foreign cars and auto parts, and slap…3 min

Main storiesSeparating kids from parents at the borderWhat happenedA surge in the number of migrant children separated from their parents has sparked a furor over the Trump administration’s new “zero tolerance” policy on illegal border crossings. The policy was recently announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who warned that all border violators—including those seeking asylum from Central American violence and drug gangs—would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, with their children placed in separate custody as a form of deterrence. “If you don’t like that,” Sessions said, “then don’t smuggle children over our border.” More than 700 minors, including toddlers and babies, were separated from parents at the border from October to April, and another 600 after the “zero tolerance” policy went into effect in May. “I cried. I begged,” one 28-year-old Guatemalan father…3 min

Main storiesIt wasn’t all badAt the end of the school year in 1997, Judith Toensing wrote in one of her sixth-grade students’ report cards, “Keep up the good work! Invite me to your Harvard graduation!” Twenty-one years later, the student did just that. Christin Gilmer, 33, kept and treasured the note from Toensing, whose powerful lessons encouraged her to study public health. So when Gilmer graduated from Harvard as a doctor of public health last week, she made sure Toensing was there to share the big day with her. “She lit a fire in me,” says Gilmer.Austin Perine is only 3 feet tall, but he’s a superhero to many homeless people in Birmingham, Ala. Ever since the 4-year-old learned that many residents of his hometown live without adequate food or shelter, he’s made it…1 min

Main storiesTrump-Kim summit plans muddle forwardWhat happenedAmerican and North Korean diplomats scrambled this week to salvage a potential summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un after the meeting was abruptly canceled and then uncanceled by the White House. President Trump briefly called off the talks in an open letter addressed to Kim last week, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” in statements from North Korean officials, including one who threatened a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown” if the talks fail. The North Koreans were particularly angered by remarks from Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser John Bolton suggesting a “Libya model” for dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program. But North Korea appeared conciliatory after Trump’s letter, with Kim making a surprise appearance with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Panmunjom “truce village” in the Korean…2 min

Controversy of the weekFree speech: The NFL’s kneeling ‘compromise’“The National Football League should be ashamed of itself,” said Jonathan Capehart in WashingtonPost.com. The NFL last week bowed down to “the moral vacuum that is President Trump” and announced a crackdown on players who kneel during the national anthem. That exercise of free speech began two years ago, when small groups of players knelt before games to protest police shootings and mistreatment of black men. The deliberately divisive Trump turned the low-key protests into a national furor last year, saying “any son of a bitch” who dares to kneel should be “fired,” and calling for a fan boycott. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s owners have caved in, unveiling a new rule mandating that “all team and league personnel on the field shall stand and show respect for…3 min

Issue June 8, 2018 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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