Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.

In the less than two months since Donald Trump took office, he has upended decades of foreign policy by targeting the country’s allies. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined last night to discuss the effects of his policies in the U.S. and across the globe.

Meanwhile, Congress averted a government shutdown on Friday evening, passing a bill that will fund the government through September. Although Chuck Schumer of New York rallied enough votes for the bill, some Democrats now say that the minority leader capitulated to Trump. Especially among House Democrats from districts that the president carried in the election, “they feel as though he kind of left them out to dry,” Laura Barrón-López said last night.

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Laura Barrón-López, a White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour; Stephen Hayes, the editor of The Dispatch; and David Sanger, a White House and national-security correspondent at The New York Times.

Watch the full episode here.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.

Donald Trump’s unpredictable economic policies have rattled the markets and prompted warnings of a possible recession. Panelists joined on Washington Week With The Atlantic to discuss new warning signs that indicate a negative impact on U.S. and global economics.

This week, the president announced yet another reversal for tariffs on Mexico and Canada, now saying that he would be pulling back the policies. “The reasons for why he’s imposing these tariffs keep shifting,” Michelle Price said last night. “At some point, the confusion for businesses is going to be worse than the tariffs themselves.”

Joining the guest moderator and staff writer at The Atlantic, Franklin Foer, to discuss this and more: Dan Balz, a chief correspondent at The Washington Post; Eugene Daniels, the chief Playbook and White House correspondent at Politico; Michelle Price, a White House reporter for the Associated Press; Kayla Tausche, a senior White House correspondent at CNN.

Watch the full episode here.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.

The fallout from the meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky has been swift and intense. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss what’s next for the war in Ukraine.

After weeks of rising tension between Trump and Zelensky, their Oval Office meeting marks a major shift in U.S. foreign policy. During Trump’s first term, there was a sense that U.S. allies “could just wait [Trump] out,” Ashley Parker said last night. In their view, the “fever-dream nightmare would end after four years.” But now, with Trump’s realignment of the country’s global position, there is a sense that “Europeans are going to have to respond accordingly in a world where they can no longer believe they can count on America as an ally.”

Joining staff writer at The Atlantic and guest moderator Franklin Foer to discuss this and more: Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times; Jonathan Karl, the chief Washington correspondent at ABC News; Ashley Parker, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Nancy Youssef, a national-security correspondent at The Wall Street Journal.

Watch the full episode here.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.

Donald Trump abruptly fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C. Q. Brown, on Friday. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss what the president’s move could mean for the U.S. military.

“Trump, in his first term, tried to assert control over the military in a way that went beyond what the commander in chief does, not just as a defense for the country against external enemies but as a tool, potentially, for internal use when he had domestic criticism,” Peter Baker said last night. “Clearly, there is a decision that C. Q. Brown is not someone [Trump] can trust to carry out his bidding.”

Whether Brown’s firing will be an isolated one, or the beginning of a “wholesale purge of generals,” remains unknown, Susan Glasser said. “Trump has made it very clear that he wants people who are loyal to him personally and not to the office, not to the Constitution,” she continued. Trump’s agenda “really suggests a politicization of the nonpartisan leadership of America’s armed forces if generals are being replaced on the basis of perceived political loyalty to the president.”

Meanwhile, Trump has also aligned with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine and has falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the conflict. Panelists discussed what’s behind the president’s pivot toward Putin.

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times; Susan Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker; Jonathan Lemire, a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC.

Watch the full episode here.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk continued their efforts to slash and overhaul the federal government this week. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss the ideology driving Trump’s policy decisions—and what the president’s loyalty to Musk reveals about his administration so far.

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Eugene Daniels, the chief Playbook correspondent and a White House correspondent at Politico; Stephen Hayes, the editor of The Dispatch; Theodore Schleifer, a reporter at The New York Times; and Nancy Youssef, a national security correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

Watch the full episode here.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.

Elon Musk is targeting federal agencies, slashing workforces, and crippling programs that support millions of people around the world. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic join to discuss how Musk and President Donald Trump are carrying out plans to purge thousands of employees from the federal government.

This week the Trump administration dismantled USAID, the world’s single largest humanitarian donor. “USAID has the thought leadership, the technical ability, to run aid programs at a large scale that nobody else has,” Anne Applebaum said last night. Removing the agency “means probably the collapse of food-aid programs across Africa, probably the collapse of aid to help refugees. USAID runs vaccination programs for children all over the world; it will mean children will not get polio vaccines.”

The takedown of USAID may also have an effect on the ongoing war in Ukraine, Applebaum explained. The agency has a role in restarting the Ukrainian energy grid, as well as in helping provide seeds and technology to Ukrainian farmers. “USAID thinks not only in terms of humanitarian aid, it also thinks more broadly about economics,” she continued. “Ukraine plays a big role in world food production; they want Ukrainian farmers to be back working.”

With Musk leading the takedown of USAID, “it’s a test case for ‘Can agencies just be abolished without Congress having any say?’ but it’s also a test case in cruelty,” Applebaum said. “Are Americans willing to accept a high level of cruelty and death just on the president’s whim?”

Meanwhile, pushback among Democrats has been limited. “Democratic strategists are warning [the party] not to make this their issue because Democrats have to be saying ‘We’re making your lives better, voters,’” Michael Scherer said last night. “If they’re seen as the party of defending a bureaucracy both [that] people don’t know about [and] that helps people very far away, they’re way off their message of eggs and butter.”

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Anne Applebaum, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Eugene Daniels, the chief Playbook and White House correspondent for Politico; Asma Khalid, a White House correspondent at NPR and a political contributor for ABC News; and Michael Scherer, a staff writer at The Atlantic.

Watch the full episode here.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.

The worst aviation disaster in almost a quarter century is one of the first tests of Donald Trump’s second administration. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss how the president responded to the crisis.

Following the aviation crash over the Potomac this week, Trump moved to blame diversity in the Federal Aviation Administration’s hiring process for the crash. These comments are a continuation of Trump’s behavior throughout his first term and both of his campaigns—but how his response will affect him politically remains to be seen, Mark Leibovich said last night.

Trump is working in “a consequence-free environment,” Leibovich continued. “Ultimately, Donald Trump will do what he can get away with, and whether a few points on his approval ratings are going to move the needle on this are unclear.”

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times; Mark Leibovich, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Ali Vitali, the host of Way Too Early on MSNBC; Nancy Youssef, a national-security correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

Watch the full episode here.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings or watch full episodes here.

Donald Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders, rolling back Biden-era policies and pardoning January 6 rioters. On Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined to discuss the president’s first week back in office.

Meanwhile, as lawmakers contend with Trump’s initial steps as president, Democrats are attempting to regroup and retrench their party. The “very forceful and energizing resistance that Democrats put up for so long has dissipated, at least in this movement,” Ashley Parker said last night.

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Leigh Ann Caldwell, the chief Washington correspondent at Puck; Eugene Daniels, a chief Playbook and White House correspondent at Politico; Ashley Parker, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Charlie Savage, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times; Laura Barrón-López, a White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour.

Watch the full episode here.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings or watch full episodes here.

This week Joe Biden delivered his farewell address to the nation, in which he warned of the looming threat of unchecked power. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss the president’s speech as well as what to expect from Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Although Biden’s administration can claim various key moments of success over the past four years, his presidency was consciously framed around defending and protecting democratic norms, McKay Coppins said last night. But after he lost his party and the White House “in a pretty dramatic fashion to usher in the return of Donald Trump,” McKay continued, “it’s going to be hard to make the case that he did what he set out to do.”

Meanwhile, Trump has vowed to take dramatic steps in the earliest days of his presidency, including mass deportations. “You’re going to see a flurry of executive orders,” Zolan Kanno-Youngs said. The administration is “reaching and trying to be creative when it comes to accomplishing” Trump’s immigration agenda.

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: McKay Coppins, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Andrew Desiderio, a senior congressional reporter at Punchbowl News; Asma Khalid, a White House correspondent at NPR and a political contributor for ABC News; and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

Watch the full episode here.

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings or watch full episodes here.

Some of Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks will appear before the Senate next week. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss the tough questions that Democrats are promising.

Meanwhile, as Senate confirmations loom, Trump has taken to criticizing U.S. allies including Canada, Panama, and Greenland. These comments may, in part, be an element of the president-elect’s strategy, Tom Nichols explained last night. “We’re talking about things that are never going to happen: We’re not going to war with Denmark over Greenland; we’re not going to seize the Panama Canal,” he said. “This whole strange foreign-policy fandango has kind of obliterated a lot of other discussions.”

Ahead of his inauguration, Trump has also made many promises about how the government will work once he takes office for his second term. But, as panelists discussed, whether he will be able to deliver, and how his supporters and political opponents could react if he can’t produce his pledged results, remains to be seen.

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Laura Barrón-López, a White House correspondent for PBS News Hour; Carl Hulse, the chief Washington correspondent at The New York Times; Tom Nichols, a staff writer at The Atlantic; and Vivian Salama, a national-politics reporter at The Wall Street Journal.

Watch the full episode here.