“There is a certain awful predictability” to the F.B.I. search of former national-security adviser John Bolton’s home. Plus:
- What killed the two-state solution?
- How the war in Ukraine could end
- Moomins offer an escape from anxiety
The Retribution Phase of Trump’s Presidency Has Begun
There was a certain awful predictability about the F.B.I.’s Friday-morning raids targeting the former Trump adviser turned critic John Bolton.
By Susan B. Glasser
It’s not like he was hiding the plan. When Donald Trump campaigned for a return to the White House in 2024, he openly embraced a platform of revenge and retribution against his political enemies. Even when allies practically begged him to swear off the idea of using the Presidency as a tool of personal vengeance, Trump was explicit about his intentions. I have often thought back to an interview he did in June of last year, in the Mar-a-Lago ballroom, with the TV shrink Phil McGraw, known as Dr. Phil, a Trump fan and supporter. “You have so much to do,” McGraw said to him. “You don’t have time to get even. You only have time to get right.” Trump’s response was to smirk. “Well, revenge does take time. I will say that,” he said. “And sometimes revenge can be justified. Phil, I have to be honest. You know, sometimes it can.”
On Friday morning, the revenge vibes were strong when the news broke of an F.B.I. search at the Maryland home and D.C. office of John Bolton, Trump’s third first-term national-security adviser, who has since become one of his most frequent and acerbic public critics. Details about the raid were sparse, but initial reports suggested that officials were looking for evidence that Bolton had disclosed classified information to reporters and in his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” (Trump’s first-term Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to stop publication of the book—a best-selling account of the discord and dysfunction that marked Trump’s foreign policy during his initial White House stint.) Bolton could hardly have been surprised that the attack on him was renewed. In a new edition of the book that came out in January of 2024, he had warned, “Trump really only cares about retribution for himself, and it will consume much of a second term.”
Editor’s Pick
What Killed the Two-State Solution?
How deceit, delusion, and the inexorable pull of the past have transformed an idea once seen as a possible means to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a dangerous gimmick. Hussein Agha and Robert Malley on what went wrong »
How Bad Is It?
Cracker Barrel announced a new, more minimalist logo this week. Prominent members of the online right decried the new design as “woke,” and the company’s stock lost nearly $100 million in value overnight.
How bad is it? The rebrand “may be mediocre, but it’s not a political or ‘woke’ action,” Kyle Chayka, a staff writer who has written a book about minimalism, told us. “Plenty of brands over the last decade have transformed their logos into denatured, aggressively minimalist, type-only designs—brands like Burberry, Airbnb, and Rimowa. At least Cracker Barrel kept some serifs on their letters!”
“Some brands are already reversing course and switching back to their old, more complex logos, including Burberry, which reclaimed its knight on horseback in 2023,” Chayka points out. “More disturbing to me is the interior redesign that Cracker Barrel has been rolling out over the past year, turning its kitschy, crowded walls into a faux-rustic version of Chipotle.” His final ruling? “Definitely bad for them.”
Our Culture Picks
- Read: In Helen Oyeyemi’s new book, “A New New Me,” the protagonist, Kinga, has seven versions of herself, one taking charge of each day of the week.
Watch: “A Little Prayer,” a 2023 Sundance darling now in limited theatrical release, is “spare yet brisk,” Justin Chang writes.
Listen: Revisit GHOST’s recent performance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” (Our music writer Amanda Petrusich was backstage with the Swedish metal band.)
Daily Cartoon
Puzzles & Games
- Today’s Crossword Puzzle: Item that takes up a lot of space in a beach bag—five letters.
Laugh Lines: Test your knowledge of classic New Yorker cartoons.
Name Drop: Guess the identity of a notable person in six clues.
P.S. Many of John Bolton’s sharpest criticisms of Trump were published in his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” It also revealed, as Amanda Petrusich observed, the President’s brief obsession with “delivering an autographed compact disc of Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ to Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea.”
Caroline Mimbs Nyce contributed to today’s edition.
