T

The Atlantic

May 2026

AI Is Causing a Crisis of Agency

In outnumbering humans, bots were also loosening everyone’s grasp on the very reality of online experience

Sam Krissa recent essay, the writer
The more I clicked around, the more I started to panic. There was nothing, no human voices anywhere, just thousands of versions of the same cheery demon. Am I alone out here? Something’s happened to the world; it’s all gone flimsy.”
What’s gone from the internet, after all, isn’t ‘truth,’ but trust: the sense that the people and things we encounter are what they represent themselves to be,

Trump Hasn’t Left Much Kennedy Center to Stay Open

How the bruised institution would bounce back after a two-year closure ordered by the president of the United States—and what it would look like once it did—were major questions

Christopher R. Cooperjudge
Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,
Donald Trumppresident
Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND.’
There is no evidence that the Board took account of its full range of statutory obligations in determining that a wholesale shuttering of the Kennedy Center was appropriate,
Matt Flocathe Kennedy Center Executive Director
Leadership, at that time, knew that we were not telling people the true needs of the campus,
Across the industry, it’s been said many times that sales are difficult for performing-arts centers and that this building, this organization, is no different,
It is just impossible and irresponsible.”
Which makes me feel like even that could dry up when his name thankfully comes down.”

The War Trump Can't End

For nearly five decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been preparing for a war that Donald Trump expected would take days

Abbas Araghchiiranian Foreign Minister
The main principle of bargaining is practice: repetition, repetition, and repetition,... so much that the other side of the deal, as they say, “gets numb” and gives its consent.”
Ali Akbar Velayatiiranian politician and physician (born 1945)
This time, papers and signatures are not guarantees,
Abbas Araghchiiranian Foreign Minister
The Iranian negotiation style is generally known in the world as the ‘bazaar style,’ which means continuous and tireless bargaining,
Donald Trumppresident
Iran never won a war,... but never lost a negotiation!”
It’s a card they can only play once,

Democrats Can Do Better Than Graham Platner

For decades, Nazism and the anti-Semitism underlying it have marked zero on the Kelvin scale of villainy—the metric against which all other forms of evil are compared

Vancea clear statement of condemnation, Vice President
When I say that I’m going to fight alongside of you, I mean all of you—each and every one,
I would have come out sooner,... but I had to call my opponent and concede. And it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.”

‘The Testaments’: Don’t Follow This Tradwife Curriculum

The image of red-cloaked women bowing their head to the ground is used as a blunt visual shorthand for female oppression in what the series depicts as a dystopian, totalitarian America

Trump Might Already Be a Lame Duck

Donald Trumppresident
I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,
Mitch McConnellsenator
So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong — Take your pick,
There are definitely frustrations there that are not going away,... and there is no appetite from Thune to resolve it.”
President Trump is the unquestioned leader of the Republican Party,

The Brazenness of DOJ’s Reported Investigation of E. Jean Carroll

Your sole goal is to do justice. Your client is justice itself,
Trent McCotterthe DOJ official
The use of government power to target individuals or entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, or ideological reasons should not be tolerated by any Administration,
I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts,

Jill Biden Worried Her Husband Was Drugged on Debate Night

As she watched President Biden stumble through the most cringeworthy portion of his disastrous June 2024 debate, First Lady Jill Biden wondered if her husband had unknowingly ingested drugs or was having a medical episode on live television

Nothing explained what I was seeing,
I really f**ked up, didn’t I?”
To this day, I still don’t know what happened. Why wasn’t he making any sense? It was inexplicable to me,
Oh God—will people watching assume this is how he is all the time?”
The truth was, Joe was not who he was on a day-to-day basis in that debate,
Joe Bidenformer President
Be strong. Don’t let BN use your goodness.”

‘We Have Not Seen Ugly Yet’

Two things are as certain as bluebonnets in spring now that Ken Paxton is the Republican nominee for the Senate in Texas: Democrats have a better-than-usual chance of winning statewide

I know there are two sexes, men and women. I also know there’s a very small percentage of people who have these chromosomal abnormalities, and I believe they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,

A Frustrated President Can’t Get the Deal Done

Donald Trumppresident
The Strait is going to be open to everybody. It's international waters. We'll watch over it, but nobody's going to control it,
Donald Trumppresident
They want very much to make a deal,
Donald Trumppresident
We’re not talking about any easing of sanctions or giving money,
Donald Trumppresident
I didn’t do this to get a crummy agreement,