Israeli settlers have an influential lobbyist working in Washington to push the Trump administration to okay annexation of the West Bank. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

There's now an official U.S. governmental website hawking the "Trump gold card" visa scheme—selling American residency to any kleptocrat, cartel head, or oligarch who can afford it. trumpcard.gov

Democrats should build their future policy platform against one clear idea: anti-corruption. And this should go not just for domestic policy, but for foreign policy as well. Writing on the topic with Trevor Sutton and Matt Duss for @foreignaffairs.com: www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

If you want to understand this Trump administration's rampant corruption ... you have to go back to Eric Adams, and how they made the case against him disappear. I got a bunch of new details on this deep dive for @nytimes.com ... www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

It was an honor to speak at @foxrothschild.bsky.social's annual White-Collar Symposium this week, focused on everything from foreign lobbying and offshore networks to modern kleptocracy and democratic decline. A conference that couldn't be timelier.

Trump sells out to the UAE, and the USA pays the price | Opinion www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...

The latest bombshell corruption scandal linking Trump and a foreign dictatorship isn't just about the money—it's about how this is all weakening American national security. My latest for @houstonchronicle.com: www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...

It's official: Jared Kushner—making millions from dictatorship after dictatorship, making money from Israeli expansionism, making foreign money as a direct result of who his father-in-law is—is now a billionaire. www.forbes.com/sites/monica...

Selling American interests to the highest foreign bidders, over and over and over again. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

U.S. foreign policy is much easier to understand once you accept that the main "grand strategy" of the Trump administration is straight-up kleptocracy.

There are good odds that Russia ends up losing more men in Ukraine than the U.S. lost in the entirety of the Second World War. What an absolutely historic blunder.

Just finished Ed Luce's new biography of Zbig Brzezinski. Easily one of the best books I've read this year, both for the sparkling writing and the incredible legacy Zbig has left. One of the few who saw how Russian chauvinism would kill Moscow's empire. No wonder he was called a "prophet."

This kinds of influence, pro-separatist campaign has precedent in American history: in Texas, in California. Even Hawaii, for that matter. But it's absolutely disgraceful that this is now taking place in Greenland. www.wsj.com/world/suspec...

Paul Manafort is back, trying to meddle in Ukrainian politics once again. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Getting a new translation of your book never gets old. Extremely happy folks in Taiwan 🇹🇼 will now be able to read FOREIGN AGENTS. Can't believe it's been nearly a year since the book came out—what a year for the world of foreign lobbying and foreign influence campaigns!

"there is one issue that uniquely bridges the domestic and foreign policy realms and offers a clear path to rebuilding goodwill with Washington’s foreign partners: the fight against corruption" from Casey Michel and others, @foreignaffairs.com www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Forcing Ukraine to cede Crimea (and all of the Donbas?) is appeasement. Same as it's always been. www.wsj.com/opinion/trum...

Fascinating piece on the dark—and largely underexplored—history of tsarist imperialism in Alaska

Dumb pet peeve: when people use "crime" as a short-hand for "violent crime," and completely ignore white-collar crime. I.e., folks claiming "crime is down"... even while we're currently living through the golden age of white-collar crime (so much of which will never be prosecuted).

Good time to re-up my essay from a few years ago on what Russia's slaughter of Indigenous Alaskans can tell us about Moscow's designs on Ukraine (and elsewhere): www.politico.com/news/magazin...

This, by @cjcmichel.bsky.social & @mattduss.bsky.social is good. The problem, of course, is that we're now seeing how a corrupt, kleptocratic U.S. regime can -- like their counterparts -- turn these kinds of instruments to their own purposes. So if we ever get another bite at the apple...

“The United States may have given up its leading role in the fight against corruption, but Americans still care about it.” ‪ Casey Michel, Trevor Sutton, and Matthew Duss argue that anticorruption is the future of U.S. foreign policy:

The Calexit leaders have always been a group of scammers, schemers, and nobodies—this is totally par for the course for them: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

I wonder if today will be seen as the beginning of the end of the efficacy of targeted American sanctions. Used solely to go after opponents of Bolsonaro—and used explicitly for partisan American purposes.

As anyone who's read my most recent book knows, Paul Manafort was caught dead-to-rights—by a Republican-led committee!—secretly funneling campaign documents to, and having secret conversations with, a known Russian intelligence agent. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/u...

This should absolutely be bigger news: an appeals court struck down Maine voters' attempts to block foreign-owned corporations from funding Maine elections. news.ballotpedia.org/2025/07/21/f...

"The more unequal the economy, the less support for democracy. More economic inequality weakens social trust and government legitimacy, which in turn weakens support for democracy." www.vox.com/politics/410...

NOW at backgroundbriefing.org | Michael Kimmage - Trump's Tough Talk Threatening Russia | @cjcmichel.bsky.social - Trump and His Family's Unprecedented Corruption | @jricole.bsky.social - Is There Any Hope of Stopping the Slaughter in Gaza?

The idea that Russia could be a "potential collaborator" against China is fantasy-level stuff from Elbridge Colby. Completely untethered from reality. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

"Americans have never witnessed anything like the corruption that President Donald Trump and his inner circle have perpetrated in recent months. Its brazenness, volume, and variety defy historical comparison." www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Recently finished Scott Anderson's fantastic new book on the Iranian Revolution, and one of the key insights was that the U.S. was so blinded to what was happening because a grand total of **one single person** monitoring the situation spoke Farsi. History repeats.

America has never seen corruption like this. Not the scope, nor the scale, nor the speed. My latest for @theatlantic.com, on this high-water mark of American kleptocracy: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

"Trump 2.0 is just getting started, yet it already represents the high-water mark of American kleptocracy. There are good reasons to think it will get much worse," Casey Michel writes:

America has never seen corruption like this. Not the scope, nor the scale, nor the speed. My latest for @theatlantic.com, on this high-water mark of American kleptocracy: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

I won't be at all surprised if Obama's hand-wringing response to a nuclear power carving up its neighbor—one that had already given up nukes—is his most lasting, most destructive legacy. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

"The Tony Blair Institute participated in a project to develop a postwar Gaza plan that envisaged kick-starting the enclave’s economy with a “Trump Riviera” and an “Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone”.' www.ft.com/content/0b1b...

'The Declaration of Independence itself cites King George III’s support of “merciless Indian Savages” as one of the many grievances the colonies had against him.' www.teenvogue.com/story/trump-...

Incredible how little Azerbaijan's liquidation of Nagorno-Karabakh ever comes up in the U.S. One of those massive regional developments that's been just completely overlooked—and even forgotten.

"Isolationist" remains the single most misleading term in foreign policy, both then and now. (Even Charles Lindbergh was totally fine with the U.S. dominating the entire Western Hemisphere!)

Just finished Clay Risen's fantastic history of the (second) Red Scare, and it's incredible just how popular Joe McCarthy was, even after his supposed implosion. Fully one-third of Americans still backed McCarthy, even after he went after the U.S. Army! www.simonandschuster.com/books/Red-Sc...

Has there been any analysis on the impact of Israel's recent bombing on the likelihood/desire for Ukraine to re-develop its own nuclear arsenal? (Or Kazakhstan?)

I'm reminded of this quote from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2013: "Wouldn't it be great if we could get all the Russian billionaires to move here?" www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

I finished Scott Anderson's forthcoming book on the Iranian revolution (KING OF KINGS), which I can't recommend enough—and I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know one of the main demands of the Iranian students who held the US diplomats hostage was that the US return the shah's dirty money.

The Saudi tyrant that so many American oligarchs, sports professionals, and politicians are sucking up to has just murdered another journalist.

I'm late to this, but "We the Corporations" by @adamwinkler.bsky.social is as good as everyone says. Not a stretch to say that it's a one of the most important books helping explain transformations in recent American political history. law.ucla.edu/news/we-corp...

Absolutely bizarre to watch U.S. troops applauding for Robert E. Lee, one of the greatest traitors the U.S. has ever produced.

“The DOJ's Fraud Section unit tasked with enforcing the anti-bribery law has shrunk to about 15 prosecutors, according to two of the sources. That number is down from 32 as of a January report published on the department's website.”

"Putin’s focus is not on GDP, but on rearmament. He has already signalled to the government that growth slowing from the current 4.3 per cent to around 1.5-2 per cent would be an acceptable trade-off. In short, Russia is on a trajectory of sustained militarisation." www.ft.com/content/2278...

Pour one out for the foreign dictatorships who'd previously been using Musk to try to influence Trump. (Don't worry, those regimes still have approximately a billion other ways to try to covertly influence Trump.)