Trump’s Partisan Redistribution of Wealth
The president is using the shutdown to shake down blue states.
Annie Lowrey
Annie Lowrey is a staff writer at The Atlantic. She is the author of Give People Money, which was shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. Prior to joining The Atlantic, she was a staff writer for The New York Times and New York magazine, as well as the Moneybox columnist for Slate. At The Atlantic, she writes about the economy and politics.
Newsletter
Work in Progress
Rogé Karma, Annie Lowrey, and others explain today’s news and tomorrow’s trends in work, technology, and culture.
Subject to The Atlantic's Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions
Latest
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Svetlana Lakusheva / Getty. How Are We Still Fighting About Obamacare?
The ACA worked, but nobody seems to know it.
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic The Everything Recession
First Washington, then the nation?
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. The Last Americans Really Paying Taxes
The tax code is becoming more chaotic and less fair.
Illustration by The Atlantic The Job Market Is Hell
Young people are using ChatGPT to write their applications; HR is using AI to read them; no one is getting hired.
Illustration by Jonelle Afurong / The Atlantic. Sources: Dimitri Otis / Getty; Javier Zayas Photography / Getty. Yes, Cash Transfers Work
Money alleviates poverty. It’s not complicated.
Photo-illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Petrified Films / Getty; Onyx Media, Llc - Footage / Getty; BBC Archive / Getty. The Markets Won’t Save the Fed From Trump
Investors can’t do what politicians and voters won’t do.
Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty How the Richest People in America Avoid Paying Taxes
A clever new paper puts concrete numbers to the taxes paid by members of the Forbes 400.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: csa-archives / Getty. Trump Is a Degrowther
What else do you call a strategy designed to raise prices and lower productivity?
Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Children’s Health Care Is in Danger
An already fragile system can’t withstand Republicans’ cuts.
Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic. Sources: Nenov / Getty; Getty.
/media/img/mt/2025/10/Recession/original.gif)
