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• Why Firing Mick Mulvaney Is Riskier Than Keeping Him

  President Trump’s third chief of staff seemed destined for the door until impeachment came along.

  • Elaina Plott and Peter Nicholas
  • Oct 18, 2019
• Most Popular on The Atlantic

  • The Unraveling of Donald Trump

    • Peter Nicholas

    As the impeachment inquiry intensifies, some associates of the president predict that his already erratic behavior is going to get worse.

    The country is entering a new and precarious phase, in which the central question about President Donald Trump is not whether he is coming unstrung, but rather just how unstrung he is going to get.

    The boiling mind of Trump has spawned a cottage industry for cognitive experts who have questioned whether he is, well, all there. But as the impeachment inquiry barrels ahead on Capitol Hill, several associates of the president, including former White House aides, worry that his behavior is likely to get worse. Angered by the proceedings, unencumbered by aides willing to question his judgment, and more and more isolated in the West Wing, Trump is apt to lash out more at enemies imagined and real, these people told me. Conduct that has long been unsettling figures to deteriorate as Trump comes under mounting stress. What unfolded Wednesday inside the West Wing’s walls might be only a foretaste of what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described that day, after a meeting with Trump, as a presidential “meltdown.”

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  • The Millennial Urban Lifestyle Is About to Get More Expensive

    • Derek Thompson

    As WeWork crashes and Uber bleeds cash, the consumer-tech gold rush may be coming to an end.

    Several weeks ago, I met up with a friend in New York who suggested we grab a bite at a Scottish bar in the West Village. He had booked the table through something called Seated, a restaurant app that pays users who make reservations on the platform. We ordered two cocktails each, along with some food. And in exchange for the hard labor of drinking whiskey, the app awarded us $30 in credits redeemable at a variety of retailers.

    I am never offended by freebies. But this arrangement seemed almost obscenely generous. To throw cash at people every time they walk into a restaurant does not sound like a business. It sounds like a plot to lose money as fast as possible—or to provide New Yorkers, who are constantly dining out, with a kind of minimum basic income.

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  • Why You Never See Your Friends Anymore

    • Judith Shulevitz

    Our unpredictable and overburdened schedules are taking a dire toll on American society.

    Just under a century ago, the Soviet Union embarked on one of the strangest attempts to reshape the common calendar that has ever been undertaken. As Joseph Stalin raced to turn an agricultural backwater into an industrialized nation, his government downsized the week from seven to five days. Saturday and Sunday were abolished.

    In place of the weekend, a new system of respite was introduced in 1929. The government divided workers into five groups, and assigned each to a different day off. On any given day, four-fifths of the proletariat would show up to their factories and work while the other fifth rested. Each laborer received a colored slip of paper—yellow, orange, red, purple, or green—that signified his or her group. The staggered schedule was known as nepreryvka, or the “continuous workweek,” since production never stopped.

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  • Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

    • Franklin Foer

    What the Amazon founder and CEO wants for his empire and himself, and what that means for the rest of us.

    Where in the pantheon of American commercial titans does Jeffrey Bezos belong? Andrew Carnegie’s hearths forged the steel that became the skeleton of the railroad and the city. John D. Rockefeller refined 90 percent of American oil, which supplied the pre-electric nation with light. Bill Gates created a program that was considered a prerequisite for turning on a computer.

    At 55, Bezos has never dominated a major market as thoroughly as any of these forebears, and while he is presently the richest man on the planet, he has less wealth than Gates did at his zenith. Yet Rockefeller largely contented himself with oil wells, pump stations, and railcars; Gates’s fortune depended on an operating system. The scope of the empire the founder and CEO of Amazon has built is wider. Indeed, it is without precedent in the long history of American capitalism.

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  • The Not-Com Bubble Is Popping

    • Derek Thompson

    The unicorn massacre unfolding today is exactly the opposite of what happened in 2000.

    It is easy to look at today’s crop of sinking IPOs—like Uber, Lyft, and Peloton—or scuttled public offerings, like WeWork, and see an eerie resemblance to the dot-com bubble that popped in 2000.

    • Both then and now, consumer-tech companies spent lavishly on advertising and struggled to find a path to profit.

    • Both then and now, companies that bragged about their ability to change the world admitted suddenly that they were running out of money.

    • Both then and now, the valuations of once-heralded tech enterprises were halved in a matter of weeks.

    • Both then and now, there was a widespread sense of euphoria curdling into soberness, washed down with the realization that thousands of workers in once-promising firms were poised to lose their jobs.

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  • Unfit for Office

    • George T. Conway III

    Donald Trump’s narcissism makes it impossible for him to carry out the duties of the presidency in the way the Constitution requires.

    On a third-down play last season, the Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith stood in shotgun formation, five yards behind the line of scrimmage. As he called his signals, a Houston Texans cornerback, Kareem Jackson, suddenly sprinted forward from a position four yards behind the defensive line.

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  • A Strange New Culprit Behind Eating Disorders

    • Olga Khazan

    Common infections such as strep throat might have a mysterious link to anorexia and bulimia.

    In 2007, Carlo Carandang, then an attending physician at a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, saw a most unusual patient: an 8-year-old boy who had recently adopted some strange beliefs, all while losing 18 pounds. The boy thought that nurses were “evil,” and that he could inject other people with his fat cells simply by walking past them.

    The boy’s symptoms had begun a few months prior. After his school held a lesson on healthy eating, he started to scrutinize food labels and avoid fat and carbs, according to Carandang, who now works as a data scientist. The boy worried that he was too fat, and he would examine his stomach in the mirror throughout the day. He grew suspicious of what his mother might be putting in his food and began preparing all of his own meals. Before long, he was eating just 200 calories a day.

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  • Why Firing Mick Mulvaney Is Riskier Than Keeping Him

    • Elaina Plott and Peter Nicholas

    President Trump’s third chief of staff seemed destined for the door until impeachment came along.

    Mick Mulvaney's job was in danger even before his disastrous press conference yesterday, and his equally disastrous attempt to walk that performance back. The fumble could not have been more poorly timed: According to multiple current and former White House officials, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay private conversations, Trump has been steadily souring on Mulvaney for weeks.

    In his maiden briefing-room appearance yesterday, the acting White House chief of staff acknowledged that the Trump administration had held up military aid to Ukraine in exchange for a politically motivated investigation—a quid pro quo that Trump has repeatedly insisted never took place, and is the subject of the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

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  • Dear Therapist: I Don’t Approve of My Daughter’s Boyfriend

    • Lori Gottlieb

    If she stays with her current partner, I’m worried that she’ll end up alone, childless, and unhappy.

    Dear Therapist,

    My 42-year-old daughter has never been married but has had relationships with men and women. She’s now involved with a married man who’s left his wife and is supposedly getting a divorce and doesn’t want children.

    He seems nice enough, but my daughter has told her father and he’s told me that her boyfriend won’t discuss the divorce with her. My daughter is having a good time but knows that the relationship is going nowhere. I can’t believe she’s content with so little when she claims she wants to be married and to have children.

    For the life of me, I cannot understand why she’s with this guy. I’ve told my husband that I don’t want to entertain them together. I don’t approve of the relationship, and I don’t think it’s good for my daughter. I feel she is not thinking clearly and is not valuing herself. My husband says “It’s her life.” And, of course, it is. But my fear is that she’ll end up with nothing—no relationship, no children, no home. I’m worried and angry.

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  • A Warning From a Doctor Who Has Done Thousands of Steroid Injections for Arthritis

    • James Hamblin

    The extremely common treatment might be causing more harm than previously thought.

    After giving birth to a baby, a young woman told her nurses at Boston Medical Center that she was having pain in her hip. That happens sometimes after births, says Ali Guermazi, one of the doctors involved. As he recounts the case from a few years ago, he looked at X-rays and saw a small amount of extra fluid in the joint. Otherwise things looked normal. “We injected her hip with steroids, hoping to help with the pain,” Guermazi says. They seemed to help, and the women went home with her baby.

    Guermazi didn’t think more of it until the woman returned to the hospital six months later, unable to walk. “The head of her femur was gone,” says Guermazi, who is now the chief of radiology at VA Boston Healthcare System. The bone appeared to have simply vanished. The new mother needed a total hip replacement. “We didn’t know what happened, and still can’t know for certain,” Guermazi says. “But I feared it was related to the injection.”

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  More Popular Stories

• Radio Atlantic: Sanders vs. Warren

  How long does the truce last?

  • Kevin Townsend
  • Oct 18, 2019

• The Unraveling of Donald Trump

  As the impeachment inquiry intensifies, some associates of the president predict that his already erratic behavior is going to get worse.

  • Peter Nicholas
  • Oct 18, 2019

• The Intelligence Fallout From Trump’s Withdrawal in Syria

  The chaotic withdrawal from Syria will severely weaken U.S. efforts in the country—and could also be a boost for Russia and Iran.

  • Mike Giglio
  • Oct 18, 2019
• Newsletter

  The Atlantic Politics Daily: The Syria Stumble

  Which countries now stand to gain after the Syria cease-fire? Also, Trump’s plan to host the G7 at one of his properties. Plus, reflections on the legacy of Elijah Cummings.

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• Elijah Cummings, Reluctant Partisan Warrior

  The story of the veteran lawmaker is one more example of how, in Washington, appearances deceive, and public performances and private relationships often diverge.

  • Russell Berman
  • Oct 17, 2019

• There Is No Plan B for ISIS Prisoners

  As Turkey stokes chaos in northern Syria, the U.S. has no new options to deal with the ISIS prisoners held there—or what to do if they escape.

  • Kathy Gilsinan
  • Oct 17, 2019

• John Kasich Is a Man Without a Party

  The former Ohio governor won’t vote for Donald Trump next year. But he’s not sold on the Democrats either.

  • Russell Berman
  • Oct 17, 2019
• Writers
  • Russell Berman
    Elijah Cummings, Reluctant Partisan Warrior
    Oct 17, 2019
  • Emma Green
    Just Don’t Call It Abortion
    Oct 16, 2019
  • Adrienne LaFrance
    The ‘Undesirable Militants’ Behind the Nineteenth Amendment
    Jun 4, 2019
  • Priscilla Alvarez
    Trump’s Deal With Mexico Could Make Asylum Next to Impossible
    Nov 28, 2018
  • Nora Kelly
    Barack Obama’s Eulogy for John McCain
    Sep 1, 2018
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• Politics Daily

  The Atlantic Politics Daily: What Warren Won’t Say

  Elizabeth Warren emerges as a front-runner with one particular hangup: admitting how to pay for Medicare for All.

  • Shan Wang
  • Oct 16, 2019

• The Eye-Popping Cost of Medicare for All

  According to new figures: more than the federal government will spend over the coming decade on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid combined.

  • Ronald Brownstein
  • Oct 16, 2019
• Family

  Across-the-Aisle Friendships: Now Up for Debate

  Asked whether personal relationships can transcend politics, few Democratic candidates gave insightful answers.

  • Ashley Fetters
  • Oct 16, 2019

• The Risk of Elizabeth Warren’s Dodging

  She’s presented herself as the truth-teller, the straight-talker, the one who can break down complex economic ideas and bring nonprogressives along.

  • Edward-Isaac Dovere
  • Oct 16, 2019

• The Return of Bernie Sanders Is Bigger Than Bernie Sanders

  To the senator’s superfans watching last night’s debate, the promise of a political revolution is well worth supporting a 78-year-old who just had a heart attack.

  • Elaine Godfrey
  • Oct 16, 2019

• Just Don’t Call It Abortion

  The 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have gone further in embracing abortion rights than ever before. But they still hide behind euphemism.

  • Emma Green
  • Oct 16, 2019

• The Trump Administration Has Only One Move

  The U.S. financial system is powerful, but not so powerful that it can swiftly stop a military assault in its tracks.

  • Uri Friedman
  • Oct 16, 2019

• The Battle for Obama’s Legacy

  A scrap over who deserves credit for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was the prickliest exchange yet between two top Democratic rivals, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.

  • Russell Berman
  • Oct 15, 2019

• Democrats: We’re the Real American Patriots

  Tonight, candidates spoke passionately about protecting America’s troops and defending the Constitution. Are voters actually looking for a message of statesmanship?

  • Emma Green
  • Oct 15, 2019

• The Democrats’ New War on Warren

  A volley of attacks from her rivals at tonight’s debate confirmed what polls have started to show: The senator from Massachusetts is the new leader of the primary pack.

  • Russell Berman
  • Oct 15, 2019
• Politics Daily

  The Atlantic Politics Daily: A Self-Funding Chaos Factor Joins the Debates

  Tom Steyer—whose platform centers on climate change and impeachment—has spent his way onto the debate stage. Plus: the search for the next AOC

  • Shan Wang
  • Oct 15, 2019

• The Best Campaign Money Can Buy

  Tom Steyer, the outsider billionaire candidate, will make his debate-stage debut tonight.

  • Edward-Isaac Dovere
  • Oct 15, 2019

• The Deportations Last Time

  A very short book excerpt

  • November 2019 Issue