Claim OwnershipMallen Baker: Faultlines
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'Dangerously reasonable' analysis on politics, science, and particularly the bit where they bump into each other. I aim to give an independent, fact-focused, non-ideological take on the issues that matter.
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President Trump's trusted and loyal chief of staff, Susie Wiles, always known as the quiet person who got everything done, has hit the news big time with a series of interviews she did with Vanity Fair, where she gave strikingly honest assessments of her colleagues, some of Trump's recent actions and his motivations. It made a big impact - some of it wasn't news, or at least shouldn't have been. But some of it was important background to the administration's political strategy and the White House infighting and debate. Let's discuss.
By all accounts, the MAGA faithful are starting to despair at the disconnect between what candidate Donald Trump promised during his election campaign, and what President Trump is actually delivering. Whether it comes to affordability, the Epstein Files, Artificial Intelligence and more - Trump is seen as aligning with billionaires and tech oligarchs, not the ordinary people. And, according to a series of articles in the Washington Post today, he's simply not listening to the feedback, which could mean nothing is going to improve much from this point forward. Let's discuss.
In an interview a few days ago, Elon Musk - normally the purveyor of hubris and inflated promises - said that DOGE had been "a little bit" successful. This was clearly the closest to reality he could bring himself to admit in public, but the fact he went on to say that he wouldn't do it if he had his time again really tells the story. So that moment of self-reflection is worth noting. But then you have to note how he remains of the view that his vision for the world must be indulged by governments worldwide, and he will seek to attack or undermine those who disagree. Arguably, that's entirely the improvement we might have hoped for from Elon Musk 'spending more time on his businesses'. Let's discuss.
In this news round-up of the week for Friday December 12th 2025: President Trump's Navy seizes an oil tanker carrying Venezuelan crude which highlights what may be the real reason why he won't stop until Maduro is gone; A leaked briefing paints in vivid colours the reality that if the US ends up in a shooting war with China, America itself expects to lose, in spite of all its expensive weapons; And while some are excited that the Epstein files are supposed to be released next week, there are two good reasons to presume it's going to be yet another dud.
One of the big stories of 2025 has been the plummeting rates of foreign tourists entering the United States. Whether because President Trump has insulted their countries, or because they just don't fancy visiting the country the US has become - people are staying away in droves. Now, as though that isn't nearly bad enough, the Trump administration seems determined to impose even more onerous and intrusive tests on the way in - with the possibility that if you have the "wrong opinions" about the Dear Leader, you might not be let in at all. Let's discuss.
European leaders and Ukraine's President Zelensky have been meeting yet again to agree a way forward in the face of Trump's pressure for Ukraine to sign a variation on its one-sided deal with Putin's Russia. And STILL, after Trump's dismissive insults towards them all has been codified as official US security policy - they are keeping up the pretence that the US is still Europe's biggest ally. Why? When do we re-enter a world where public figures talk in a relatively frank way about how they see the world, and what their objectives are? Let's discuss.
The new Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, established a great rapport with President Trump right from the start - or so it seemed. But when she immediately lined up with Trump to draw a hard line with Xi Jinping's China, she turned around and discovered he wasn't there. Trump's America is interested, according to it's recent National Security Strategy (and its observed behaviour) in money. Not geopolitics. Not values. Money. Japan, having attracted the fury of Beijing, is suddenly wondering if its best ally is no longer an ally at all. And even the uncertainty throws the stability of Southeast Asia into a doubt it hasn't seen for a very long time. Let's discuss.
In this news round-up of the week for Friday December 5th 2025 - The US launches its new security strategy, and it doesn't mince words in laying out the real thinking behind Trump's bizarre foreign policy. The question is - will Europeans actually do anything about the admission that Trump aims to replace them all with far-right parties, that he aims to hand Ukraine to Russia, or any of the rest of it - or will they keep pretending it's business-as-usual? Also, the Ukraine Russia peace negotiations fizzle as they were always going to, and the EU rankles Trump's America by fining Elon Musk's Twitter. Also, I note a true unsung hero, and talk about a skunk and a raccoon.
President Trump assumed that waving a big stick in front of Venzuela's Nicolas Maduro would result in him agreeing to step down, since the US has all of its economic and military might to bring to bear. But Maduro has called his bluff, and suddenly Trump is finding that the ground is disappearing under his feet. The attacks against boats are attracting talk of war crimes. Congress is starting to get seriously unhappy. And the latest revelation about a second strike made just to kill survivors - a war crime in any similar context - has the administration changing its story daily as it slowly realises that consequences are coming. Let's discuss.
NATO is realising that the hybrid warfare being waged against it by Russia, via sabotage, airspace incursions, disinformation and hacking attacks, are too serious to continue to be shrugged off. So today one of NATO's top military leaders put it out there that NATO should be taking more aggressive and proactive action, and that such action would count as a defensive measure in the current situation. This matches the threat - but it suffers the one drawback that the lynchpin member of NATO is President Trump's United States. And Trump is very obviously a Putin ally. So could NATO adopt such a stance - or would it simply get vetoed?
According to the Washington Post, President Trump's defence secretary Pete Hegseth ordered specifically that there should be no survivors from the first of the US military strikes against boats in waters close to Venezuela. This meant that when two people survived the initial strike, the US navy carried out a second strike specifically just to eliminate those survivors - an act that would be considered by international law as murder, as a war crime, or both. The news has Republicans in Congress launching moves to hold the administration to account in another symbol of Trump's fading grip on his party. Let's discuss.
In this news round-up of the week for Friday, November 28th 2025. President Trump faces a major legal backlash as analysis shows hundreds of judges have ruled his latest actions on deportations to be illegal - and now a class action is coming that may force a change in policy. Taiwan shows how it is coming to terms with the unreliability of its greatest ally. Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff shows the world he's really all-in on Russia's side. And I reply to a viewer comment.
This week, we saw the Trump Administration trying to blackmail the EU with steel and aluminium tariffs to get it to dismantle its regulations on big tech. We saw scandal in Switzerland over the donations to Trump of a Rolex clock and a gold bar to get tariffs reduced there. And we saw Trump declare that, as the host of the next G20 meeting in 2026, he is going to bar South Africa from attending because he has special opinions that must be accommodated. But in all of them, there are - to different degrees, and with caveats - signs of growing restiveness with the Trump bullying. A lot of Trump's power is gifted to him by the targets of his attacks - and more and more leaders are starting to show signs of concluding that enough is enough. Let's discuss.
A couple of weeks ago, Michelle Obama said that America wasn't ready to vote for a woman as President. Today, in the UK - which has had three women Prime Ministers and counting - another woman in a top position - Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, got to hold the centre of attention of the country for a couple of days having complained about misogyny and 'mansplaining' that she has to deal with. These statements have to deal with an inconvenient truth. Let's discuss.
We've talked before about the two sides of MAGA - the personality cult / ideological part, which is noisy and enthusiastic at times, and perpetually confused with Trump's frequent inconsistencies - and the tech billionaire part, with their views on the post-democracy AI future they think they should be left to bring about. Earlier predictions that these two might not be the best of room-mates are becoming a safer and safer bet every day. Let's discuss.
As expected, European and Ukrainian leaders have been locked in urgent talks with the US as they try to negotiate down the Trump Ukraine Surrender Plan to something more acceptable. As they do so, Trump is plumbing new depths in his public expression of contempt for Ukraine, saying that it's leaders have not been sufficiently appreciative of everything he has done for them. For some reason, he failed to list all those things. But needless to say, in spite of the stupidity, it all matters a great deal. So let's discuss.
In this news round-up of the week for Friday, November 21st, 2025, we examine the text of Trump's Ukraine surrender plan and the attempt to force Ukraine to sign it, with the threat of letting Putin win the war if it doesn't. We also look at Japan's new Prime Minister facing a massive confrontation with China over Taiwan, and the UK's detailed COVID-19 inquiry report.
It's just been revealed that Putin's Russia has been working in secret with the Trump administration to agree what is described as a 28-point plan, based on the Gaza peace plan. One thing is clear - if such a plan is taking shape, it is doing so very much according to Putin's desires which, by definition, means an extremely rough deal for Ukraine. It seems that President Trump retains the belief that first led him to imagine he could end the Ukraine war 'very quickly' - that if he can agree a deal with Vladimir Putin, he will then be able to force it onto an unwilling Ukraine. Is that the basis of this new plan? Let's discuss.
With one abrupt and astonishing U-turn, President Trump has removed all doubt that he's prematurely entering the lame duck phase of his presidency. Faced with a massive revolt by Republican lawmakers to vote for the Epstein files to be released, he used the masterful arts of a confused toddler in seeking to persuade them that, contrary to everything said and done so far, he really wants them to vote YES to release the files. It's a breathtaking collapse, and the end of the period when he can push his party to do whatever he wants. An absolutely pivotal moment. Let's discuss.
Lots of questions for this video to celebrate my long-delayed YouTube silver button! Lots on the United States and democracy, what the Trump administration end game is, whether the US will be able to recover its democracy after Trump's term is over and more. Also, what did Putin hope to get out of threatening to give Venezuela weapons to use against the US? And then a few questions about me. Let's dive straight in.
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