Stepped in it: When Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates cut ties with Qatar this week, was that Trump’s fault? As always, yes. Fred Kaplan explains that Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia last month gave Sunni powers in the region confidence, heightening tensions and leaving Qatar on the outs.
Enemies everywhere: Trump’s silence on the recent arrest of Reality Winner, the amazingly named government contractor who leaked National Security Agency documents to the Intercept, reveals his real reason for hating leakers so much, Leon Neyfakh writes. In the end, what Trump really cares about is not leaks, per se, but loyalty.
Self-own: Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern try to make heads or tails of Trump’s strange Monday tweetstorm, which has totally undermined the case for his “travel ban.”
Let’s not do that: The privatization of air traffic control is a move that the president’s chief economic adviser Gary Cohn has pushed as an easy, obvious efficiency win. Henry Grabar explains why this isn’t quite true.
For fun: Norm Macdonald thinks Trump satire is tired.
I’ll take it under advisement,
Rebecca
