The Gist

The Egyptian Seesaw

How the country went through a coup and the Arab Spring, and where they’re headed next.

Thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters protest in front of the High Court in Cairo demanding a purge in the Egyptian judicial system on April 19, 2013.

Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images

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On The Gist, Trump’s lies and steel mills.

The Arab Spring caused a major shift in Egypt in 2011, and the politics only got murkier during the military coup in 2013. But are autocrats really the best allies for the United States, or just for our current president? David Kirkpatrick explores what happened to Egypt during the Arab Spring and the military coup in his new book, Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East.

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Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Pierre Bienaimé.