Tinker Tailor Campaigner Spy Great powers once meddled in other country’s elections secretly. Now they are happy for everyone to know.

My latest for @POLITICOMag: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

When Dwight Eisenhower sought to ensure Japan elected a friendly leader, he sent spies with cash to secret Tokyo hotel meetings.

When Donald Trump wanted to shape a Japanese vote, he just...tweeted it out.

How election interference went from cloak-and-dagger to caps-lock ->

The Age of Overt Political Warfare Great powers once meddled in other country’s elections secretly. Now they are happy for everyone to know.

I'm quoted here in a new politico piece discussing the recent tendency, preceding Trump but exemplified in his (& Russia's) interventions in the 2026 Hungarian election for great powers to increasingly meddle in elections through overt methods.
www.politico.com/news/magazin...

North America won the World Cup together. It’s hosting apart. Mexico, Canada and the United States hoped to showcase continental unity. Instead, competing agendas are turning one World Cup into three parallel tournaments.

“When these events are awarded, they’re concepts. They’re ideas. They feel good. But between the award and the event itself, the world changes. Politics change. Leaders change.”

Trump trained his eye on a coast-to-coast redistricting project far earlier than has been known, our reporting here reveals, emerging as part of an analysis of looming political threats and opportunities even before he was sworn in this January. Trump returned to office already chasing a strategy to dodge democratic accountability for his governance and fend off lame-duck irrelevance that typically follows midterm setbacks for second-term presidents. A White House spokesperson declined to comment on the record for this story. Watch: The Conversation Play Video20:23 The top 5 interview moments of 2025 | The Conversation But things didn’t go quite as planned, as Trump triggered a conflict he couldn’t easily win. Republicans fell far short of the 18 congressional seats which party strategists initially believed they could flip, and whatever gains they did make likely came at significant enduring cost for Trump’s White House. The caper consumed nearly all of Trump’s other domestic political priorities over the course of 2025, while revealing shortcomings in his political operation and cracks in a Republican coalition on which he had come accustomed to a near-total grip. In the feverish aftermath of influencer Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the MAGA movement’s desperation for political victories forced the procedural gamesmanship to take an insidiously dark turn.

This LONG Politico piece on how Dems anticipated and responded to Trump's bid to avoid democratic accountability is worth your time.

www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

Even more than when I posted this, now seems like a moment for this Sasha Issenberg piece, which war-games a red/blue-state estrangement, to get more time in the sun:

The action star who wasn’t there One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s greatest political accomplishments is about to be wiped away by California voters. Why hasn’t he done more to defend it?

One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s greatest political accomplishments is about to be wiped away by California voters.

Why hasn’t he done more to defend it?

When a Trailblazing Suffragist and a Crusading Prosecutor Teamed Up to Expose an Election Conspiracy An unlikely duo exposed political corruption in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1914—and set a new precedent for fair voting across the country

You can read the full, unbelievable tale here at
@SmithsonianMag: www.smithsonianmag.com/history/trai...

Donald Trump says he wants to kill off voting machines. Does he know what American elections were like before them?

I reconstructed what was the largest election-fraud conspiracy in U.S. history — and how a crusading suffragist and reformed murderer teamed up to expose it. —>

“The King of Soccer”: How Gianni Infantino won over Donald Trump — and just about every other politician in America The World Cup's lead organizer learns a new game.

How Gianni Infantino won over Donald Trump — and just about every other politician in America.

“The King of Soccer”: How Gianni Infantino won over Donald Trump — and just about every other politician in America The World Cup's lead organizer learns a new game.

Fascinating portrait of how FIFA's president learned to navigate American politics, by @sophiacai.bsky.social and @timroehn.bsky.social

www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

FIFA's president plays the American game How Gianni Infantino learned to navigate the country’s politics, from the White House to city councils.

"He loves dictators and billionaires. When he sees people with money, he melts."

A fascinating portrait of FIFA's Gianni Infantino and how he's learnt to navigate the America's politics from the White House to the local level.

www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

America’s soccer dad has some advice for the White House Alan Rothenberg put on the first World Cup in the United States. He says there’s one thing Donald Trump's man in charge needs to do to ensure next year’s sequel goes off without a hitch.

America's soccer dad has some advice for the White House: "Open up the purse strings" by @sophiacai.bsky.social

www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

The library left fights back As conservatives target library content and funding across the country, bookworms and librarians are teaming up in a California beach town to take their case to voters.

The library left fights back www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

I'm probably going to regret joining this discourse but none of these trends are as new as people think—it's just that THEY didn't notice them until recently.

Sushi got big earlier than this. Here's a whole book on the subject. It was published in 2008.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297771...

When a Trailblazing Suffragist and a Crusading Prosecutor Teamed Up to Expose an Election Conspiracy An unlikely duo exposed political corruption in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1914—and set a new precedent for fair voting across the country

In the spirit of year-end review, here's the best thing I wrote in 2024: a bit of historic true crime about the largest election-fraud prosecution in American history, and the churchgoing suffragist and convicted murderer who teamed up to crack the case.
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/trai...

When a Trailblazing Suffragist and a Crusading Prosecutor Teamed Up to Expose an Election Conspiracy An unlikely duo exposed political corruption in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1914—and set a new precedent for fair voting across the country

In the spirit of year-end review, here's the best thing I wrote in 2024: a bit of historic true crime about the largest election-fraud prosecution in American history, and the churchgoing suffragist and convicted murderer who teamed up to crack the case.
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/trai...