Foreign policy

Over the past month, there have been two dominant stories in American foreign policy. One, of course, is the war with Iran. The other is the much-anticipated summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping of China. And I think if you look closely at both of these stories, you see that our foreign policy has entered into a period of absolute incoherence ...

Ezra talks to Ian Bremmer about the US's present foreign policy. Ezra thinks it is, under Trump, incoherent, but I don't think so.

There's no great overacrhing political agenda - for Trump it's personal. He wants to dominate and control everything and everyone.

As President, sometimes it works like in Venezuela. But sometimes he meets others he can't bully, like Iran. In those cases he is at a loss.

As for Xi (and Putin and Kim Jong Un), Trump is confronted with a sucessfull version of what he himself wants to be. And in those cases, he defers, irrespective of policy differences.

Vore!

Today is the primary election for California governor. The top three contenders in this jungle primary are two Democrats - Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer - and one Trump-supported Republican, Steve Hilton.

I already voted by mail and I've chosen Tom Steyer. I think the DNC wants everyone to vote for Becerra, but for once in my life I'm voting for who I like best, not the person who has the best chance to win. Hopefully the two Democrats will win and end up running against each other.