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TEVI TROY: Trump faces the burdens of a wartime presidency
America’s war with the mullahs of Tehran is into its second month and it has already changed Donald Trump’s presidency in important ways. As the president considers how to navigate these new dynamics, it’s worth considering the experience of some previous presidents who entered office not expecting to be wartime presidents.
Woodrow Wilson ended a four-cycle Republican winning streak by winning the three-way election of 1912. He did so because his two opponents, former president Teddy Roosevelt and incumbent president William Howard Taft, split the Republican vote. As president, Wilson embarked on an aggressive progressive domestic policy agenda. Things changed when World War One broke out in Europe midway through Wilson’s first term. Wilson then ran for reelection in 1916 promising to keep America out of the conflict, even using the slogan “He kept us out of war.” He did not keep that promise, though, as America entered the war in 1917, during the first year of his second term.
Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 to rescue the economy from the Great Depression. In his third term, he gained a new mission: fighting the Axis Powers and presiding over the largest military mobilization in American history. Roosevelt addressed this shift at a 1943 press conference where he explained the transition from “Dr. New Deal” to “Dr. Win-the-War.” FDR’s quip highlighted the way his administration had to reorder itself to face the new challenge.
Lyndon Johnson came to office unexpectedly after the tragic assassination of John F. Kennedy. He took over in peacetime and began pursuing his dream of a Great Society — a sweeping domestic agenda to rival Roosevelt’s New Deal.
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As he managed to pass his ambitious — and costly — domestic agenda, he soon found himself and his administration consumed by the conflict in Vietnam. The experience was so draining that by 1968, Johnson, who had spent his whole life pursuing the presidency, shocked the world by refusing to seek re-election.
In 2000, George W. Bush explicitly campaigned on pursuing a humble foreign policy, rejecting the nation-building missions of the Bill Clinton era. His ambition was to be the “Education President.” Then, 19 militant jihadis from Al Qaeda struck America on September 11. In response, Bush ordered the invasions of terror-supporting countries Afghanistan and then Iraq. As someone who served in that administration, the shift I saw was palpable. Bush had entered office with one kind of vision for his presidency, but history had a different idea entirely.
War reshapes more than just the man sitting behind the Resolute Desk. It changes the teams around the president. We saw this with the resignation of Trump’s counterterrorism director, Joe Kent. As the Kent episode showed, advisors who were in alignment before the shooting starts are not necessarily in alignment once fighting begins.
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This sort of thing has also happened in previous presidencies. In the early years of Wilson’s administration, Wilson was reliant on the advice of Texan political operative Colonel Edward House, who was so close to the president that he even lived in the White House. Things changed during the war, however, as internal critics in the State Department and the White House pushed back against House’s broad mandate managing the war. Wilson and House also clashed over the Versailles Treaty, which led to a permanent end to their once close relationship.
As for Johnson, he was famously intolerant of internal dissent, and he drove away or silenced advisors who questioned his Vietnam strategy. Johnson pushed aside his defense secretary Robert McNamara — initially the face of the Vietnam War—after Johnson noticed and didn’t appreciate McNamara’s increasing skepticism of Johnson’s Vietnam policy. Johnson wanted — and got — an echo chamber, to his administration and to our nation’s detriment.
In the Bush administration, the Iraq war set off a bureaucratic civil war inside Bush’s national security team. This internal struggle led to the Valerie Plame affair, which brought about the indictment of Vice President Cheney’s top aide Scooter Libby after the exposure of the name of a covert CIA operative. Libby, however, had not leaked her name; his bureaucratic nemesis Dick Armitage was the leaker, and Armitage shamefully stayed silent about his role during the investigation. The episode showed the degree to which the higher stakes brought about by war can roil an administration, not to mention innocent lives.
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War also takes a personal toll on presidents. Sometimes it leads to behavioral changes. In 2003, Bush gave up playing golf, one of his few outlets for escaping the pressures of the presidency. He said years later that he was unwilling to be seen on the links while American soldiers were dying in Iraq. As he explained in 2008, “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf.” It was a quietly devastating admission about the weight a wartime president carries every day.
In other cases, the toll of being president in wartime has been even heavier. Wilson suffered a stroke while in Europe and was incapacitated for much of the rest of the administration; his team kept the American people in the dark as his wife Edith secretly managed things in the White House. Roosevelt died during his fourth term at 63. Those who saw him in his final days found him to be pale and depleted beyond his years. A visibly thinned Johnson, who left office at 60, died less than four years after exiting the White House.
While these examples may seem harrowing, there is one also instructive counterexample.
George H.W. Bush entered the Gulf War with a limited objective, built a broad international coalition for expelling Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, achieved that objective, and got out. Bush’s national security team was extraordinarily disciplined and cohesive. The war did not appear to fundamentally damage Bush’s presidency or his person. Yet even Bush could not escape the political gravity of wartime leadership — he was perceived as so focused on foreign affairs that he lost touch with a domestic economy in recession, leading to what many believed was highly improbable when Bush had a 91% approval rating on the way: His defeat at the hands of Bill Clinton in 1992.
The lesson here is not that presidents should shrink from the use of force. President Trump has shown courage in taking on one of the most murderous and predatory regimes in the past half century. The decision to go to war is the most difficult decision a president must make. It costs lives and changes the world in unpredictable ways. And even before the end is reached, it changes the president, his staff, and his agenda, testing his character and taxing his body and soul in ways that cannot be fully anticipated.
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‘The Drama’ Review: Robert Pattinson, Zendaya star as lovebirds facing utter turmoil in twisted dark rom-com
Has there ever been someone you thought you knew, but then they say or do something that completely changes your view of them?
That’s the predicament Robert Pattinson and Zendaya face in A24’s “The Drama.”
The two of them star as Charlie and Emma, who are just days from getting married. Their relationship could be pulled from any rom-com; they meet in a coffee shop, he’s a geek, she’s gorgeous but approachable, you know the drill.
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Their storybook romance hits unexpected turbulence when they are joined by their friends Mike and Rachel (Mamoudou Athie and Alana Haim) for a wine tasting and they engage in a game of sorts where they each reveal the worst thing they have ever done. Mike goes, and Rachel goes, and Charlie goes, all of them sharing their not-so-greatest moments.
But it was what Emma revealed that truly shook the others, especially Charlie.
Charlie basically has less than a week to grapple with Emma’s dark secret and whether it’s bad enough to not walk down the aisle.
Ironically, what makes “The Drama” work is that it’s a dark comedy. The biting, cringe moments bring plenty of levity as tension builds between Charlie and Emma. Pattinson, mostly known for serious work, is able to bring the funny out of Charlie while being increasingly terrified of his fiancée while Zendaya’s Emma brilliantly sends mixed signals as to whether she’s a changed person from what she once was.
“The Drama” marks Norwegian writer/director Kristoffer Borgli’s second English-language film following 2023’s underrated Nicolas Cage gem “Dream Scenario.” Based on both films, Borgli proves he has the rare gift of balancing humor and intensity. And when Ari Aster (“Hereditary,” Midsommar,” “Beau is Afraid,” “Eddington”) is listed as a producer, you know you’re in for something really twisted.
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The third act falters a bit but “The Drama” is a unique, thought-provoking film that brings rather disturbing fun to the wedding day rom-com and is elevated by Zendaya and Pattinson’s performances. It’s not exactly a must-see but it showcases the talents of its two buzzy leads as well as Borgli as an emerging filmmaker.
“The Drama” is rated R for language, sexual content, and some violence. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes. In theaters now.
Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin are declaring a war on microplastics.
These tiny bits of plastic, which are less than 5 mm in size, can persist in our environment for hundreds or thousands of years. They may also build up in our bodies, our hearts and our brains, causing untold damage.
For the first time, the EPA is adding microplastics and pharmaceuticals to its Contaminant Candidate List for drinking water, which will help to prioritize funding and pave the way for potential future regulation involving Congress.
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HHS is also launching the Systematic Targeting of Microplastics — or STOMP — to study how microplastics accumulate in the body.
Kennedy spoke with Fox News in an exclusive interview accompanying the EPA/HHS announcement.
“We do not have the science that distinguishes between the impacts of these different types of plastics, and maybe if we identify those impacts, the damaging ones can be immediately eliminated, because you can replace them with something else,” he said.
“Our job — and we are really at the limit of our power right now — is to try to answer those questions before we take another action.”
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Kennedy pointed to emerging science suggesting microplastics’ direct impacts on public health.
“Some of them may be benign – others are very, very harmful,” he warned. “The science shows if they cause inflammation, they cause oxidative stress.”
“As a body, they are endocrine disruptors, so they interfere with fertility,” he added.
As emerging research suggests a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and neurodegenerative disease when microplastics are present at the cellular level, “the time to act is now,” according to Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a professor of pediatrics and population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
During a panel accompanying the announcement, Trasande compared the issue to efforts to reduce lead exposure in the 1970s, when the government took action as soon as the danger was identified, even before all research was complete.
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Kennedy, who has a long history of fighting chemicals in the environment, blames big businesses for causing the problem and wants them to clean it up. “That’s a lesson we are all supposed to have learned at kindergarten – that you clean up after yourself, you don’t force the public to do it.”
The same approach applies to pharmaceuticals that make their way into the environment, he noted.
“Particularly for our children, it’s very alarming. They are swimming around now in a toxic soup. It’s coming from everywhere,” Kennedy warned. “It’s coming from their food. It’s coming from agriculture. It’s coming from the air and water, and it’s coming from pharmaceutical drugs.
“Lee has directed his agency under President Trump to do this study so we can start regulating the discharge of these chemicals,” he went on. “A lot of them you can remove through carbon technology and other technologies.”
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Administrator Zeldin said he believes the fight against microplastics is a bipartisan issue. He is calling for more education and transparency when it comes to microplastics and public health, cautioning against the federal government proposing a one-size-fits-all solution.
“You want to be able to get the answers, you want to see the gold-standard science,” he said. “You demand radical transparency. You’re looking through the website, and it’s ignoring what you came to that web page to look for. I feel like there’s a communication gap – and when there’s a communication gap, there’s a trust gap.”
Zeldin and Kennedy have been working closely under President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda and say they enjoy working together.
“There’s no American in this country who can’t get heard somehow by Secretary Kennedy, and it’s just an honor to serve alongside him,” Zeldin said.
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Kennedy added, “I like everybody in that Cabinet, but Lee and I work with particular closeness, and I’ve really enjoyed the relationship.”
It is clear they would like this relationship to continue, even if their roles change. “You never know what’s going to happen,” Kennedy said.
Four men entered the ring at Stand & Deliver but only one left as the NXT champion on Saturday night.
Joe Hendry had one of his biggest challenges yet. He had to defend the NXT Championship in a fatal four-way match against Tony D’Angelo, Ricky Saints and Ethan Page. Hendry came into the match as the fan favorite as the crowd in St. Louis, Missouri, was singing his entrance music. But he faced three other hungry challengers.
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D’Angelo, who came into the match with a chip on his shoulder after being betrayed by a friend at last year’s event, walked out of Stand & Deliver as the new NXT champion.
Saints and Page came into the match aligned and tried to weaken Hendry as best as they could to start. They delivered suplexes and shots to the chest to take him out. But the duo’s rift would grow as Page hit a splash on Saints. But Saints got his revenge shot later in the match.
D’Angelo spent the first few minutes on the outside of the ring. Once he regained his composure, D’Angelo hit a spear and focused himself on Hendry before he was thrown to the outside of the ring. Page and Saints turned their attention to the former “Don of NXT.”
The teamwork would last a few moments before Hendry hopped over the ropes and took them both out. For a split second, Hendry was in control. But the numbers game got the better of him again about midway through the match.
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D’Angelo stepped back into the ring to face off against Hendry. He began to power up. Multiple German suplexes were doled out and it looked like D’Angelo was taking control of the match. He broke up a Standing Ovation to hit Hendry with a spear. He then speared Saints out of the ring and hit a second spear on Hendry.
With frustration mounting, Saints wiped out D’Angelo with a chair shot. He hit Hendry with a Revolution DDT onto the chair, too. Saints was going to hit Page with a chair as well, but Page took exception. Their own rivalry turned up a notch.
As Page carried Saints up to the stairs, he wanted to put him through the table. Out of nowhere, D’Angelo speared both men through the announce table. It came down to D’Angelo and Hendry.
D’Angelo hit the Dead to Rights and pinned Hendry to win the NXT Championship.
It is D’Angelo’s first reign as NXT champion.
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