Politics Weekly America

Since coming back into office, Donald Trump has sent troops to Venezuela, Iran and US cities. He has threatened to deploy them to Greenland in order to get what he wants. But what do the people who serve think of their commander-in-chief? If they wanted to, could they disobey his orders?

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Janessa Goldbeck, a former Marine and the chief executive of Vet Voice Foundation

If you’ve been listening to the Trump administration this week, you would be forgiven for being confused about who started the war, why America got involved and what the end game is.

This week, the foreign policy expert Ali Vaez tells Rachel Leingang what it was like to take part in war game exercises for the Pentagon and how they compare with what he has seen play out this week. Then the Guardian’s Andrew Roth talks us through the inner chaos in the Trump administration and Congress over Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran

The US and Israel launched a joint military operation against Iran on Saturday, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Why did Trump decide (again) to attack Iran during negotiations on a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic? How does he sell a new war in the Middle East, with potential US casualties, to people at home? What happens next for Iran? In this special collaboration with Today in Focus, Annie Kelly speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour.

The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is widely regarded as one of the Democratic party’s leading contenders for the 2028 presidential election. He has also published a new book, Young Man in a Hurry, reflecting on his childhood and his path to the governor’s mansion. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Newsom about why he believes the Democrats suffered such heavy losses in 2024, why the party needs to be less judgmental, and whether he intends to run for president in 2028

Donald Trump made history again on Tuesday evening, delivering the longest State of the Union address on record. But while the president declared the ‘golden age of America’, many Democrats boycotted the event, telling the country Republicans are ‘making your life harder’. The Guardian’s Jenna Amatulli talks to Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramírez about Trump’s claims, the Democrats’ rebuttal, and how the speech will land with a divided nation