Signaling Strangelove: The New Yorker Cover’s Brilliant Take on SignalGate

Trump’s gilded mugshot guards the Oval Office—a warning to all who pass. As Ukraine’s president learned, this intimidating checkpoint signals the fate awaiting anyone who challenges Dear Leader. By Michael Shaw and Cara Finnegan In a narrow hallway between the President’s secretary’s space and the Oval Office, Trump’s framed booking photo represents just one element

I’m breaking down key images from Trump’s 2025 State of the Union—moments capturing a chamber in splinters, where resistance took many forms and silence would have meant complicity. By Michael Shaw “You have no mandate! You have no mandate to cut Medicare!” Pundits blamed Democrats for losing their cool. But incitement is Trump’s stock in trade, and

Is Trump’s MAGA theater still hypnotizing America—or is it finally awakening the resistance? By Michael Shaw One plays a cowboy, one plays a construction worker, and another plays a president. What’s genuinely unsettling isn’t the spectacle itself—it’s how quickly we’ve normalized it. Trump dancing with the Village People at Capital One Arena wasn’t just another