Elizabeth N. Saunders
@profsaunders.bsky.social
18K followers 3.2K following 2.2K posts

Professor of Political Science & Director of the Saltzman Institute of War & Peace Studies, Columbia. New Book: The Insiders' Game: How Elites Make War and Peace https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691215808/the-insiders-game .. more

Biology 52%
Environmental science 20%
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profsaunders.bsky.social
Hard to think through problems when we are in a mode where the current problem gets eaten by a bigger problem within hours.

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

paulguinnessy.bsky.social
It's all triage in the DC metro area for nonprofits offering help, like meals, and thanks to Trump's cuts donations are down and also so is food bank support from the feds.
D.C. nonprofits face breaking point amid job cuts and shutdown
41% of DMV households affected by federal layoffs are food-insecure.
www.axios.com
npr.org
NPR @npr.org · 11h
Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says. n.pr/4q87Jwb
Opinion: Why I'm handing in my Pentagon press pass
Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says.
n.pr
karl-jacoby.bsky.social
Student government leaders of MIT, UVA, U of AZ, Dartmouth, UPenn, Brown, and Vanderbilt united in their opposition to the "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

sesmith.lol
This special education news is really devastating and we're going to learn more in the coming days as we get more info and people figure out exactly what it means, but a reminder that disabled people are entitled to a free appropriate public education.
Amid shutdown, Trump administration guts department overseeing special education
Multiple sources tell NPR that, as part of the Trump administration's latest reduction-in-force, the U.S. Department of Education has gutted the office that handles special education.
www.npr.org

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

carlquintanilla.bsky.social
The rupture “raises fresh doubts about whether Trump, operating with a hollowed-out national security team and a fragmented China strategy, is prepared for Beijing’s latest power play.”

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

senatepress.bsky.social
Senate adopted by voice vote: Kaine amendment #3337 to repeal the authorizations for use of military force against Iraq.
kairyssdal.bsky.social
Just 'cause it has to be said every now and then.

GOP Senators and Representatives are obviously okay with...everything...that's happening.

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

adamrothman.bsky.social
America needs "solidarity among groups who disagree ferociously on many questions, but who agree on the need to keep America democratic and rebuild institutions and social connections to make democracy more robust," explains @himself.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...
Opinion | Where Trump Is Vulnerable and How to Act on It
www.nytimes.com

profsaunders.bsky.social
This speech from @marisakabas.bsky.social is really worth reading.
marisakabas.bsky.social
New — I was fortunate to speak in front of students and faculty at Grinnell College in Iowa tonight about the business of independent journalism, the current state of media under Trump 2.0, and billionaire control.

I published my full speech because I thought it might resonate beyond campus:
Truth, morality and independence in journalism under the second Trump regime
My full remarks to students and faculty at Grennell College.
www.thehandbasket.co
marisakabas.bsky.social
New — I was fortunate to speak in front of students and faculty at Grinnell College in Iowa tonight about the business of independent journalism, the current state of media under Trump 2.0, and billionaire control.

I published my full speech because I thought it might resonate beyond campus:
Truth, morality and independence in journalism under the second Trump regime
My full remarks to students and faculty at Grennell College.
www.thehandbasket.co
blipstress.bsky.social
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
donmoyn.bsky.social
The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

Reposted by Henry Farrell

profsaunders.bsky.social
“This battle holds bigger lessons. The greatest weapon that the forces of regime change possess is the fear of inevitability. If everyone believes that Mr. Trump will succeed in reshaping America, he will.”

A great @himself.bsky.social column in the @nytimes.com.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...
Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.
www.nytimes.com
himself.bsky.social
"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...
Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

profsaunders.bsky.social
Also, residents of DC did not love it either.
charliesavage.bsky.social
C.I.A. Deputy Director Has Replaced Agency’s Top Legal Official With Himself

It is not clear what is behind the move by Michael Ellis, a Trump loyalist. A legal ethics specialist said it could raise conflict-of-interest issues.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...
C.I.A. Deputy Director Has Replaced Agency’s Top Legal Official With Himself
www.nytimes.com
qjurecic.bsky.social
I truly don't understand what people thought was going to happen
marydudziak.bsky.social
Has Trump’s second term posed a greater or lesser threat to the rule of law than you expected? @nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/m...
Has Trump’s second term posed a greater or lesser threat to the rule of law than you expected?
Circular graph showing over half answered: much more than I expected, about a quarter: more than I expected, about an eighth: similar threat to what I expected, small sliver: much less threat than I expected.

marydudziak.bsky.social
Has Trump’s second term posed a greater or lesser threat to the rule of law than you expected? @nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/m...
Has Trump’s second term posed a greater or lesser threat to the rule of law than you expected?
Circular graph showing over half answered: much more than I expected, about a quarter: more than I expected, about an eighth: similar threat to what I expected, small sliver: much less threat than I expected.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Yeah, people need to understand that probably the single biggest reason given in Judge Immergut’s order for blocking the Guard deployment was that the facts on the ground simply did not reflect any serious issues for ICE.

In Chicago there is enough of a difference that it could impact a court case.
anthonymkreis.bsky.social
I think folks should prepare themselves for the off chance that there is a different outcome in Chicago than the litigation has yielded thus far in Portland. The facts on the ground, I think, are arguably different enough.

But that’ll raise serious Posse Comitatus issues in Chicago. It’s not good.
bradmossesq.bsky.social
Texas proudly invading Illinois.

It’s hard to describe the level of potential constitutional crisis here.

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

anthonymkreis.bsky.social
I think folks should prepare themselves for the off chance that there is a different outcome in Chicago than the litigation has yielded thus far in Portland. The facts on the ground, I think, are arguably different enough.

But that’ll raise serious Posse Comitatus issues in Chicago. It’s not good.
bradmossesq.bsky.social
Texas proudly invading Illinois.

It’s hard to describe the level of potential constitutional crisis here.

profsaunders.bsky.social
Trump's defiance of of a (Trump-appointed) federal judge in Oregon and the Governor of Illinois over national guard troops shows again that in the realm of national security, there are no constraints left on the presidency. @foreignaffairs.com www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
Imperial President at Home, Emperor Abroad
American foreign policy in an age of unrestrained executive power.
www.foreignaffairs.com
bradmossesq.bsky.social
Texas proudly invading Illinois.

It’s hard to describe the level of potential constitutional crisis here.
radiofreetom.bsky.social
Once again, where is the CNO? SECNAV? After what just happened in Quantico, when will the military top brass speak up?
I asked this after the disgrace at Ft. Bragg, too.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

anthonyclark.bsky.social
*DEVELOPING*: I've updated my scoop with previously unreported details about the State Dept. staffer who requested the sword, NARA's response, and that the gift Trump gave King Charles III wasn't even a replica of Eisenhower's West Point Officer's Sabre:
lastcampaign.substack.com/p/exclusive-...