Jan-Werner Mueller
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jwmueller-pu.bsky.social
Jan-Werner Mueller
@jwmueller-pu.bsky.social

Political Theory and Intellectual History. Politics of Architecture and Iconography. Some Public Affairs Commentary.

Posting in a personal capacity.

Texts mostly in LRB, Guardian, Foreign Policy, Architectural Review.

Representation: Wylie. .. more

Computer science 57%
Mathematics 29%

Reposted by Nora V. Demleitner

'“What were the justifications for the boycotts of the Olympic Games in the 1980s?” Göttlich said. “By my reckoning the potential threat is greater now than it was then.'
German soccer federation official wants World Cup boycott considered because of Trump
A German soccer federation executive committee member says it’s time to consider a World Cup boycott because of the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump.
apnews.com
US Dollar share of global foreign currency reserves have fallen to its lowest level this century as investors around the world aggressively dump the greenback following the Trump/Bessent show in Davos
ICE detained a 2-year-old girl in Minneapolis and put the child on a flight to a detention center in Texas, despite a court ordering her release: www.startribune.com/agents-detai...
“.. People take part in a rally on the day of a general strike to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's deployment of thousands of immigration enforcement officers on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota.”

@reuters.com

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller

This offends me far more than his usual bullshit. It's up there with his delight in Rob Reiner's death. And if it offends me, imagine how the families of the hundreds of NATO soldiers who died in Afghanistan feel.
www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-n...

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller

This is our government now donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...
"Slavery was real"

Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.

Presidents House, Philadelphia.
The Minnesota strike has made it to the top story on NYT. I am not a knee jerk NYT hater, but imo this is noteworthy given the paper’s relative lack of interest in other recent anti-Trump protest activity
The """"reporter"""" Vance is talking to here served in Trump I until CNN listened to his old radio show.
The White House posted a digitally altered image showing a demonstrator involved in interrupting a church service in Minnesota last weekend crying as she was arrested on Thursday.

A previous version of the image, also posted by an official government account, showed her looking forward calmly.
White House Posts Altered Photo Showing Arrested Minnesota Protester Crying
The New York Times ran the image posted by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, as well as the one posted by the White House through an A.I. detection system. It concluded that the White House’s version showed signs of manipulation.
nyti.ms
Newly unsealed evidence makes it even clearer that Rubio and Noem knew they were targeting students based solely on their political speech and that they knew this policy was unconstitutional. They just didn’t care. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...

Don Moynihan was right.

Clicktatorship.
Signs about the history of slavery in the U.S. and the 9 people George Washington enslaved are being removed right now at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, across from Independence Hall, months after the Trump administration threatend to do so.

How far we have not come in 250 years.

👇

Efforts by far-right US gvt to stop Europe's "civilizational erasure" analogized to...

"...consider how Otto von Bismarck, the ultimate practitioner of realpolitik, intervened frequently and energetically to influence the internal politics of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a pro-German direction."
The Grand Strategy Behind Trump’s Foreign Policy
Ignore the critics. The logic of consolidation that defines the new National Security Strategy is eminently sensible.
foreignpolicy.com
JD Vance: "I'm headed to Minneapolis where we're gonna talk with ICE agents and local officials about how we turn down the chaos. My simple piece of advice to them is going to be if you want to turn down the chaos in Minneapolis, stop fighting immigration enforcement."
VOA's headquarters, 'the Sistine Chapel of the New Deal,' faces possible destruction as part of the Trump administration's drive for "maximum value for the federal real estate footprint." wapo.st/4a5NCsq
The stunning art trove hidden in a D.C. building marked by Trump for disposal
Packed with frescoes, paintings and reliefs, the federal government’s Cohen Building has been called “the Sistine Chapel of the New Deal.” Advocates fear these works could be at risk.
wapo.st
Put it on every screen in America so that we can see what we have allowed ourselves to become and how desperately we need to fight to come back from this.

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller

@odihr.pl has completed its assessment of the upcoming elections in Hungary. As it did four years ago, it is now recommending a long-term election observation mission, which means more thorough and longer monitoring. Why?
The report is below👇
Hungary, Parliamentary Elections, 12 April 2026: Needs Assessment Mission Report
odihr.osce.org

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller

One court decision, two different headlines.

Guardian on the left, NY Times on the right. Which one more directly conveys information and the stakes to the reader?
So much news...that word about this defeat in the war on higher ed. may have gotten lost:

"The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colleges."
Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges
The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colle...
apnews.com
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.
The TACO cycle:

Markets want to price in TACO. But TACO only works if Trump sees stocks tank.

So we get a loop: Trump does things → nothing happens (markets already priced in TACO) → that emboldens him to do more → until markets start to think he might not TACO → stocks fall → TACO is restored.

How many fingers, Winston?
Trump repeatedly said "Iceland" when he meant Greenland in his Davos rant. But his press secretary is just blatantly lying about it.
Trump repeatedly said "Iceland" when he meant Greenland in his Davos rant. But his press secretary is just blatantly lying about it.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “Denmark’s investment in U.S. Treasury bonds, like Denmark itself, is irrelevant” www.cnbc.com/2026/01/21/b...
Scott Bessent says U.S. is unconcerned by Treasury sell-off over Greenland, calls Denmark ‘irrelevant’
U.S. treasury secretary Scott Bessant addressed reporters at a news conference at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday.
www.cnbc.com
Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tajani, gets it right again (he's also the one who managed to secure Forza Italia's survival + the overtaking of the League despite Berlusconi's death - not a foregone conclusion, by any means).

Tajani is advising Meloni not to sign up to Trump's "Peace Board"

"This is the tragedy of the people of Greenland: when they finally get the leverage to assert their dignity and demand recognition from their old master, they are confronted with a new, much stronger and more ruthless colonial master."

Nuanced, from one of Denmark's leading journalists:
Greenland’s tragedy: the dream of independence now looks like a trap laid by Donald Trump | Rune Lykkeberg
Denmark and its former colony have a complex relationship, but for now they must speak with one voice against US colonial ambitions, says Rune Lykkeberg, editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper Inform...
www.theguardian.com