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Trump and the Napoleonic Rule of War

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Copious adjectives have been used to describe Donald Trump’s behavior. Restrained was rarely one of them—until recently. Below, I look at how the former president’s newfound discipline is actually a mirage. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Trump is planning for a landslide win.

C’mon, Man

Never underestimate the destructive power of a stubborn old narcissist with something to prove.
Ideally no one gets hurt along the way: Maybe grandpop refuses to give up his license, drives into an oak tree, and only the car gets totaled. But sometimes there are casualties: Maybe a pedestrian gets hit.
President Joe Biden, 81, is acting like one of history’s most negligent and pigheaded leaders at a crucial moment, and right now, we are all pedestrians.

Maybe She’s Born With It. Maybe It’s Neurocosmetics.

For just $65, the skin-care company Selfmade will sell you a kit that will purportedly help you feel more stable and confident in your relationships—and get better skin all the while. According to the kit’s marketing copy, it comes with a serum that enhances “safety and comfort with self,” a moisturizer that “promotes awareness that past negative experience and emotional states can carry throughout your life,” and the best-selling relationship-psychology book Attached.

Trump Is Planning for a Landslide Win

Photographs by Roger Kisby
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The outcome of the presidential campaign, Republicans believed, was a fait accompli. “Donald Trump was well on his way to a 320-electoral-vote win,” Chris LaCivita told me this past Sunday as Democrats questioned, ever more frantically, whether President Joe Biden should remain the party’s nominee in November. “That’s pre-debate.”
LaCivita paused to repeat himself: “Pre-debate.

Stop Soft-Pedaling the GOP’s Extreme Positions

The idea that Donald Trump is forcing the Republican Party to moderate its extreme positions on abortion and LGBTQ rights would make for an interesting story. So interesting, in fact, that the story was all over the mainstream press. The only problem with this very interesting story is that it didn’t happen.
On Monday, a draft of the GOP platform began circulating ahead of the Republican convention. The coverage of the platform’s position on abortion was remarkable in its uniformity.

“Peace, Not NATO”: As Biden Hosts Leaders in D.C., German MP Decries NATO’s 75 Years of War & Hypocrisy

President Biden is hosting heads of government from NATO member nations for a three-day summit in Washington, D.C., to mark the 75th anniversary of the expanding nuclear-armed military alliance as leaders pledge to continue supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. We get response from German lawmaker Sevim Dağdelen, who is in D.C. to protest the summit and is the author of the new book NATO: A Reckoning with the Atlantic Alliance.

Their Goal Is Total Ethnic Cleansing: Mustafa Barghouti on Israel’s Expulsion Order for Gaza City

A panel of United Nations independent experts has accused Israel of engaging in a campaign of starvation and genocide in Gaza as the effects of the famine are being felt across Gaza. Palestinian physician and activist Mustafa Barghouti says “what we see today is a purposeful act of starvation” and that the real intention of the Israeli government has never changed. “Their main goal is the total ethnic cleansing of all of Gaza people and all of the Gaza Strip.

Report from Gaza: Israel Attacks Schools & Orders Palestinians to Leave Gaza City Amid Ceasefire Talks

We get an update from journalist Akram al-Satarri in Gaza, as Israel orders the full evacuation of all civilians from Gaza City after one of the deadliest days in Gaza in weeks. An Israeli airstrike killed at least 30 Palestinians at a school housing displaced people near Khan Younis, mostly women and children. “There’s no safe haven” anywhere in Gaza, says al-Satarri. “The people who are bearing the brunt of those bombardments are the Palestinian displaced people.

Iran’s New Reformist President Promises More Freedom, Better Relations with the West

Voters in Iran elected Masoud Pezeshkian as president Saturday. The heart surgeon and former health minister defeated hard-liner Saeed Jalili in a runoff vote held just weeks after President Ebrahim Raisi and other top officials died in a helicopter crash. Pezeshkian has criticized Iran’s mandatory hijab law for women and has promised to disband Iran’s morality police, as well as better relations with the United States and other Western countries in the hopes of lifting sanctions.

“The Whole Country of France Has Won”: Far Right Blocked from Power as Left Surges

A leftist coalition pulled off a surprise victory in the second round of parliamentary elections in France on Sunday, becoming the largest bloc in Parliament and successfully keeping the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen out of government. The New Popular Front, which won 182 seats in the National Assembly, still fell short of the 289 seats required for an absolute majority.

Why NATO Still Exists

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
America is hosting the NATO summit this week. Russia’s bombing of a children’s hospital should remind every member that the Atlantic Alliance must do more for Ukraine.

Democrats Need to Be More French

For the past month, up until Sunday’s parliamentary election, most French voters had been dreading the predicted victory of the far-right National Rally party. But then—in stark contrast to Americans who claim to be alarmed by the return of Donald Trump—they actually did something to prevent it.
Emmanuel Macron had called for the snap elections on June 9.

Mohammed Abu Hashem Spent 22 Years in U.S. Air Force. He Quit After Israel Killed His Aunt in Gaza

As Israel’s war on Gaza enters its 10th month, we speak with Mohammed Abu Hashem, a Palestinian American who ended a 22-year career in the U.S. Air Force after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed his aunt in October. “It was clear to me that I needed to step away,” says Abu Hashem, who served as a first sergeant in the 316th Civil Engineer Squadron of the U.S. Air Force. He recently co-signed a letter with 11 other former U.S.