What Does It Mean to Resist Trump in 2025?
The DailyYou’re reading The New Yorker’s daily newsletter, a guide to our top stories, featuring exclusive insights from our writers and editors. Sign up to receive it in your in-box.In today’s newsletter, for this week’s 100th Anniversary Issue, a look back at the power of James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind.” But, first, Eric Lach reports on the prosecutor who took a stand against Trump’s Department of Justice. Plus:Susan B. Glasser on Putin’s great day in WashingtonStephen A. Smith for PresidentThe robot wars of QueensDanielle Sassoon recently resigned as the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.Photograph by Yuki Iwamura / Bloomberg / GettyDanielle Sassoon’s American BraveryA conservative prosecutor in New York makes the first bold move against Donald Trump’s rampaging Presidency.By Eric LachYou wouldn’t think it possible that a Federalist Society member and former clerk for the archconservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would show more grit in the face of Trumpism than the entire leadership of the national Democratic Party, but here we are. Three weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term in office, Danielle Sassoon, a thirty-eight-year-old lawyer whom Trump had named acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has provided the first dramatic check against the Trump Administration’s rampage through the federal government. On Wednesday, she refused her bosses’ orders to drop the criminal-corruption case against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams. She offered her resignation, and put her career on the line, rather than do the dirty work Washington directed her to do. Read the story »The Briefing RoomWhat does it mean to resist Trump in 2025? On The Political Scene podcast, the cultural critic Brady Brickner-Wood talks with Tyler Foggatt about the Democratic Party’s struggle to present a unifying message and why many liberals are feeling a sense of resignation. Listen and follow »There is a strategy behind Trump’s defiance of the law: The courts will oppose the Administration’s stunning expression of executive power. Jeannie Suk Gersen argues that this is likely just what the President’s team intended. Read the story »What the war in Gaza has revealed about American Judaism: Isaac Chotiner interviews the journalist Peter Beinart about the story of Israel and the moral blind spot of the Jewish diaspora. Read the interview »Are we really “at the Rubicon”? On the New Yorker Radio Hour, David Remnick speaks with the head of the A.C.L.U., Anthony Romero, who believes the U.S. is on the brink of a constitutional crisis, about what to do if it happens. Listen and follow »And now for some comic relief: A series of imagined valentines between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Take a look on Instagram or TikTok.More Top StoriesIt Took Trump Only Twenty-four Days to Sell Out UkraineStephen A. Smith for PresidentKevin Young on James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind”Bartees Strange’s Interior HauntingsDaily Cartoon"Give it ten minutes before you hit her with the ick." Cartoon by John McNameeCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copiedShopShopMore Fun & GamesPlay today's bite-sized puzzle. A clue: Like kitchen backsplashes and bathroom floors, often. Five letters.Shouts & Murmurs: Come to My Presidents’ Day Party!P.S. “What if we just cuddle, and by cuddle I mean not actually touching …” John Kenney shares some lovely Valentine’s Day poems for married people. (For other married people—you’re probably doing great.)
In today’s newsletter, for this week’s 100th Anniversary Issue, a look back at the power of James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind.” But, first, Eric Lach reports on the prosecutor who took a stand against Trump’s Department of Justice. Plus:
- Susan B. Glasser on Putin’s great day in Washington
- Stephen A. Smith for President
- The robot wars of Queens
Danielle Sassoon’s American Bravery
A conservative prosecutor in New York makes the first bold move against Donald Trump’s rampaging Presidency.
By Eric Lach
You wouldn’t think it possible that a Federalist Society member and former clerk for the archconservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would show more grit in the face of Trumpism than the entire leadership of the national Democratic Party, but here we are. Three weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term in office, Danielle Sassoon, a thirty-eight-year-old lawyer whom Trump had named acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has provided the first dramatic check against the Trump Administration’s rampage through the federal government. On Wednesday, she refused her bosses’ orders to drop the criminal-corruption case against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams. She offered her resignation, and put her career on the line, rather than do the dirty work Washington directed her to do. Read the story »
The Briefing Room
What does it mean to resist Trump in 2025? On The Political Scene podcast, the cultural critic Brady Brickner-Wood talks with Tyler Foggatt about the Democratic Party’s struggle to present a unifying message and why many liberals are feeling a sense of resignation. Listen and follow »
There is a strategy behind Trump’s defiance of the law: The courts will oppose the Administration’s stunning expression of executive power. Jeannie Suk Gersen argues that this is likely just what the President’s team intended. Read the story »
What the war in Gaza has revealed about American Judaism: Isaac Chotiner interviews the journalist Peter Beinart about the story of Israel and the moral blind spot of the Jewish diaspora. Read the interview »
Are we really “at the Rubicon”? On the New Yorker Radio Hour, David Remnick speaks with the head of the A.C.L.U., Anthony Romero, who believes the U.S. is on the brink of a constitutional crisis, about what to do if it happens. Listen and follow »
And now for some comic relief: A series of imagined valentines between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Take a look on Instagram or TikTok.
- It Took Trump Only Twenty-four Days to Sell Out Ukraine
- Stephen A. Smith for President
- Kevin Young on James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind”
- Bartees Strange’s Interior Hauntings
Daily Cartoon
"Give it ten minutes before you hit her with the ick."
- Play today's bite-sized puzzle. A clue: Like kitchen backsplashes and bathroom floors, often. Five letters.
- Shouts & Murmurs: Come to My Presidents’ Day Party!
P.S. “What if we just cuddle, and by cuddle I mean not actually touching …” John Kenney shares some lovely Valentine’s Day poems for married people. (For other married people—you’re probably doing great.)
