This is a version of The Atlantic Every day, a magazine that guides you through the top stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Register here.
In recent years, ABC’s daytime talk show Attitude it has become an important center for high-level politicians. Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, JD Vance, and Hillary Clinton are among the many who have visited.
On the one hand, the show is wrong MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in terms of policy-oriented journalism, and hit hard. On the other hand, Attitude it fulfills a special role in informing voters: In an age where the use of information has been neglected and biased, it is a show that does not have a simple ideological profile. Although somewhat left-leaning, the show always has at least one right-wing host on its panel. That means it’s uniquely managed to reach a wide audience of people who aren’t necessarily political junkies.
Or at least that it was really. Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said in February that he was investigating whether Attitude had violated the FCC’s “equal time” rule by hosting some candidates but not their opponents. “Bona fide news interview” episodes are excluded from the lawbut Carr objected to that Attitude he was not one. Since then, Traffic lights reportthe show has not fielded a single political candidate in a competitive race, and “in recent weeks has turned down some of the candidates it invited on the show.”
This is not just a disturbing example of government and media interference. It is also a sign of things to come. Last week, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Trump against slaughtera case concerning whether the president had the power to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission, one of the federal agencies known (now by date) as independent regulatory agencies. In 1935, the Court decided 9-0 in Humphrey Executor v. United States that these officers can be fired just for cause. In Slaughterthe judges changed the precedent.
This is a major change in executive power, thus giving the president great power to dismiss leaders he disagrees with politically and treat those organizations as an extension of his political project. Atlantic has run an excellent article on how a decision is a victory for unity-executive theory and a betrayal of originalitybut it’s easy to lose track of the real world. Most of us who don’t work in the federal government, law schools, or political science departments don’t think about “executive power” every day. But government affects our lives every day.
What Slaughter the meaning for many people is that the president now has greater control over many parts of the government that directly affect us. In other words, partisan politics will begin to encroach on areas of life that have so far been remote or non-existent. Seeking the overthrow of Humphrey’s Executor was the goal laid out in Project 2025the policy plan that has become the Trump administration’s blueprint. Project 2025 seeks not only a more powerful president but a reshaping of American society at the fundamental level, establishing a traditional and Christian governance. Regulation of these organizations is one way to achieve that.
Carr’s crusade against Attitude It’s a preview of what’s afterSlaughter America can be seen as. Carr was one of the authors of Project 2025, and, long before Slaughterhe was acting as if he was under the full control of the White House. The FCC has always been run by political appointees, but Carr has made infighting his main focus. Last year, he pressed CBS News about a 2024 interview with Kamala Harris that angered Trump. Months later, he tried to get Disney to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for jokes about Charlie Kirk and the Trump family.
With the new powers the Court has given, Trump may want to politicize other agencies that are not normally partisan—say, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that ensures that even if a bank fails, you won’t lose money, up to a maximum of $250,000. (Project 2025 proposes to group it with several other agencies as part of loosening financial regulations.) He can fire FTC commissioners he deems too aggressive for corporate interests.
But he can also try to make other organizations useless. In 2025, Trump fired a Biden-appointed member of the National Labor Relations Board. For months after that, the board did not have a quorum, which meant it could not act. The expelled member has contested the dismissal, and although Slaughter does not decide the case directly, the Supreme Court’s argument will appear to allow his removal to continue. The Federal Election Commission has not had a quorum since May 2025, because Trump was late in appointing members and the Senate has not acted on their nominations.
Under the leadership of Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget and co-author of Project 2025, the administration closed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and tried to confiscate almost all of its funding. The CFPB was established by Congress to protect Americans from predatory lenders, debt relief companies, for-profit colleges, and the like, but Vought has overturned Congress’s passage of the law.
In a poll released last week, Politics found that six in 10 Americans feel “like politics is so ubiquitous these days that it doesn’t make sense for things to be political.” Slaughter all but guarantee that the problem will get worse soon.
Related:
Here are four new stories from Atlantic:
Today’s news
- Senator Bernie Sanders called on Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner to do so withdrawing from the Maine Senate race following new allegations of sexual harassment, joining other Democrats who have withdrawn their support after similar allegations in the past. Platner has denied wrongdoing and has until Monday to withdraw his name from the ballot.
- At the NATO meeting in Turkey, President Trump he said he was “very disappointed with NATO” and criticized allies for refusing to join the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran. Trump also praised Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan and floated the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey despite existing congressional sanctions.
- At least three ships he seemed to be attacked while attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz through a route that Iran had warned ships not to use, although Tehran did not claim involvement. Afterward, the Treasury Department revoked an exemption allowing Iran to sell oil and petrochemicals, cutting off a key source of revenue negotiated during recent talks.
Dispatches
Explore all of our newsletters here.
Evening Read
A Gene That Can Overturn Misdiagnosis
By Roxanne Khamsi
When the third child of Ludivine Verboogen and Romain Alderweireldt was born in Belgium at the end of 2015, they marveled at his long fingers. Maybe one day he will become a famous pianist, they thought. But soon Ludivine became worried that her son was not developing as well as his two older sisters. His muscles seemed weak, and the physical therapy appointments he was taking three times a week didn’t seem to be helping him. “Many doctors were telling us that he was fine, there was nothing wrong with him,” Romain recalled to me.
Ludivine continued, and shortly before their son turned one, he and Romain discovered that his long fingers and lack of muscles had a tragic explanation.
More From Atlantic
Cultural Breakdown
Investigate. Taylor Swift’s wedding turned her love story into a Internet accessShirley Li writes.
Read on. Underneath all the separation, Catcher in the Ryewhich turns 75 this year, has a a surprisingly optimistic—and moral—viewLily Meyer writes.
Rafaela Jinich contributed to this magazine.
When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for your support Atlantic.
