Donald Trump’s New Brand of Imperialism
The historian Daniel Immerwahr says that Trump’s embrace of imperialist adventuring is not just about business interests—it’s an appeal to masculinity which “seems to sell.”
The historian Daniel Immerwahr says that Trump’s embrace of imperialist adventuring is not just about business interests—it’s an appeal to masculinity which “seems to sell.”
January 9, 2026
Illustration by Diego Mallo
Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You Listen
Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the best of The New Yorker in your inbox.
U.S. intervention in other countries, whether overt or covert, is by no means new, and Daniel Immerwahr notes that the open embrace of expansionism by the President and associates such as Stephen Miller goes back to the nineteenth century. Immerwahr is a professor at Northwestern University and the author of the 2019 best-seller “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.” He discusses Trump’s disdain for international law, tensions between the U.S. and Russia and China, and the historical link between imperialism and appeals to masculine pride.
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts.
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
-
What happens when a bad-tempered, distractible doofus runs an empire?
-
After a London teen mysteriously plummeted into the Thames, his parents discovered that he’d been posing as an oligarch’s son.
Read More
The Lede
[
The Bloody Lesson the Ayatollah Took from the Shah
](https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-bloody-lesson-the-ayatollah-took-from-the-shah#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
With demonstrations in dozens of cities across Iran, Ali Khamenei and his regime are faced with a dilemma.
The Food Scene
[
Flynn McGarry’s Artful, Ambitious Next Act
](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-food-scene/cove-flynn-mcgarrys-artful-ambitious-next-act#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
With Cove, his fourth restaurant, in Hudson Square, the twenty-seven-year-old wunderkind chef cooks with a new expansiveness.
The Sporting Scene
[
Aaron Rodgers, Football’s Rorschach Quarterback
](https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/aaron-rodgers-footballs-rorschach-quarterback#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
The Pittsburgh Steelers gambled on the forty-two-year-old, one of the N.F.L.’s most polarizing players, to try to end their playoff disappointments. Will it pay off?
The Writer’s Voice
[
Sadia Shepard Reads “Kim’s Game”
](https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/sadia-shepard-reads-kims-game#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
The author reads her story from the January 19, 2026, issue of the magazine.
Fiction
[
“Kim’s Game”
](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/19/kims-game-fiction-sadia-shepard#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
She didn’t much care for him or his video camera. But then, she’s never much cared for anthropologists.
Takes
[
Patrick Radden Keefe on Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”
](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/takes/patrick-radden-keefe-on-truman-capotes-in-cold-blood#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
Capote’s journalistic transgressions were serious, but there is no denying the awesome influence of his work.
Letter from Copenhagen
[
Denmark Is Sick of Being Bullied by Trump
](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/19/denmark-is-sick-of-being-bullied-by-trump#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
The U.S., once Denmark’s closest ally, is threatening to steal Greenland and attacking the country’s wind-power industry. Is this a permanent breakup?
This Week in Fiction
[
Sadia Shepard on Loss, Faith, and the Web Between Stories
](https://www.newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/sadia-shepard-1-19-26#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
The author discusses her story “Kim’s Game.”
Shuffalo
[
Shuffalo: Sunday, January 11, 2026
](https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/shuffalo/2026/01/11#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
Can you make a longer word with each new letter?
Q. & A.
[
What Makes the Iranian Protests Different This Time
](https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/what-makes-the-iranian-protests-different-this-time#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
Unrest has spread across the Islamic Republic as it faces economic disaster at home and a profound weakening of its network of regional allies.
The Weekend Essay
[
The Robot and the Philosopher
](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/the-robot-and-the-philosopher#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
In the age of A.I., we endlessly debate what consciousness looks like. Can a camera see things more clearly?
Critic’s Notebook
[
The Delicious Anticipation–and, Yes, Release—of “Heated Rivalry”
](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/critics-notebook/the-delicious-anticipation-and-yes-release-of-heated-rivalry#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_0efdda2c-63fc-4338-905b-1cf0bcd90046_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
The show, a sexy romance between two closeted hockey players, began on a small Canadian streaming platform, but has become a huge, unexpected hit.