Today in Politics

(Illustration: Paul Spella; Michael Heiman / Getty)

President Donald Trump faces backlash after conflicting messages about withdrawing American troops from positions in northeastern Syria—and thus leaving the U.S.’s local partners vulnerable to Turkish invasion.

The announcement reportedly took military and State Department officials by surprise. But that it surprises other officials is perhaps unsurprising.

“In 20 years of writing about the military, I have never heard officers in high positions express such alarm about a president,” Mark Bowden writes in his latest story, from The Atlantic’s forthcoming November issue. Bowden interviewed some of the highest-ranking military officers who served under Trump, as well as present and former Pentagon officials, to complete an alarming picture of how the current commander in chief prefers to operate.

Read Bowden’s full story here.

—Christian Paz

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Editor’s note: In The Atlantic’s October print issue, McKay Coppins reported on Ivanka and Don Jr.’s fight to succeed their father and rule the MAGA empire. Do you have questions for McKay about his reporting process for that feature, why understanding succession in the Trump dynasty is significant, or how members of the president’s inner circle reacted to the story? Send us your questions by replying directly to this email by Monday, October 7. We’ll select a few for publication—and for McKay to answer—in the December issue of the Atlantic’s print magazine (out next month).

The Week Ahead

‣ Monday, October 7: Fox News, the president’s long-favored cable network, was founded on this day in 1996.