Charlie Warzel

3 weeks ago | theatlantic.com | Charlie Warzel

The sun rises every morning. Spring turns to summer. Water is wet. Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s relationship has ended with a tweet about Jeffrey Epstein. This was inevitable. When Elon Musk attached himself to Trump during Trump’s presidential transition last fall, there was great speculation that these two massive egos would, eventually, clash and that their strategic partnership would flame out spectacularly.

4 weeks ago | theatlantic.com | Charlie Warzel

It’s late morning on a Monday in March and I am, for reasons I will explain momentarily, in a private bowling alley deep in the bowels of a $65 million mansion in Utah. Jesse Armstrong, the showrunner of HBO’s hit series Succession, approaches me, monitor headphones around his neck and a wide grin on his face. “I take it you’ve seen the news,” he says, flashing his phone and what appears to be his X feed in my direction. Of course I had.

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Charlie Warzel

This has been a banner month for X. Last week, the social network’s built-in chatbot, Grok, became strangely obsessed with false claims about “white genocide” in South Africa—allegedly because someone made an “unauthorized modification” to its code at 3:15 in the morning. The week prior, Ye (formerly Kanye West) released a single called “Heil Hitler” on the platform.

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Damon Beres |Charlie Warzel

At first glance, “Heat Index” appears as inoffensive as newspaper features get. A “summer guide” sprawling across more than 50 pages, the feature, which was syndicated over the past week in both the Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, contains “303 Must-Dos, Must-Tastes, and Must-Tries” for the sweaty months ahead.

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Charlie Warzel

The first months of Donald Trump’s second presidency have included a systematic attempt to dismantle government agencies and pillage their data; state-sponsored renditions of immigrants; flagrant corruption; and brazen flouting of laws and the courts.