The Atlantic

2 days ago | theatlantic.com | Nick Miroff

The other night, while watching a baseball game, I saw my first ad for self-deportation. One minute Shohei Ohtani was at the plate and then suddenly there was Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, looking stern and urging immigrants to self-deport using the administration’s new app, CBP Home. “Do what’s right,” Noem advised. “Leave now.”The taxpayer-funded ad had started like a campaign commercial, praising President Donald Trump for locking down the southern border.

5 days ago | theatlantic.com | David Frum

The rulers of Iran bet their regime on the “Trump always chickens out” trade. They refused diplomacy. They got war. They chose their fate. They deserve everything that has happened to them. Only the world’s most committed America-haters will muster sympathy for the self-destructive decision-making of a brutal regime. Striking Iran at this time and under these circumstances was the right decision by an administration and president that usually make the wrong one.

5 days ago | theatlantic.com | Michael Scherer |Missy Ryan |Isaac Stanley-Becker |Shane Harris |Jonathan Lemire

Well, he did it. He actually did it. President Donald Trump had insisted for months that he wanted the ultimate deal with Iran, one that would put a definitive end to the country’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon. As late as Thursday, he’d suggested that Iran’s leaders would have up to two more weeks to negotiate. But at that point, he had already made up his mind: The United States was going to bomb Iran.

6 days ago | theatlantic.com | Isabel Fattal

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. Being offended can make a person feel powerless. Someone says (or posts) something hurtful, and the sting comes fast. It doesn’t dissipate just because you tell it to. But there are some ways to control our experience when we feel insulted.

6 days ago | theatlantic.com | David Frum

President Donald Trump is being pulled toward war in the Middle East by his predator’s eye for a victim’s weakness and his ego’s need to claim the work of others as his own. But since his “unconditional surrender” social-media post on Tuesday, other Trump instincts have asserted themselves: above all, his fear of responsibility. Trump enjoys wielding power. He flinches from accountability. Days ago, Trump seemed to hunger for entry into Israel’s war.