What the Hell Is Going On

In this episode of What the Hell’s summer book series, bestselling author, Jonathan Horn, discusses his new book, The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines (Scribner, 2025). In it, Jonathan tells the tale of lesser-known American Pacific Theater hero, General Jonathan Wainwright. General Wainwright’s story is a lesson of the importance of keeping your word and honor. As a leader, he sa...

Kicking off our annual What the Hell’s summer book series, Zach Cooper discusses his new book, Tides of Fortune: The Rise and Decline of Great Militaries (Yale University Press, 2025). How will the United States and China evolve militarily in the years ahead? Many experts believe the answer to this question is largely unknowable. But in his book, Zack Cooper argues that the American and Chinese militaries are following a well-trodd...

Almost two years after the October 7th attacks, facts about the state of life in Gaza are almost impossible to glean from the daily news. Much of what used to be mainstream journalism has become political activism, and Palestinian allied NGOs, UN organizations, and international press are using selective information as a weapon. Are Palestinians starving? Or is this just another lie in the war on Israel? Matti Friedman joins us to ...

Dominic Green writes, “The war on free speech is about to violate the most sacred recesses of British life—not the home or the workplace, but the pub.” In legislation dubbed the “Banter Bill”, Parliament is attacking the center of British life in a new effort to hold employers accountable for staff’s hurt feelings over third parties “offensive language”. Under the UK’s two-tiered justice system, government is now in the service of ...

Last month, New York City took to the polls for their mayoral primary and the Democratic party has decided that a socialist, communist, terrorist supporting, antisemite, is the best candidate for mayor of New York City. Zohran Mamdani is a radical left "intersectionality salad". Between his unironic quotation of Marx to raps about the Holy Land Five, we're left wondering what New Yorkers are thinking and how Mamdani came to these "...

President Trump has made it clear: whichever nation is the obstacle to peace in ending Russia’s war on Ukraine will face an opponent with the military aid and backing of the United States. Putin has no intention of giving up his objectives in Ukraine and Trump is over the bull. Reversing a Pentagon freeze of critical weapons shipments to Ukraine, Trump announced Monday night that more defensive weapons were on the way. In the wake ...

Notwithstanding regular headlines and firm conventional wisdom, the MAGA Movement is not and never has been an isolationist faction of the Republican Party. Neither the American people nor self-identified MAGA Republicans are fundamentally isolationist, and in fact score higher than non-MAGA Republicans on support for U.S. intervention abroad. The numbers don’t lie: this year’s Reagan Foundation Summer Poll found the MAGA coalition...

In the wake of a decisive US strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, many questions are being asked. Did Donald Trump make the right call? What about the intelligence? Is this the start of US military action in Iran or a one-off? And what are the implications for Gaza, the region, and Iran in the coming months?

Kenneth M. Pollack, PhD., is Vice President for Policy at the Middle East Institute. Previously he was a senior fellow...

Five days in, Israel’s battle to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear weapons infrastructure continues. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched the campaign in the wake of a decision by the IAEA Board to censure Iran a resolution declaring that Iran is in breach of its non-proliferation obligations, one day past a Donald Trump imposed deadline of 60 days for Iran to agree to relinqui...

The aftermath of Biden’s open border policies continues to haunt America as the consequences of mass illegal immigration continue to snowball. Changing attitudes towards, net positive, productive legal migration reflects the sentiment stirred up by the surge in illegal immigration we experienced the last four years. How does this affect workforce participation and address population decline? What role does the welfare state play? H...

Donald Trump has promised Americans that in three years, with the help of Congress’ “Big Beautiful Bill” and a $25 billion-dollar downpayment, his dreams of a golden dome protecting the nation will become a reality. Inspired by Israel’s highly successful Iron Dome, Trump has selected General Guetlein of the Space Force to lead the missile defense shield project, signaling a focus on space that is bound to ratchet up the arms race i...

John Ondrasik is standing up for Israeli hostages in the best way he knows how. Having written and performed songs with strong social messages over the last several decades, he is responding to the horrors of Hamas’ October 7th attacks by rewriting the words to his hit song “Superman (It’s Not Easy)”. Ondrasik’s revised lyrics turn pain into resilience, but why aren’t other artists speaking out? Ondrasik has sung about 9/11, about ...

China’s Ministry of State Security has infiltrated and is conducting espionage at all levels of Stanford University. By law, all Chinese nationals are required to report back to the Chinese Communist Party on their research and daily activities when asked. Sometimes this spying is voluntary and conducted by those who wish to see America fall behind in the global tech race. Other times, Chinese nationals are coerced into spying on t...

America’s immigration law and system are broken. President Biden allowed millions of people to enter the United States illegally. And now President Trump is using obscure laws to try to fast-track a massive deportation campaign. Expedited removal and deportations without court hearings are legal and supported by the vast majority of Americans. However, members of Congress have the power to clarify immigration laws and fix a system ...

Harvard has finally released its 311-page report on the antisemitism Jewish students face on one of America’s most elite college campuses. The stories of Jews being forced to conceal outward displays of their religion, being shut out of academic and extracurricular spaces alike, and facing systemic harassment are horrifying. However, the intensity of the antisemitism at Harvard is also unsurprising. And the manner in which this rep...

Gen Z may not be the liberal base of support many on the left hoped they would be. Today, there is a growing split between voters under 30, with 22-29 year olds favoring Democrats by 6.4 points and 18-21 year olds favoring Republicans by almost 12 points. As America’s youngest voters are growing up in the age of COVID lockdowns, social media, and cancel culture, conservative and MAGA ideology is emerging as the new counter-culture,...

As President Trump continues to try to end the war in Ukraine, Russia is playing for time. For as long as the U.S. continues to support Ukraine, Russia’s military effort will remain weak and unsustainable. But if Russia is able to stall in negotiations, and degrade American and Western support for Ukraine, they could very well emerge victorious. How should Ukrainian leadership respond to continued American attempts at war-ending ne...

Following a surprise Oval Office announcement by President Trump during Bibi Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, the United States has once again restarted negotiations with Iran over its nuclear weapons program. Thanks to Israeli attacks on Iranian air defenses and its proxies, coupled with crippling U.S. sanctions, Iran has never been weaker and America has never had more leverage over the Islamic Republic. However, Iran’s nuclear pr...

On this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc discuss Dany’s article, #WTH The Tariff Tsunami. No one should be surprised by Trump’s tariff war. The real question is, what is the President trying to accomplish? Some in the administration argue that the tariffs create leverage to bring about a myriad of free trade agreements the U.S. would not be able to get otherwise. Others argue tariffs will bring back American manufacturing. And s...