The “Greenland War Averted” Edition

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether Trump’s lust for Greenland will break the world (or indeed, whether it already has), what this week’s arguments at the Supreme Court suggest about the future of Fed independence, and how FBI sources say the Bureau is being turned into a weapon of the president.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Emily Davies, Cat Zakrzewski, and Michael Birnbaum for The Washington Post: Trump rules out force on Greenland, assails allies at Davos

Konrad Putzier, Chao Deng, and Sam Goldfarb for The Wall Street Journal: What a Break With Europe Means for the American Economy

Anders Fogh Rasmussen for The Economist (By Invitation): On Greenland, Europe must tell Donald Trump that enough is enough

Henry J. Farrell for The New York Times (Opinion – Guest Essay): Europe Has a Bazooka. Time to Use It.

Anne Applebaum for The Atlantic: Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw

Mark Hertling for The Bulwark: When a Text Message Shatters International Trust

Shane Goldmacher, Ruth Igielnik, and Camille Baker for The New York Times: Few Voters Say Trump’s Second Term Has Made the Country Better, Poll Finds

Anthony Salvanto, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, and Kabir Khanna for CBS News: 1 year in, Americans call for more inflation focus from Trump, CBS News poll finds

David Gilmour for Mediaite: CNN Data Guru Warns Trump That Greenland Is Hurting Him Even More Than Epstein Files

Andrew Chung, John Kruzel, and David Lawder for Reuters: US Supreme Court appears reluctant to let Trump fire Fed’s Lisa Cook

Justin Jouvenal and Andrew Ackerman for The Washington Post: When Supreme Court decides her fate, it may also help determine Fed chair’s future

Adam White for SCOTUSblog: The Fed-firing case in three steps

The Editorial Board for The Wall Street Journal: Trump vs. the Fed Goes to the Supreme Court

Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser for The New York Times Magazine: Takeaways from The Times’s Inside Look at the F.B.I.

Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser for The New York Times Magazine: A Year Inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.

Brian Stelter and Liam Reilly for CNN: Federal judge orders DOJ to halt review of devices seized in FBI search of Washington Post reporter’s home

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Sentimental Value (Official trailer on YouTube, video 2:07); Margaret Talbot for The New Yorker:

Joachim Trier Has Put Oslo on the Cinematic Map; BBC The Documentary Podcast (Apple Podcasts): Joachim Trier: The making of Sentimental Value

John: Christie’s: Autograph Letter Signed as President to Rosalynn Carter, 18 August 1978; Sandra Sobieraj Westfall for People: What Did Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Mean by ‘ILYTG’? Behind the Secret Acronym They Used Since the ‘40s; John Dickerson on Substack: A lie that can be seen from space

David: Matthew Yglesias for Slow Boring (Substack): Liberalism and the search for meaning; Explore D.C.’s Secret Fort; The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism by Adrian Wooldridge

Listener chatter from Brad Hudson in Ventura, California: Joanna Stern for The Wall Street Journal: We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.; Robot Learns to Flip Pancakes (YouTube; video 1:38)

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss a new memoir from Pennsylvania governor and likely presidential candidate Josh Shapiro, and what it tells us about his views on the presidency, his relationship with former VP Kamala Harris, and how he might approach a campaign.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily Bazelon talks with author Curtis Sittenfeld about her short story collection, “Show Don’t Tell.” They discuss the recurring themes of the book from troubled marriages and middle age to the passage of time, and characters who are navigating moments of racial privilege and prejudice.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Nina Porzucki

Research by Emily Ditto

You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here.

Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen.

Find out more about David Plotz’s monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.

Bonus Episode

Bonus: Josh Shapiro Has Scores to Settle

Pennsylvania governor’s new memoir sets up likely run for president.