Trump’s Tall Tales on National Security
OPINION — About halfway through his one-hour-and-five-minute, August 26 campaign speech on national security before The National Guard Association in Detroit, former President Donald Trump turned […] More
Trump
Donald Trump and Elon Musk – the Annotated Version
OPINION — “One of the things we’re going to do is we’re going to build an Iron Dome over us. Israel has it. We’re going […] More
The World According to J.D. Vance
OPINION — “For 40 years, this country has made, largely, I would say, a bipartisan mistake. It has allowed our manufacturing might to get offshored […] More
DEEP DIVE: How Trump and Vance Would Deal With Global Hot Zones
SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE REPORTING – Whoever wins the November 5 U.S. presidential election will face an almost unprecedented set of global security challenges: Wars in Europe […] More
Russian Propaganda Blames Biden and Ukrainians For Trump Shooting
SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE REPORTING — On a Russian TV program recently, Dmitry Novikov, a Russian lawmaker, said that political chaos and divisions in the U.S. were […] More
After the Trump Attack, Fighting an Erosion of Trust
EXPERT Q&A — The immediate aftermath of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania brought a flood of disinformation. As The Cipher […] More
DEEP DIVE: In Wake Of Trump Attack, How To Stop the Violence?
SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE REPORTING — Almost from the moment the shots were fired in Butler, Pennsylvania Saturday, terrorism experts and ordinary Americans shared a common fear: that […] More
After Trump Assassination Attempt, a Reckoning for America
EXPERT Q&A — In the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, officials and […] More
After Trump Shooting, A Dangerous Flood of Disinformation
SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE REPORTING — Anyone doubting the power and danger of false narratives in 2024 America need only have spent a few minutes scrolling on […] More
Assassination Attempt on Trump Could Fuel FBI’s Biggest Fear: Terrorism
EXPERT Q&A – As the FBI investigates the reasons why 20-year-old suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks may have targeted former president Donald Trump at a campaign […] More
DEEP DIVE: Behind the Scenes, Plans to “Trump-Proof” NATO
SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE REPORTING — Donald Trump may not have been on the NATO summit agenda, but he was clearly on the minds of NATO leaders […] More
Six Key Words in Trump Immunity Ruling – and the Words That Were Missing
OPINION — Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion in the Trump immunity case, released July 1, expanded extensively a President’s “outer perimeter” of official actions subject […] More
A Former CIA Leader on Debates – and What Matters
OPINION — As President Biden and former President Trump prepare to face off in the first of their 2024 presidential debates, The Cipher Brief polled […] More
The Debate: What Cipher Brief Experts Want To Hear from Biden and Trump
SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE — As the first 2024 US presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump approaches (a debate that may prove […] More
Understanding the Jihadist and Extreme-Right Mindsets
Javed Ali is a Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and had over 20 years […] More
We Need An Insurrection Investigation
Walter Pincus is a contributing senior national security columnist for The Cipher Brief. He spent forty years at The Washington Post, writing on topics from […] More
America’s Allies Shocked by Storming of the Capitol
The Cipher Brief asked our experts to weigh in on how they saw Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump protesters and how allies […] More
The Case for a new START and Nuclear Posture Review
OPINION – President-elect Joe Biden’s national security transition team should be developing plans for extending the New START strategic nuclear arms treaty with Russia, but […] More