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A few weeks ago, a book arrived in the mail that immediately caught my eye.
The cover looked remarkably like Profiles in Courage, the book written by my dad’s hero, President John F. Kennedy, about senators who risked their careers to stand on principle.
Jacob Weisberg has written the inverse.
His new book, Profiles in Cowardice, looks at powerful Americans who, in his telling, knew better and bent the knee anyway in Trump’s second term.
His subjects include Jeff Bezos; Steve Schwarzman; Megyn Kelly; Sen. Mitch McConnell; Dartmouth President Sian Beilock; Chief Justice John Roberts, Brad Karp, former chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss; and former President George W. Bush, the one inclusion I challenged.
I spoke with Weisberg about the book, and about what makes powerful people submit. If unimaginable wealth is supposed to buy independence, why are so many billionaires still capitulating? In other words, what happened to F-You money?
He describes Chief Justice John Roberts as a radical who wears equanimity like “his armor.”
In Weisberg’s view, we spend far too much time on what Trump is doing to American institutions and democratic norms, and not nearly enough on the people helping him do it.
We also talk about what happens when people do resist, including the AI researcher who recently blew the whistle.
Weisberg’s larger point is that courage and cowardice are both contagious. When powerful institutions capitulate, others follow. When someone finds a spine, that can travel too.
I want to give you time to listen, so today’s news section is a little shorter. You can find our conversation at the top of this email. If you’d prefer to read our discussion, you can find a transcript, with timestamps, here.
You can pre-order Profiles of Cowardice here.
In this newsletter: Remembering 9/11’s four-legged heroes. Talarico gets YouTube’d again. The bond market comes for your wallet. A crucial shipping route gets more precarious. And the Pool contractor owns up, but the Interior Department blames Obama.
Here Are Your Headlines
Never Forget: People across the country and around the world today marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, honoring the 2,977 victims who lost their lives that day. At 8:46 a.m. came the first of six moments of silence, each commemorating a key event in the attacks: the hijacked planes striking each of the World Trade Center’s twin towers, the Pentagon, the crash in Pennsylvania, and the collapse of each tower. This year a seventh moment was added, honoring all those who have since died of illnesses linked to the attack and its aftermath — more than three times as many as were killed on 9/11 itself. That number continues to grow.
Presidents (and Vance): All four living former presidents gathered at New York City’s 9/11 Memorial Plaza, along with multiple past mayors and Vice President J.D. Vance. Trump did not attend, reportedly because he, like all politicians, are barred from making speeches. Instead, he attended a memorial ceremony at the Pentagon, where he used his speech to defend the war with Iran then repeatedly dozed off.
Call Out: In a remarkable break from the usual solemn memorial, two family members of victims used their moment at the microphone, during the annual reading of the names, to call out the U.S. government’s handling of accusations related to Saudi Arabia’s alleged involvement in the attacks. “For 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” said Terry Strada, whose husband died in the north tower. The nephew of another victim called on Trump to “release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia.” For years these families have pursued a grinding lawsuit alleging Saudi officials helped the hijackers, of whom 15 out of 19 were Saudi. Last year a judge rejected Saudi Arabia’s bid to dismiss the suit, finding enough evidence to infer that two Saudi officials did “assist the hijackers.” Saudi Arabia denies any involvement and says it acted as an ally of the U.S. against Al-Qaeda.
Muscle Memory: Hundreds of firefighters across the country — some joined by fellow firefighters from overseas — climbed the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs in full gear to remember the first responders who rushed into the towers, many of whom lost their lives.
Man’s Best Friend: The first responders who worked tirelessly at Ground Zero were helped by hundreds of search and rescue dogs, remembered by the 9/11 Memorial & Museum as “four-legged 9/11 heroes.” They used their extraordinary sense of smell and ability to squeeze into small spaces to search for survivors and help identify many of those who perished. “The dogs provided so much more than just the scent detection,” said a vet who helped with the recovery efforts. “They provided some sort of source of comfort for all of us that were working there, and it really made a difference.”
When the Smokescreen Clears: Mayor Mamdani’s administration published more than 170,000 previously unreleased documents, which provide new evidence that city officials knew about the dangers of toxic air even as they reassured residents it was safe to return to the area. When asked whether releasing the records could open the city to new lawsuits, Mamdani said accountability took precedence.
Lone Star Censorship: Jimmy Kimmel said his show chose not to air his interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, fearing retaliation from the FCC. Under Trump, Kimmel said, the agency “has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations.” Kimmel uploaded the interview to YouTube instead, as Stephen Colbert did in February when CBS refused to air his interview with Talarico over concerns about the FCC. You can watch it here.
Shaken, Not Stirred: Another brutal bond sell-off pushed long-term borrowing costs around the world to their highest levels in decades. The Trump administration’s attempts to intervene have thus far failed to reassure investors worried about the health of the U.S. economy. [Higher yields don’t stay on Wall Street. They can drive up the cost of other loans, including mortgages and credit card debt.] We break down why the bond market matters to your wallet here.
Chokepoint: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis captured an island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the latest in a series of military advances that have allowed the group to strengthen its grip on this crucial waterway. About 12% of the world’s goods pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which links Europe and Asia through the Suez Canal. Saudi Arabia, which is pressing Trump to join it in taking military action against the Houthis, has increasingly relied on this waterway to export its oil after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.
How High Can We Make This Thing Go? Saudi Arabia’s crude oil supply fell to its lowest level in over three decades after strikes on its oil infrastructure by the Houthis and other Iran-backed militias. Meanwhile, the average price of diesel in the U.S. surpassed $6 a gallon, a new record.
New Court: The Trump administration announced it deported an Afghan woman using an obscure court for the first time since Congress created it 30 years ago. Nazira Haji Zada, a lawful permanent resident, was accused of supporting her family’s foiled 2024 ISIS-inspired terrorist plot, but was never charged with a crime. The Alien Terrorist Removal Court allows the government to use classified evidence without revealing it to the defendant or public, and limits the defendant’s ability to challenge how that evidence was obtained even if it was obtained illegally. Zada’s lawyers argued this violates constitutional due process. She ultimately agreed to the deportation. You can read more about the court here.
No Means No: The Supreme Court once again blocked Missouri officials from using a gerrymandered voting map intended to gain Republicans an additional House seat in the midterms. After the order, which had no noted dissents, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins said the state would use the original voting map, as ordered. Catch up on the chaos that led to this decision here.
Who Would Have Thought: The contractor who renovated the Reflecting Pool admitted its own faulty work, and not vandalism, caused the liner to fail. The contractor, which received a nearly $15 million no-bid contract for the renovation, says workers failed to apply enough primer and used incompatible chemical layers, causing the liner to bubble, peel, and detach. It is now repairing the Pool. Despite this, the Interior Department today put out a statement blaming the guy who left office nearly 10 years ago, writing, “If Obama hadn’t failed so epically years ago, the Reflecting Pool would not have been in such dire straits to begin with.” Apparently the statute of limitations on blaming Obama has yet to expire.
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