Craig Whitlock

"Fat Leonard" by @craigmwhitlock is the full, sometimes stranger-than-fiction story of a world-class con man who blackmailed and bamboozled the US Navy for years. More: simonandschuster.com/books/Fat-Leon…

DOJ charged Maduro's "bag man" with money laundering after the former official, Alex Saab, was deported by Venezuelan interim ​Pres Delcy Rodriguez. Rodriguez said it was “justified by national interests.” DOJ could use Saab to strengthen its Maduro case reuters.com/world/americas…

There was a time, not very long ago, when Ben Shapiro could reasonably call himself the king of all conservative media. That’s all over now, writes political columnist Ross Barkan. Shapiro’s company, ‘The Daily Wire,’ is instituting significant layoffs. Its YouTube channel’s subscriber base is starting to shrink, and its website has emerged as one of the great traffic losers in conservative media. There are ‘Daily Wire’ YouTube videos that now, after a few days online, have less than 10,000 views, a catastrophically small number for a channel with more than 3 million subscribers. The top comments all mock the low view counts. “If a variety of poor business decisions can be blamed, in part, for the ‘Daily Wire’’s fall from grace — ill-fated investments in feature films, an epic fantasy series, and peculiar merchandise — the greater story is the collapse of Shapiro’s constituency,” writes Barkan. “There are two realities to Shapiro conservatism in 2026: It retains a significant foothold among Republican elites, and it is fast being rejected by the future grassroots of the party.” Read more: nymag.visitlink.me/KtpIKV

It’s a pleasure to give an exclusive interview to Tom O'Connor @ShaolinTom from Newsweek on President Trumps upcoming visit to China and China-U.S. relations, and answer 9 questions including the upcoming summit in Beijing between the two heads of state, Taiwan, China’s domestic and foreign policies and the 15th Five-Year Plan, trade, Iran, fentanyl, competition, AI, and people-to-people exchanges. I welcome such candid and in-depth exchanges of views, and hopefully this interview will help our American friends better understand China’s position on these important topics.

Pleasure to speak with Al Jazeera Mubasher, Al-Arabiya, and Sky News Arabia.  I emphasized the importance @POTUS places on addressing the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan.  I highlighted the achievement of the Berlin Principles for Sudan, which provide a framework for reaching a peaceful and durable resolution of this conflict and were endorsed by 22 countries and international organizations.  I called on external actors to stop their military support on both sides, as it continues to fuel the conflict and is obstructing progress towards a humanitarian truce.  Sudan needs a permanent ceasefire and comprehensive peace through an inclusive Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue and transition to civilian leadership.   On Libya, I discussed the significant progress that eastern and western authorities have made toward unifying the country’s military, economic, and political institutions, including signing a national budget for the first time in 13 years and co-hosting a spoke of USAFRICOM’s Flintlock 26 special operations exercises in Sirte. The United States continues to support UNSRSG Hanna Tetteh and the important work underway through the UNSMIL roadmap, with the ultimate goal of national elections and unification.  Additionally, I spoke about the visit of Ethiopian Foreign Minister @GHessebon Gedion Timotheos and his delegation for the U.S.-Ethiopia Bilateral Structured Dialogue, where we discussed a wide range of issues, including @POTUS’s desire to achieve a mutually acceptable outcome regarding the Nile and to support regional stability.  On Western Sahara, I reiterated U.S. support for UN Security Council Resolution 2797 and achieving a peaceful, mutually acceptable resolution to the dispute, as well as our condemnation of the Polisario’s recent attacks on the city of Smara.

I got married this past weekend so I did what any rational @AnthropicAI employee would do and had Claude Code analyze 12 years of iMessages with my wife, then Claude Design used that data to whip up a website for our guests in just minutes.