Max Boot 🇺🇦🇺🇸

It is disturbing to see the U.S. military continuing to carry out orders that outside experts (if not the administration's own lawyers) say are blatantly unlawful. If Trump’s hand-picked generals are willing to act so egregiously this instance, what else might they do in the future? wapo.st/4tOygA5

.@MaxBoot with many incisive points, including this one: "The defense budget should be tailored to the nation’s security needs, not to the president’s insatiable ego." Gift link. 🎁 wapo.st/48Vh03K

"The Defense Department’s wasteful investment in the Trump-class battleship raises a bigger question about its gargantuan spending request." The latest from @MaxBoot: wapo.st/4ee0BLq

Stop spending money on the last war's weapons and look at what Ukraine is doing with new ones. Entrenched defense giants and dinosaur politicians know how to make the money flow, but the wars in Ukraine and Iran show much has changed and that big money can lose to cheap drones.

. @MaxBoot makes solid points in today's @washingtonpost about the Navy Secretary's firing & the battleship program. The Iowa-class battleships were impressive — you should tour one. But they are museums for a reason. In the age of drone swarms, hypersonic missiles, and stealthy submarines, concentrating firepower in a handful of enormous, expensive, and easily targeted platforms is the wrong direction. The "Golden Fleet" sounds good. Distributed firepower across many smaller, faster, unmanned platforms is a better strategy. wapo.st/3P4vSWL

“The Republican convention, broadcast to the nation on television, did to the Goldwater campaign what an iceberg did to the Titanic.” — There’s a lot going on in my field right now, but I refuse to let this perfect opening line from @MaxBoot’ ‚Reagan’ pass without proper appreciation.

The advantage of being absurdly naive is that you never understand quite how naive you are.

If you're looking for a holiday present....! 🙏

A teenager on the dire state of the digital and social media worlds, and how to not let smartphones consume adolescence: thebulwark.com/p/teenager-how…

Trump: “I'm a very strong person for free speech. At the same time…The newscasts are against me. The stories are — they said 97% bad…They'll take a great story, and they'll make it bad. See, I think that's really illegal personally.”

“Five of the Best Presidential Biographies.” Honored to have @economist.com recommend my Reagan book alongside other presidential biographies by Robert Caro, David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin and David Remnick—all writers I greatly admire. economist.com/culture/2025/0…

If you have a Christmas Amazon gift card burning a hole in your pocket, might I recommend “Ronald Reagan: His Life and Legend”.... At 880 pages, the book looks intimidating. But Boot is a skillful writer and I flew through the book in a couple of weeks. georgepyle.substack.com/p/in-which-we-…

By blocking the U.S. Steel deal, Joe Biden showed he’s a Donald Trump mini-me on protectionism, @MaxBoot writes. wapo.st/42lXhYL

Biden’s U.S. Steel move blots his far-from-stainless trade record, @MaxBoot writes. wapo.st/3W6c9q5

Russia remains the preeminent practitioner of hybrid warfare, writes @MaxBoot. How should the West respond? washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/…

To repel Russian attacks, the West must take action that is “sufficiently devastating to make Russian eyes water and deter future misbehavior.” @EitvydasB @MaxBoot buff.ly/4a4SOLI

Russia is suspected in a wide range of indirect attacks in Europe, including cutting undersea cables, @MaxBoot writes. wapo.st/3BGoryx

Just finished the @MaxBoot biography of Reagan; it's superb. No wonder it's making the lists of best books of '24. Much recommended.