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"Wealth has always offered outsized influence in U.S. politics."

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Russ Roberts (https://trendsingeopolitics.blogspot.com).

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June 13, 2025

Hello, everyone. Today at WPR, we’re covering the centrality of wealth in U.S. politics and the blackout that rocked Spain and Portugal.

But first, here’s our take on today’s top story:

Smoke rises after an explosion from an Israeli airstrike in Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025 (AP photo by Vahid Salemi).

Israel-Iran: Beginning in the early hours today, Israel launched a wave of attacks on Iran, targeting nuclear sites, at least six military bases and several sites in and around Tehran. Israel has already killed several top Iranian commanders, including the second-highest commander after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s primary military force. (New York Times)

Our Take: Israel has been threatening for years to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, and those threats have escalated in the months since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly pressed...

	Subscribe to WPR to read our take on today’s top story.

U.S. President Donald Trump is not afraid of picking fights. From tit-for-tats with foreign leaders to squabbling with U.S. state governors, Trump has a propensity for making policy personal. This was most evident last week when he had a very public falling out with Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who had become one of Trump’s closest advisers since backing his presidential bid last summer.

While the two men’s falling out was perhaps predictable, the public spectacle of it when it happened offered a bit of Schadenfreude for their critics. But others see a darker side to the episode, suggesting it highlights how the country now operates more according to the power and egos of wealthy individuals than through institutions.

As Paul Poast writes, though, this is by no means a recent development. Just as presidential power has long been a function of what is politically possible rather than legally permissible and U.S. policy toward its allies has long been uncomfortably coercive, the centrality of wealth in U.S. politics and governance under Trump is more a sign of continuity than change.

Wealth Has Always Offered Outsized Influence in U.S. Politics By Paul Poast The centrality of wealth in U.S. politics under Trump is more a sign of continuity than change. His falling out with Elon Musk only underscores this point.

*****

Shortly after noon on April 28, electricity production across the power grids of Spain and Portugal dropped by more than half in a matter of seconds, provoking a power outage that brought industries, businesses and communities to a standstill across the Iberian peninsula. The blackout persisted throughout the day, as authorities scrambled to reboot the power grid. In some parts of the peninsula it was almost 24 hours before life returned to normal.

Now, as their governments and the European Union scramble to identify the root cause of the grid failure, the incident raises serious questions about the efficacy of the EU’s pooled energy policy and the security of its electricity network, John Boyce writes.

The Iberian Blackout Put EU Energy Security in the Spotlight By John Boyce A widespread blackout across Spain, Portugal and southern France raises serious questions about the efficacy of the EU’s pooled energy policy.

Argentina’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner after a lower court had found she defrauded the state during her time as president from 2007 to 2015. She was sentenced to time in prison—likely to be served under house arrest—and is barred from public office for life. Kirchner, who recently announced her intention to run for president again, has denounced the charges and sentencing as politically motivated.

This week, we asked: Should former heads of state be largely immune to prosecution for anything but high crimes in order to prevent the possibility of politicized charges and prosecutions?

The results? 83% of respondents said “No.”

Georgian opposition politician Nika Gvaramia was placed in pre-trial detention today, making him the latest opposition leader to be jailed in the country since the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in the country’s disputed elections last year. The arrests are part of a broader crackdown on the country’s opposition.

Georgia’s elections—which faced credible allegations of irregularities—triggered mass demonstrations, both in response to the outcome and the government’s subsequent decision to halt talks on joining the EU. As Alexander Clarkson wrote in December, though, the opposition’s weaknesses and wider polarization within Georgian society have meant that the public mobilization did not reach the critical mass needed to bring down the government.

Georgia’s Opposition Needs to Do More Than Just Harness Anger By Alexander Clarkson Dec. 24, 2024 | Protests in Georgia against the country’s democratic backsliding depend on the struggle to sustain hope for a better future.

*****

About 200 U.S. Marines have moved into Los Angeles and will begin operating there today after being mobilized, alongside thousands of National Guard soldiers, this past weekend in response to protests there. The move comes as a new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that just half of Americans support the deployment of the military when protests turn violent, and just 35 percent approve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s handling of the L.A. protests so far.

As Carrie A. Lee wrote earlier this week, Trump’s decision to deploy the military in response to the protests not only undermines the rule of law and raises a red flag for U.S. democracy but also threatens the relationship between American society and the military.

Trump Is Pushing U.S. Civil-Military Relations to the Brink By Carrie A. Lee June 11, 2025 | Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and active-duty Marines to L.A. raises a red flag for democracy while threatening U.S. civil-military relations.

*****

Sweden and the Netherlands said earlier today they plan to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, the target that U.S. President Donald Trump has called for all NATO allies to reach. Trump has long argued that Europe does not do enough for its own defense, but as Jennifer Kavanagh and Daniel DePetris wrote in January, while he may be right that Europe should do more, his fixation on spending targets is misguided.

*****

Protests erupted in Nairobi yesterday over the death of a prominent political blogger in police custody over the weekend. Police initially said Albert Ojwang had died by suicide, but Kenyan President William Ruto later said his death had been “at the hands of the police,” reigniting longstanding grievances in the country over police brutality.

Just last year, amid mass anti-government protests, Kenyan police routinely mischaracterized protesters’ deaths and disappearances as accidents. Read more in this edition of the Daily Review.

More from WPR

Frida Ghitis on the Trump-Musk feud. Duncan Money on the death of diamond mining. Ulrike Franke on takeaways from Operation Spiderweb. Mary Gallagher on China’s rare earths dominance.

Read all of our latest coverage here.

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