iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

As I write here for @postopinions Washington is still treating the Houthi primarily as a military threat and missing their strategic evolution. https:/www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/08/17/how-houthi-militia-weaponized-shipping-red-sea/

washingtonpost.com

Opinion | How the Houthis built a blockade without a navy

The Yemeni militia are pioneering a kind of sea power that doesn’t require going to sea.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

The @statedept sent urgent travel advisory urging Americans in 14 Middle Eastern countries to “depart now”using available commercial transportation, “due to serious safety risks.” check out travel.state.gov for the latest security information, including how to register w/ local embassy/consulate.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

It’s a good day for Iran. But don’t expect a “ding dong the witch is dead” moment just yet. www.cosmopolitics.news/p/ding-dong-...

cosmopolitics.news

This is not the Wizard of Oz

The head of the snake is gone. What grows back is an open question

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

The antisemitic attack in Australia was not about Middle East policy. It’s about the oldest hatred finding a new disguise. The between “criticism of Israel” and “globalize the Intifada” is the difference between political discourse and incitement to murder www.cosmopolitics.news/p/when-the-l...

cosmopolitics.news

When the lights go out

Hanukkah, Bondi Beach, and the darkness we refuse to name

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The Chosen: Crowdfunding, controversy, conversion stories — and the moment Dallas Jenkins stopped trying to feed the 5,000 himself. thepreamble.com/p/how-the-ch...

thepreamble.com

How The Chosen Became a Global Phenomenon

Crowdfunding, controversy, conversion stories — and the moment Dallas Jenkins stopped trying to feed the 5,000 himself.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy identifies real strategic challenges. But when Vladimir Putin’s spokesman praises it as “largely consistent with our vision” and “a positive step,” we should ask ourselves what America has given away. www.cosmopolitics.news/p/power-with...

cosmopolitics.news

Power without purpose

Trump's National Security Strategy identifies real problems, but ignores what made America power legitimate

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

There's suddenly a lot of backtracking on President Trump's 28-point plan for Ukraine. Now it's being called just a "framework" for negotiations. But even as a starting point, this isn't a peace plan. It's a surrender document www.cosmopolitics.news/p/ukraine-on...

cosmopolitics.news

Ukraine on a platter

This Thanksgiving, Putin is thankful for Trump and his plan for Ukraine's surrender.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

The GOP is facing the same crisis with Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson that it did in the 1960s with the John Birch Society. You cannot build a coalition on extremism and expect moderation to prevail. thepreamble.com/p/the-birche...

thepreamble.com

The Bircher Playbook

Why the John Birch Society’s playbook outlasted its critics — and how it led to the crises now shaking the right.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

MBS is trading w/ China, but his deals w/ Trump are betting Sadi’s economic future on American innovation. The partnerships being announced today across AI,advanced tech,and infrastructure could define the 21st century as profoundly as oil defined the 20th www.cosmopolitics.news/p/mbs-comes-...

cosmopolitics.news

The next Aramco

MBS is trading with China, but his deals with Trump are betting Saudi Arabia’s economic future on American innovation

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Like me, have you ever waited weeks (or months!) for a doctor's appointment? This one's for you. Let me know if it resonates. thepreamble.com/p/the-doctor...

thepreamble.com

The Doctor Shortage We Designed

America’s two-tier system is here: concierge care for the few, crowded waiting rooms for everyone else

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

The test isn’t whether al-Sharaa’s journey from Abu Ghraib to the Oval offends our sensibilities. It’s whether this partnership advances US interests, stabilizes Syria, and constrains Iran & ISIS while preventing the humanitarian catastrophe from worsening www.cosmopolitics.news/p/trumps-syr...

cosmopolitics.news

Trump's Syria gambit

Whether the President's Syria policy is brilliant or just plain reckless depends entirely on execution

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

At the White House today, Netanyahu will find himself in the familiar but uncomfortable position of managing Trump's expectations, as the president who green-lit the Iran strikes now demands payment in the form of a Gaza ceasefire that could threaten the very coalition keeping Netanyahu in power.

cosmopolitics.news

Gaza diplomacy crashes Bibi's victory lap

Trump thinks Iran strikes created leverage for a Gaza breakthrough. He plans to use it.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Ukraine has become the ultimate foreign policy test case for whether Donald Trump leads his MAGA movement or follows it—and whether his personal frustration with being outmaneuvered can override his base's ideological commitments. open.substack.com/pub/labott/p...

open.substack.com

Trump’s Ukraine Rorschach test

How Trump deals with Russia will determine whether he can lead his MAGA movement or must follow it

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

The State Department has halted ALL new student visa interviews nationwide while expanding social media vetting. When we systematically reject global talent, they don't being brilliant - they build competing companies elsewhere. thepreamble.com/p/first-harv...

thepreamble.com

First Harvard. Then 378,000 American Jobs.

It’s not just Ivy League politics — it’s your local community

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

President Trump’s deal with the Houthis couldn't more nakedly embody his America First foreign policy. The Houthis stop attacking American ships; the U.S. halts its bombing campaign. But missing from the deal? Any protections whatsoever for American allies www.cosmopolitics.news/p/a-convenie...

cosmopolitics.news

A convenient truce

US-Houthi deal embodies President Trump's "America First" foreign policy

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

This White House statement is really telling: “This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term.”

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Moscow Mules were sooo 1960s Hot Tale Happy Hour TODAY at 5:30 with me and @Danielle Pletka on Substack Live open.substack.com/live-stream/...

open.substack.com

LIVE SOON: Elise Labott on Substack

Starting May 1 at 5:30 PM EDT

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

The U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal, announced tonite, gives Trump something he’s long wanted: a financial stake in Ukraine’s future. It signals to Putin that Washington, under Trump, is no longer just cutting checks — it's investing.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

What's most striking about Rubio's State Department reorganization is political theater surrounding it.. Behind the fiery rhetoric about "draining the bloated,bureaucratic swamp" and eliminating "radical ideologues" is a plan far less apocalyptic than many feared open.substack.com/pub/statedep...

open.substack.com

A New State Department to Meet the Challenges of a New Era

Author: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

We are watching a bizarre cycle of destruction and recreation. Trump tore up a functional, if imperfect,agreement that had Iran's nuclear program in check. Iran responded by accelerating toward weapons capability.Now, Trump must negotiate a new deal to solve the very crisis his actions helped create

open.substack.com

Trump's revolutionary, recycled Iran deal

But Trump may succeed because he possesses what Obama lacked

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Tariffs are just the beginning. The Trump administration is methodically dismantling the global economic architecture the United States itself built over 75 years and rewriting the rules of international commerce, finance, and monetary policy. open.substack.com/pub/labott/p...

open.substack.com

Tariffs are just the beginning

The Trump administration wants to rewrite the global economic system

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has become something of a political cult hero on the right as a leader who has successfully quashed liberal influences. "We didn't just talk about defeating the progressives and liberals," he told CPAC in 2023. "We actually did it." thepreamble.com/p/who-is-vik...

thepreamble.com

Who is Viktor Orbán -- And Why Does the American Right Love Him?

When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Mar-a-Lago last year, he posted photos with Donald Trump and Elon Musk, captioning them: "The future has begun!" Few Americans might recognize this E...

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

My first Substack Live! We will talk about how China is swooping into exploit the US retreat and government cuts Hope you will tune in TOMORROW at 12:30p. Don’t forget to download the Substack app subscribe to Cosmopolitics so you get a notification when we start.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

America's withdrawal has created a strategic vacuum that China is rushing to fill. The question is no longer whether America's retreat will create opportunities for China, but how quickly Beijing will seize them – and at what cost to the global order thepreamble.com/p/like-a-lan...

thepreamble.com

“Like a Landlord Seeking Rent”

America was once seen as a force for moral legitimacy. The world thinks that has changed.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

European leaders, former officials, and Russia experts—virtually everyone except President Trump—recognizes Putin's strategy: prolong negotiations while advancing militarily,exhaust Western resolve, and force Ukraine into a ceasefire that leaves it permanently vulnerable substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Russia’s Endgame

Putin wants total control of Ukraine. His recent diplomatic moves show it.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Nothing says "America First" quite like pink-slipping 1,300 journalists who literally export American values for a living. open.substack.com/pub/labott/p...

open.substack.com

The muzzling of US-funded global media

Silencing America's voice to the world speaks volumes about what America is becoming.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Here is what's missing from this conversation on USAID: It's a strategic instrument of American foreign policy, developed with bi-partisan support as a cost-effective way to advance our national interests without deploying troops or imposing sanctions. thepreamble.com/p/cutting-fo...

thepreamble.com

Cutting “Foreign Waste” Sounds Good. Until You See the Cost

From famine warnings to countering extremism, here’s what America is really losing by gutting USAID

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

If we're serious about American leadership in a competitive world, we need to recognize that soft power isn't just charity -- it's strategy. thepreamble.com/p/cutting-fo...

thepreamble.com

Cutting “Foreign Waste” Sounds Good. Until You See the Cost

From famine warnings to countering extremism, here’s what America is really losing by gutting USAID

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Nobody is naive enough to think peace bought at the cost of Ukraine's sovereignty would put an end to Putin's revisionist ambitions. Precisely the same warnings were issued about North Vietnam and the Taliban. We ignored them then. We should heed them now www.cosmopoliticsbyelise.com/p/ukraines-p...

cosmopoliticsbyelise.com

Ukraine's peace trap

Talks on ending the war are following troubling historical patterns

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

The irony is that Donald Trump's "America First" approach may accomplish what decades of gentle EU encouragement never could: forcing Europe to develop genuine strategic autonomy. Is this a gift, a wake-up call, or a burden for Europe? In many ways, it's all three. thepreamble.com/p/trumps-piv...

thepreamble.com

Trump's Pivot to Putin

America has switched sides. What now?

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

When competent officers are dismissed not for military disagreements but for insufficient personal loyalty, when combat experience matters less than political enthusiasm, we're crossing a line that America's allies and adversaries are watching closely. substack.com/@eliselabott...

substack.com

Elise Labott on Substack

When the combat experience of military leaders matters less than political enthusiasm, we're crossing a line that America's allies and adversaries are watching closely.

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

The truth is that while Trump's instincts aren't wrong, his method of getting there is actively undermining his own goals. You can't bully your way to lasting cooperation, especially when your negotiating partners are already inclined to work with you. www.cosmopoliticsbyelise.com/p/trumps-all...

cosmopoliticsbyelise.com

Trump's allergy to Europe's 'yes'

The President isn't wrong about the strategic picture but his approach is a case study in how to alienate potential partners.

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Reposted by Elise Labott

Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

"The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It’s also where, sources say, a 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk has admin privileges over the code that controls Social Security payments, tax returns, and more." www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

wired.com

A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It’s also where, sources say, a 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk has admin privileges over the code that controls So...

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Elise Labott @eliselabott.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Recent polling that shows 60% of Israelis prefer Trump's vision of Saudi normalization with a path to Palestinian statehood over the annexation dreams of the far right creates an opening for Trump open.substack.com/pub/labott/p...

open.substack.com

Is Bibi ready for Trump’s diplomatic hammer?

What the Middle East needs is tough love, not unconditional enabling.

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