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Henri Astier

@henriastier.bsky.social
17 followers 8 following 52 posts

Paris-born, London-based journalist. Main outlets: BBC, Times Literary Supplement, The Critic, Persuasion. henriastier.substack.com

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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
René Viénet — docker's son, situationist, sinologist, scourge of Mao-worshippers, filmmaker — on uncovering ancient prejudice among fellow radicals. Guest post on Out of France henriastier.substack.com/p/left-wing-...
henriastier.substack.com
Left-wing antisemitism: an infantile disorder
A French rebel remembers how an old hatred resurfaced among post-1968 revolutionaries
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Hundreds of French film professionals declare war on their paymaster - then demand he keeps paying. My latest Substack piece henriastier.substack.com/p/blood-on-t... #Canalplus #Cannes2026 #ZapperBolloré
henriastier.substack.com
Blood on the red carpet
At the Cannes festival, the French film industry erupts into farce
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
A 30-year-old with no government experience but a huge TikTok following is the favourite to become French president within a year. My latest piece: henriastier.substack.com/p/bardellas-... #Bardella #RassemblementNational #France2027
henriastier.substack.com
Bardella's populism with French characteristics
Meet the banlieue boy in a dark suit knocking on the Elysée's door
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
My latest Substack on the "earthquake" agitating the small world of French publishing. For many, the firing of Grasset boss Olivier Nora by billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré signals a totalitarian threat. Really? #Grasset #Bolloré #Nora bit.ly/3OEh0hK
bit.ly
The media mogul and the martyr
Shockingly, a business owner fires a star employee who disagrees with him
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
The late Lionel #Jospin, France's prime minister from 1997 to 2002, was hailed as a model of integrity. But his concealed Trotskyist past challenges that widely accepted image. My piece for American Purpose #France bit.ly/4sl7VrP @americanpurpose.bsky.social
bit.ly
Lionel Jospin: French Prime Minister, Secret Trotskyist
What his complicated legacy tells us about France.
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
The 11th-century Chinese scholar Mi Fu had a habit of bowing before his favourite stone and chanting "Glorious rock, I am your slave." Roger Caillois (1913-1978) thought this was entirely reasonable. My thoughts on the eccentric French polymath and his passion for minerals t.ly/WgbFi
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Roger Caillois's dreams of stone
A Paris exhibition provides a rare window onto one of France's most original authors
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Long before anyone in France had heard of Karl Popper, Roger Caillois dismissed psychoanalysis as a pseudoscience. My latest on one of the most original French writers of the 20th century (piece in French) bit.ly/40yI58l
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Caillois, la psychanalyse et les rêves
Roger Caillois, un des écrivains français les plus originaux du XXe siècle, fut un des rares penseurs à récuser frontalement Freud.
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Belgium's media ethics council has rebuked an outlet for publishing JD Vance's Munich speech in 2025 verbatim without comment. The ruling: journos have a duty to shield audiences from the VP's words by correcting them first. The Belgian council just made his case for him substack.com/@henriastier...
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Roger Caillois définit sa conception de la poésie par la négative/Caillois, one France's most original 20th-century minds, drew up a list of the 23 things poets should never do (text in French below) medium.com/@henri-astie...
medium.com
L’art poétique selon Roger Caillois
L’un des esprits français les plus originaux du XXe siècle dit ce qu’un poète ne doit jamais faire.
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
"There is no crime that cannot be condoned when 'our' side commits it," Orwell noted. He could have written that about the killing of a French nationalist in Lyon. My latest: bit.ly/3MLnYjQ #Lyon #JeuneGarde #Mélenchon #LFI #antifa #Orwell
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Murder in Lyon: a study in doublethink
Killing people is wrong. Exploiting their death, apparently, is just as bad.
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
"Your generosity is infinite. May I abuse it further?" - Jack Lang to Jeffrey Epstein, 2017. The French former minister and the US predator were an ideal match. My latest henriastier.substack.com/p/epsteins-b... #JackLang #Epstein #France
henriastier.substack.com
Epstein's best French friend
Why the flamboyant former minister Jack Lang and the disgraced financier were made for each other
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Why has the French Revolutionary Terror inspired so few novels, plays, or films? A belated discovery of Bernanos' "Dialogues of the Carmelites" made me realise just how rare such works are. Some thoughts (in French) t.ly/e8PXo
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Dialogues des Carmélites : Les sœurs et le commissaire
Pourquoi Georges Bernanos est un des rares auteurs à avoir mis en scène la Terreur
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
The film "Hamnet" is full of sound and fury. But what does it signify? My take 👇 henri-astier.medium.com/film-review-...
henri-astier.medium.com
Film review: Hamnet ★★☆☆☆
Much ado about Stratford
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
US legal issues aside, Roberto Saviano (of Gomorrah fame) sets the record straight on Venezuela: there "criminality does not infiltrate power. The two coincide... [The Venezuelan regime] protects drugs, facilitates their transit, taxes them and uses them as a geopolitical lever." bit.ly/49xgkBd
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Roberto Saviano: 'Venezuela is not a narco-state, but a state that uses drugs as an instrument for the survival of those in power'
OP-ED. Western democracies have allowed the regime to survive, enabling it to strengthen itself by becoming increasingly criminalized. Today, Venezuela acts as a hub state, exhibiting advanced forms o...
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
My latest Substack post is about the best way for a public broadcaster to lose friends and alienate people henriastier.substack.com/p/how-public... #journalism #media #BBC #radiofrance
henriastier.substack.com
How public broadcasters perish
The BBC and its French counterparts face populist assault. Only one has the neutrality to survive it
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Pierre Boncenne's illuminating autobiographical essay, Colombiennes, shows what it's like to be Franco-something in a country that doesn't do hyphenation. My review here: henriastier.substack.com/p/comment-pe... #France #identity
henriastier.substack.com
Comment peut-on être français?
A memoir by Pierre Boncenne, a French writer with Colombian ancestry, reveals uncomfortable truths about dual heritage
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Excellent analysis of Putin's "multipolar" world, which points to the rest of Europe as the decadent enemy. This vision jibes with Trump's anarchic new world order, where everything is up for grabs as big guys cut deals and bully small ones @institutmontaigne.bsky.social bit.ly/49giV3K
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Le monde multipolaire de Vladimir Poutine
par Bernard Chappedelaine
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Nicolas Sarkozy is now sitting a cell in Paris - a historic act of accountability, or a troubling sign of judicial overreach?👇 bit.ly/48IPLua #France #Sarkozy #Justice
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From Élysée Palace to prison
The jailing of Nicolas Sarkozy marks a watershed in French democracy, but is this really justice?
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Experimental works by Turner are on show at a Sussex grand house he often visited. My latest travelogue: travelingue.substack.com/p/turners-un... #Turner #BritishArt @nationaltrust.org.uk
travelingue.substack.com
Turner's unvarnished masterpieces
An exhibition of sketches and studies shows the artist's raw genius
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
A president tasks the same PM with the same impossible job. How might it turn out? My take on Macron's endgame: henriastier.substack.com/p/macron-a-p...
henriastier.substack.com
Macron - a presidential tragedy
How a bold centrist project left illiberal radicals poised to take power
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Reposted by Henri Astier
Dr Rashmee Roshan Lall @rashmee.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
“‘…[the Nobel Peace Prize] is the ‘Lay Down Your Arms Prize’, its most distinctive content…can be summed up in one word: disarmament’.”  #thisweekthosebooks via @medium.com medium.com/this-week-th...
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Macron gets blamed for France's political chaos. But as I explain in @americanpurpose.bsky.social, that's mostly unfair - and misses the deeper problem www.persuasion.community/p/the-end-of... #Macron #Lecornu #CrisePolitique
persuasion.community
The End of Macronisme
Relentless instability is destroying France’s center.
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
... especially the man who finds quotes for the @economist.com
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
My Substack on fears of civil war in #France and the #UK henriastier.substack.com/p/france-and...
henriastier.substack.com
France and Britain (III): Taming the mob
Fears of political violence are rising in both countries - which is better equipped to handle it?
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
On the strange fascination of a post-modern populist with Old England... Some cogent observations by Rashmee
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
When a country seethes with discontent, is it better for prime ministers to waltz out every six months - or cling on for dear life? My thought on political stalemate on both sides of the Channel ↓ #France #Britain #Starmer #Lecornu #PoliticalCrisis henriastier.substack.com/p/france-and...
henriastier.substack.com
France and Britain (II): a tale of two gridlocks
A prime minister falls in France and one in the UK stumbles. Which nation's political system is more broken?
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Reposted by Henri Astier
Dr Rashmee Roshan Lall @rashmee.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
@henriastier.bsky.social is very clear, if a tad dispiriting, in his @Persuasion piece, about the problem with #France today: “given the current system, which incentivizes going for broke, there is no obvious way to make France governable again.” open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...
open.substack.com
What Makes a Country Ungovernable
France is pushing the limits of its Fifth Republic constitution.
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Reposted by Henri Astier
Dr Rashmee Roshan Lall @rashmee.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Crunch time for #France and prime minister François Bayrou, so @henriastier.bsky.social offers an excellent reckoning up of the state of its crisis. Might #Britain be in even deeper trouble, in terms of public debt? open.substack.com/pub/henriast...
open.substack.com
France and Britain: a tale of two debts
Both governments are deep in the red, but which is more broke?
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
France has no money and is about to lose its government - but is Britain really better off? The answer in my latest Substack piece: henriastier.substack.com/p/france-and...
henriastier.substack.com
France and Britain: a tale of two debts
Both governments are deep in the red, but which is more broke?
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Arctic Norway is lovely to visit, but why would anybody want to live there? The answer in my latest travelogue #norway #alta travelingue.substack.com/p/magnetic-n...
travelingue.substack.com
Magnetic north
Discovering why people have been drawn to Arctic Norway for 12,000 years
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
My latest travelogue is a Frenchman's ode to the "Paris of the Arctic" (no paywall or subscription needed) #Norway #travel #tromso travelingue.substack.com/p/tromso-the...
travelingue.substack.com
Tromso, the bipolar city
My Arctic trip starts in a Norwegian outpost honouring heroes who reached both ends of the earth
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
The conclusion of our Scandi-Hertz misadventure explains what I wish I'd known before I picked up those car keys (no paywall or subscription needed) travelingue.substack.com/p/hertz-so-b...
travelingue.substack.com
Hertz so bad: my car-hire debacle
The final episode of our Nordic breakdown saga offers a cautionary tale for travellers
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Our Scandinavian road trip continues to unravel – the latest episode features sky-high repair bills, mystery city names, and sweltering temperatures in the Arctic (no paywall or subscription needed - just reject pop-ups) travelingue.substack.com/p/farewell-t...
travelingue.substack.com
Farewell to Finland
In the third part of our Nordic car-rental saga, we make it out of the country in one piece, but considerably poorer
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
A map of northern Scandinavia reveals a vast expanse of wilderness between Inari at the top of Finland and Kiruna at the top of Sweden. That's where a tyre on our rented car blew out. My latest travelogue explains happened next (No paywall) bit.ly/3IRwTOB
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The lament of the traveller stranded in the middle of nowhere by his car rental company
Where I find that Scandinavian efficiency can fall short
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Between soggy sandwiches and sublime art: my latest Rome travelogue travelingue.substack.com/p/afternoon-...
travelingue.substack.com
Afternoon at the Pinacoteca (Rome ep 4)
How I learned to stop worrying and love art for art's sake
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Roman cultural marvels are steeped in the city's founding myths. To appreciate the artwork displayed in the world-famous Capitaline Museums you need to understand, say, why barbecuing your own hand can be useful. My latest travelogue explains it all (no paywall) bit.ly/4kFvhVd
travelingue.substack.com
Ancient heroes and sacred geese (Rome ep. 3)
Wherein classical legends prove indispensable to understanding marble warriors and bronze birds
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
My new travel Substack starts in Rome, with a fascinating exploration of Ciampino airport's taxi rank (no paywall) travelingue.substack.com/p/linvitatio...
travelingue.substack.com
L'invitation au voyage
Wherein I relaunch a blog and fly to Rome
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
40 years ago today French agents sank the Greenpeace flagship in Auckland harbour, killing one man. I was teaching in New Zealand at the time. As my latest Substack post explains, the experience taught me a lot about my host country and my own @greenpeace.org henriastier.substack.com/publish/post...
henriastier.substack.com
When France Bombed the Rainbow Warrior
Forty years ago in New Zealand, I watched my country descend into state terrorism
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
In March French Senator @claudemalhuret.bsky.social 's philippic about the "court of Nero" around Trump went viral on both sides of the Atlantic. Four months on, he has delivered another impassioned call for Europe to step up. Video and my translation here henriastier.substack.com/p/europe-is-...
henriastier.substack.com
Europe is being humiliated - Claude Malhuret
A powerless EU is dissolving like a sandcastle as the authoritarian tide rises, warns the French senator
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Reposted by Henri Astier
Dr Rashmee Roshan Lall @rashmee.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Very interesting piece by my friend @henriastier.bsky.social on #Trump’s unwitting embrace of a #French creation – retributive legal theory – pioneered by 18th-century Frenchmen who believed “justice was about results, not rules” open.substack.com/pub/henriast...
open.substack.com
Trump's made-in-France legal doctrine
How revolutionary justice found a convert in Mar-a-Lago
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
PSG 2 - Real Madrid 0. That's the number of people who died in Champions League celebrations last weekend and last year. Why do such events in France often turn violent while other European cities stay peaceful? My take here henriastier.substack.com/p/france-doe...
henriastier.substack.com
France does not have a football violence problem
But it does have a street violence problem, which is largely ignored
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Beyond the charm: what 'Holy Cow' reveals about the real strengths of French cinema. More on my Substack #VingtDieux #louisecourvoisier henriastier.substack.com/p/why-the-fr...
henriastier.substack.com
Why the French make good films
For the same reason they make good cheese, as a newly released movie illustrates
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Fifty years ago, France evacuated its embassy in Phnom Penh, the last bit of Cambodian territory not yet under Khmer Rouge control. My Substack post on how Western reporters who were there failed to see what was going on bit.ly/4jzbBCU
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Khmer Rouge blind spots
How French and American journalists misunderstood Cambodia's Tragedy
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers spots similarities between two Western Hemisphere strongmen. My substack post on the changing nature of democracy in America @larrysummers.bsky.social henriastier.substack.com/p/the-us-as-...
henriastier.substack.com
The US as a banana republic
Trump has been compared to Argentina's Javier Milei. A better parallel would be with Juan Perón
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
I've read many excellent rebuttals of US trade follies, but the talk of a "trade war" is wrong. Wars happen when a country attacks another. As Frédéric Bastiat long ago, tariffs are first and foremost self-harm. My latest Substack post: henriastier.substack.com/p/bastiat-wa...
henriastier.substack.com
Bastiat wake up, they've gone crazy
The French free-trade champion exposed Trump's tariff madness 180 years ago
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Britain's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is inviting me to "tax" my hatchback, when THEY are doing the taxing. To think that I moved to Britain to escape my country's Orwellian bureaucracy!
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
The ruling barring France's leading opposition figure from running for president is certainly a blow to democracy. But are politicised judges to blame? My thoughts here henriastier.substack.com/p/the-people...
henriastier.substack.com
The people v judges
Marine Le Pen's election ban is a disaster of her own making, not a judicial coup
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
There's no national consensus in France over arming #ukraine and the wider threat posed by #Russia . My latest substack post on why French disunity matters: henriastier.substack.com/p/putins-fre... (no paywall yet)
henriastier.substack.com
Putin's French appeasers
President Macron champions European resistance to Russia, but his successor may not
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Last year I co-wrote an article denouncing the vile attacks by @liberation.fr on the late philosopher Jean-François Revel. Now @lefigaro.fr also sets the record straight. En soulignant l'inconsistance du dossier, cette contre-enquête nous donne raison bit.ly/4kK3owp
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Affaire pédocriminelle de «la rue du Bac»: contre-enquête sur l’accusation visant Jean-François Revel
ENQUÊTE - Dans une série d’articles publiés par Libération en juin dernier, le philosophe et journaliste est cité parmi les membres d’un groupe pédocriminel qui aurait sévi à Paris de 1977 à 1980. Le ...
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Henri Astier @henriastier.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Good observation by @rashmeerl : the US president has become the car salesman-in-chief and the White House the world’s most noticeable showroom thisweekthosebooks.substack.com/p/don-world-...
thisweekthosebooks.substack.com
The world according to Don
Listen now | Three books in four minutes. Plus five bite-sized pieces flavoured with this moment
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