"We Blew It After 9/11" — Timothy Snyder on the Lesson Trump Learned

The gist

1. Snyder says the US blew its 9/11 response by invading Iraq and creating Homeland Security instead of investing in fusion and other real technology.
2. He warns Trump may try to stir up a 9/11-style fear effect before the midterms, noting Orban and Putin both turned to fake terrorist attacks.
3. Snyder calls the midterms, five weeks away, deeply consequential, citing unregulated AI, battered institutions and shrinking American power abroad.
4. His newly public University of Toronto course on Hitler and Stalin starts with empires, asking whether the US can outgrow imperial habits like the EU.
5. Snyder thinks Russia is desperate to win in Ukraine by spring and says most US problems are self-chosen and fixable with better government.