The American Prospect

In 2024, election officials, social media platform managers, and artificial intelligence developers were poised for an “AI apocalypse” that didn’t arrive. They feared that fake content would deceive voters and sway election outcomes. But the fakes that voters did run into—like the 2024 New Hampshire presidential primary robocall imitating former President Joe Biden’s voice that told voters to wait until November to cast their ballots—had limited impact.

Arindrajit Dube has written a lucid, empirically rigorous, and—in the current political climate—audacious book. The Wage Standard marshals decades of labor economics research to make a case that should be obvious but somehow still needs making: Most American workers have been systematically underpaid for the past half-century, not because markets dictated it, but because power did. This argument deserves to be read widely, taken seriously, and debated vigorously.

Six months after Gov. Kathy Hochul scolded New Yorkers for telling her to tax the rich, she joined New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to do just that. The two officials instituted a “pied-à-terre tax” on second homes worth over $5 million, a fee that would apply to the ultra-wealthy who “store their wealth in New York City real estate but who don’t actually live here,” Mamdani said in a video announcement of the new tax set to music that sounds like the theme song to Succession.

The Revolving Door Project, a Prospect partner, scrutinizes the executive branch and presidential power. Follow them at therevolvingdoorproject.org.

BEIRUT – Following Donald Trump’s apparent threat to hit Iran with nuclear weapons Tuesday night, as part of his unprovoked war of aggression on that country, he abruptly announced a two-week cease-fire between the U.S. and that country, reportedly mediated by Pakistan. However, per the terms announced by the Iranian government, the deal was conditional on Lebanon’s inclusion under the umbrella of peace.

This article appears in the April 2026 issue of The American Prospect magazine. If you’d like to receive our next issue in your mailbox, please subscribe here.

Programmatic advertising is the technology behind banner ads, sidebars, and pop-up videos you see on websites—the ones that seem to “follow you around” based on what you’ve been browsing. Unlike a directly sold ad, where a brand negotiates a deal with a specific website to show their message, programmatic advertising uses automated technology to instantly match ads to audiences across millions of sites at once.

The Supreme Court has ruled 8-1 against state-level bans on conversion therapy. The ruling in Chiles v. Salazar does not immediately invalidate the Colorado law at issue, which made it a violation of one’s state mental health licensure to engage in “therapies” that attempt to turn queer, trans, and questioning minors into young gender-conforming straight folks. However, the Court’s ruling essentially seals the law’s fate and the fates of similar laws in 22 other states and the District of Columbia.

Posted inLaw and Justice The Supreme Court rules against the LGBTQ+ community—again. Posted inLaw and Justice The Supreme Court rules against health care access for trans youth. Don’t count on other sex-based rulings to stand either. Posted inPolitics On being defeated Posted inLaw and Justice So much bad, so much good, so much old, so much new … Posted inLaw and Justice SCOTUS and Judge Kacsmaryk force us to pose the question: Where did it all go wrong?

This article appears in the April 2026 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here. The main theme in much writing on contemporary politics is how ideologically polarized Democrats and Republicans have become. But the truly consequential change is that Republicans have broken with their own past. Under Donald Trump, the party hasn’t just reversed its positions on specific policies.