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.

President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, trade wars, and actual wars are coming together to maximize hunger in America. The GOP’s new work requirements for food stamps began in February, forcing more people to work at least 80 hours a month to get the benefit. At the same time, jobs are harder to find, economists and researchers said, especially the low-wage jobs that food stamp beneficiaries should be able to turn to for the new requirement.

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

On November 12, 2019, Jolayne Houtz received the news that every mother fears: Her child had died. Sam Martinez was just weeks into his freshman year at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, about 75 miles south of Spokane. The 19-year-old from Bellevue had recently pledged Gamma Chi, the WSU Pullman chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

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.

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. For over half a century, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has required the federal government to analyze the environmental impacts of its actions, and the actions it permits.

As the Trump administration bombs hospitals across the Middle East, it’s blowing them up throughout the United States, too. Since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, more than 800 hospitals, nursing homes, maternal wards, psychiatric centers, and other health care facilities across the country have either closed entirely, cut services, or are at risk of doing so, according to a Protect Our Care report released last week.