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The Pandemic and the Protests

How Trump’s response to both endangers U.S. national security.

By , editor in chief of Foreign Policy from 2018-2020.
Police White House Fence
Police White House Fence
Police officers hold a perimeter behind the metal fence recently erected in front of the White House on June 2 as demonstrators gather to protest the killing of George Floyd. OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

On June 3, Foreign Policy’s editor in chief hosted an FP Insider conference call with two leading U.S. national security experts: Kori Schake, currently the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and Jake Sullivan, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an informal senior campaign advisor to former Vice President Joe Biden. On the agenda: how the twin crises, and the president’s response, are threatening America’s security. The following excerpt of the conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Jonathan Tepperman was editor in chief of Foreign Policy from 2018-2020 and is the author of The Fix: How Countries Use Crises to Solve the World’s Worst Problems. Twitter: @j_tepperman

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