The Week Magazine November 28, 2025

Border Patrol came to my home state of North Carolina this week, ostensibly to arrest undocumented immigrants. They started off by brutalizing U.S. citizens in Charlotte (see The U.S. at a Glance, p.7). When an American woman saw the CBP trucks in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood and honked her horn, an agent bashed in her car window, pointed an assault rifle at her, and dragged her and her female companion, also a U.S. citizen, out of the car and made off with them. The two women were eventually released without charges, but the frantic husband of one of them said he didn’t know what had happened to his wife for hours. The rest of us only know about the detention because an alert neighbor recorded it all on his phone.…

What happened Congress overwhelmingly approved a bill directing the Justice Department to release its files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein this week, a stunning turnabout for an effort that President Trump and Republican leaders spent months trying to quash. The House passed the measure 427-1 after Democrats and several Republican defectors used a discharge petition to force a floor vote, an effort fought by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump, who unsuccessfully pressured GOP defectors to back off. As it became clear the bill had enough GOP votes to pass, Trump made an about-face and called for its passage. Republicans who’d opposed the bill then fell into line, even as they dismissed it as a political stunt. “None of us want to go on record and in any way be…

The legislation requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein or co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days. But “there are many reasons to doubt that a bulk release of the files is imminent,” said Perry Stein in The Washington Post. The bill grants some exceptions under which Bondi can withhold material, including if its release would infringe on victims’ rights or “jeopardize an active federal investigation.” That means the Trump-ordered probe into Democrats could be cited as a reason “to block release of many files.” Bondi could also just quietly withhold damaging materials, and it will be hard to know what “might have conveniently gone missing,” said William Kristol in The Bulwark. Given how hard Trump fought to keep these…

What happened President Trump welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House in grandiose style this week, treating him to a military flyover and a black-tie dinner while shrugging off concerns about his role in the gruesome 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. When a reporter asked about the killing, which U.S. intelligence says was ordered by MBS personally, Trump called her “insubordinate” and defended his ally. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump said. “Whether you like him, or didn’t like him, things happen.” Trump said MBS, the de facto ruler of the Saudi kingdom, “knew nothing about it” and told the prince, “It’s an honor to be your friend and it’s an honor that you are here.”…

■ Scott Kelly didn’t even have a TikTok account when a friend sent him a blurry screenshot of a résumé getting millions of likes. “That’s my résumé,” the Syracuse, N.Y., native said. An audience member at a Jonas Brothers show in Buffalo had uploaded a video of another concertgoer reading Kelly’s CV on his phone. Over 45 million views followed, with brands and stars—including the Jonas Brothers—complimenting the CV. The scroller turned out to be Brandon Bieron, an old Army buddy whom Kelly hadn’t seen in years. ■ Kim Knor forged her parents’ signature when she first skydived in the 1950s, but no permission slip was needed when she took lifetime dive No. 1,000 recently at age 86. Knor completed the feat with her two daughters, Holly, 58, and Tara,…

“Marjorie Taylor Greene just wrecked the cult of Trump,” said Greg Sargent in The New Republic. Standing outside the U.S. Capitol this week with a group of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, the GOP representative slammed the president for calling her a “traitor” and a “ranting lunatic” because she helped force a vote on releasing government files on the deceased sex trafficker. In a barb clearly aimed at Trump—who reversed his opposition to releasing the files as it became clear he couldn’t stop the congressional effort—the Georgia Republican said a traitor “serves foreign countries and themselves” while a patriot serves “Americans like the women standing behind me now.” This “rift is a big deal,” said Nick Catoggio in The Dispatch. That a “notorious Trump-slobberer” like Greene would openly resist the man who…