It isn’t always easy to keep up with what’s happening in the US. “Shorter America” is a series where Dr Emma Shortis loops you in on what’s going on in America and shares news and analysis that you can trust.
Sat 25 Jul 2026 01.00 AEST
Photo: The White House/Flickr
I’m just back from the ALP National Conference in Adelaide, where I spoke about the federal Labor government’s commitment to spend $368 billion on submarines. I only just got there after scrambling to organise childcare, because the Victorian Labor government apparently can’t afford to pay teachers properly. To quote former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard: “budgets are about choices”.
This week:
This week, President Trump welcomed his newest BFF to the White House and gave him the nuclear deal of a lifetime. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman woke up 24 hours later to face a massive change of heart. Shocking.
Following outrage from Israel and negative coverage in the media, Trump’s uranium enrichment deal (helpfully explained here by our friend Jon Wolfsthal) was now subject to his signing up with the Abraham Accords, which would mean establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. Which is not going to happen anytime soon, because Saudi recognition of Israel is conditional upon a two-state solution in Palestine.
So newest BFF becomes newest discard in less than a day. This leaves the trilateral conflict between the US, Israel and Iran spiralling into chaos, with trust broken between the US and its Gulf allies compounded by Saudi Arabia’s now diminished position. The Crown Prince must be wondering who needs an enemy when he’s got a bestie like President Trump.
And as that war continues to spiral into chaos, here’s Nancy Okail and Sina Toossi in The Nation on how “America’s Iran Failure is Bigger than Trump”.
Meanwhile, Trump’s economic charm offensive proceeds apace, with a new set of tariffs coming into force immediately.
Implausibly accused of “not doing enough to stamp out slave labour”, Australia, Canada and an extended group of America’s friends and allies are back in the Trump trade war. For Australia, this is particularly poignant. The Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) was announced by Prime Minister Howard as a “once in a generation opportunity” – to be ripped off by the US, turns out.
My colleague Jack Thrower wrote about the AUSFTA last year. Fair to say it’s not looking any better after an extra year and a bit of the current administration.
As Trump has shown yet again, treaties with the US are not worth the paper they’re written on. In the year of its 75th birthday, what exactly is ANZUS worth?
The values that are supposed to underpin that alliance – like democracy and the rule of law – are under ever growing pressure in the United States. I spoke about what that might mean for Australia, and how it doesn’t seem like the Australian government is prepared for the worst-case scenario, on Follow the Money this week.
In Maine, an ICE Agent shot and killed another person – 25-year-old Johan (Joan) Sebastián Durán Guerrero. On her Substack, Kate Manne has a harrowing essay on that agent’s alleged history of abuse.
The fact that I’m obliged to write “alleged” above is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately – about how inadequate our legal and media systems are when it comes to countering fascism’s ability to distort truth and reality.
This story, on the National Civics Contest, highlights just how insidious that is.
Finally, because everything is terrible – I really enjoyed this NPR interview with Hunter Biden. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that we’re all just doing our best. Well, most of us.
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When Prime Minister Scott Morrison decided to replace the French Barracuda Attack-class program with nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), he directed his quest to Australia’s two senior Five Eyes partners. In doing so, he ignored the most obvious and least disruptive solution.
Australia will become a “junior” partner to the United States and lose its strategic independence if it continues to push ahead with the AUKUS nuclear-submarine deal, according to a former Defence Department analyst.
