Talking Politics With New York Times Columnist Carlos Lozada

Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times columnist Carlos Lozada has spent years examining the books, ideas and figures that shape American politics. Now, as America marks its 250th anniversary, he turns to the country’s global role. In Lozada’s view, the United States has gone from the leader of the free world to a “dangerous nation.”

Whether in the war in Iran, the jailing of Venezuela’s president, or Trump’s stated desire to “take Cuba,” Lozada sees a consistent pattern. Under Trump, he writes, U.S. leadership has been remade “from authority to domination, from persuasion to bullying, from nurturing alliances to wrecking them.”

Lozada argues that Pax Americana has given way to “Lax Americana”—a superpower that still expects the benefits of global leadership while shedding the obligations that once came with it.

Before joining The New York Times in 2022, Lozada served as The Washington Post’s nonfiction book critic, Outlook editor, national security editor and economics editor. Previously, he was the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine. He’s the author of What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era and The Washington Book: How to Read Politics and Politicians. He joins us for a timely conversation about America’s changing role in the world and what it means for democracy at home.