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As a political junkie, a liberal Reform Jew, and a general fan of mess and drama, Emily Tamkin’s skillful new profile of Ben Shapiro is right in my wheelhouse. Emily spoke with the conservative pundit (and outspoken Zionist) about the ways in which it seems the movement is leaving him behind as support for Israel among even staunch Republicans begins to falter—and the separate issue of antisemitism on the right. As Emily puts it, “It’s more accurate to say that for the American political right, barely concealed antisemitism has long been permitted and even welcomed—so long as it did not extend to criticizing Israel. It also seems fair to say that this rhetoric is only now being treated as an issue”—by people like Shapiro—“because Israel is also involved.”

Elsewhere, Kase Wickman assembles her dream team for Taylor Swift’s bridal party, and Aidan McLaughlin chats with Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan from The New York Times about their deep dive on Trump 2.0.

HILLARY BUSIS,
SENIOR EDITOR

Ben Shapiro Has No Regrets. Except Hiring Candace Owens

BY EMILY TAMKIN

The Daily Wire is losing audience, Shapiro’s former friends are on the attack, and even he’s started to notice creeping antisemitism on the right. But the pundit tells VF he’s sticking to his guns.

Culture Watch

CELEBRITY

A Fantasy Roster of 13 Bridesmaids for Taylor Swift’s Wedding Squad

BY KASE WICKMAN

Who does the world’s biggest star and most notorious celebrity pal ask to be in her own wedding party? Our predictions, some more plausible than others.

Party Animals

How Trump’s Presidency Went Off the Rails

BY AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN

As President Trump’s second term hurtles through scandal and war, New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan take us deep into the White House in a new book—and an interview with Vanity Fair.

When discussing a letter the president received stating that Trump was more powerful than some of history’s most consequential figures, including Napoleon, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler, “Trump was visibly in a state of pleasure to be in their company,” Swan told VF’s Aidan McLaughlin.

For journalists, one of the most difficult, necessary parts of the work is bearing witness to other people’s agony, to document the ways that injustice and cruelty shape lives. That is what veteran war correspondent Janine di Giovanni and award-winning photographer Lynsey Addario have done for decades around the world—individually, they’ve reported from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere, and now, they traveled together to South Sudan. They knew of the atrocities stemming from another wave of civil war (each had covered previous conflicts in Sudan) and that this one had “the hallmarks of genocide,” as one UN official put it, resulting in a human rights catastrophe as people tried to flee the violence. They also understood that the world had stopped watching.

When I first spoke to Janine after she’d returned from a 10-day reporting trip through South Sudan, she recounted testimonies from survivors of horrific violence—people who’d had their villages attacked by drones, whose loved ones had been murdered or conscripted into war, those suffering from rampant starvation and malnourishment, and survivors who’d taken arduous and dangerous journeys toward safety. The stories were difficult to hear. And it was even more distressing to learn about the ways that money, foreign influence from places like the United Arab Emirates, and political cowardice on a global scale compound the human costs.

And then I saw Lynsey’s photographs. “I struggle all the time with the photographs I take because I never know if they convey the true sort of desperation of the people that I see,” says Addario. “For me, it was just sort of how we are reduced to numbers when it comes to war, and we’re reduced to these conditions that are inhuman.” We hope you’ll spend time with these stories, as painful as they are. As Janine writes, “The details are too graphic for anyone to make up. I write this to illustrate how difficult it is to lose everything—your home, your family, your dignity.”

The Forgotten War

BY JANINE DI GIOVANNI AND LYNSEY ADDARIO

Sudan finds itself in cycle after cycle of bloody civil war, intensified by a brutal intramilitary power struggle and exploitative foreign powers like the United Arab Emirates seeking an opportunity to profit from the bloodshed. Vanity Fair reports from inside the mounting human rights disaster.