Democracy & Elections Executive Branch

Lawfare Daily: How the World Sees Trump’s America with Eve Fairbanks and Madeleine Schwartz

Tyler McBrien, Eve Fairbanks, Madeleine Schwartz, Jen Patja
Tuesday, May 26, 2026, 7:00 AM

Eve Fairbanks and Madeleine Schwartz discuss The Dial's forthcoming book, “How We See it: The World Looks at America in the Age of Trump” (The New Press).

On today’s episode, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sits down with Eve Fairbanks, a writer and journalist based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Madeleine Schwartz, founder and editor-in-chief of The Dial, a magazine of international writing, to discuss The Dial’s forthcoming book, “How We See it: The World Looks at America in the Age of Trump” (out June 9 from The New Press). They speak about several essays in the collection, which is made up of contributions by journalists from around the world who probe their home countries’ complex relationships with the United States—relationships made even more complex under the current administration. They also dive deep on Fairbanks’s essay on the South African perspective.

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Tyler McBrien is the managing editor of Lawfare. He previously worked as an editor with the Council on Foreign Relations and a Princeton in Africa Fellow with Equal Education in South Africa, and holds an MA in international relations from the University of Chicago.
Eve Fairbanks is a writer and journalist based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Madeleine Schwartz is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Dial, a magazine of international writing.
Jen Patja is the editor of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security, and serves as Lawfare’s Director of Audience Engagement. Previously, she was Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics and Deputy Director of the Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier, where she worked to deepen public understanding of constitutional democracy and inspire meaningful civic participation.
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