For Spotlight, FRANCE 24 François Picard is pleased to welcome Anne Applebaum, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of Autocracy, Inc. According to Applebaum, the upheaval in American diplomacy and foreign policy transcends any one administration. She describes a full-fledged transformation in the way the United States exerts power, pivoting away from leadership of a democratic alliance and toward a transactional, mafia-style politics that fuses ideology, private economic interests, personal relationships and geopolitical leverage.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Andrew Weissmann, Author, Professor at NYU School of Law, and former General Counsel of the FBI. He argues that as political deception and deliberate falsehoods become normalized, and politically useful, it erodes any trust we have in our government and our institutions. Drawing on his book, "Liar’s Kingdom", Weissmann questions why political leaders are above the law in the United States, while ordinary citizens risk serious legal consequences for making intentionally false statements.