Spiegel Stuff: Life in Trumpworld

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MATTHEW LYNCH,
EXECUTIVE EDITOR

At the risk of potential understatement, there's a lot of news to keep track of on any given day in 2025. There are also a lot of newsmakers, including many orbiting around Donald Trump's second presidency. In an effort to catalog this expanding universe, we're introducing a new series of profiles, All the President's People. For our inaugural entry, veteran contributor Chris Smith reports on Alina Habba, former personal lawyer to Trump and now the acting US attorney for New Jersey, an appointment that has been contested. Habba, who grew up in the northern suburbs of the state as the daughter of Iraqi immigrants, gives Smith a vivid dose of Garden State–style perspective about life in Trumpworld: "You can't last this many years in this world and be an idiot or lazy…. I can tell you, the president does not tolerate it either." (Potential future profile subjects, take note.)

Elsewhere today: Jimmy Kimmel made a somber, defiant, wisecracking return to air; we are once again stockpiling gold; and the Prince Harry–King Charles reunion faces some potential complications. More tomorrow…

Alina Habba Isn't Going Anywhere

BY CHRIS SMITH

The acting US attorney for New Jersey tackled a series of high-profile assignments for the president when she was his personal lawyer, including his E. Jean Carroll and business fraud cases. But hanging on to her gig as the Garden State's top federal prosecutor may be her toughest one yet. Chris Smith speaks with Habba on her rise and staying power in Trumpworld.

Read All About It

ROYALS

Sarah Ferguson's Epstein Receipts

BY ERIN VANDERHOOF

In 2011, Prince Andrew's ex-wife said that she would cut all ties with Jeffrey Epstein. Over the weekend, a British tabloid revealed an email in which she apologized for that public disavowal.

ECONOMY

Trump's Gold Rush

BY ERIC LUTZ

The president promised a "golden age," but Americans buying actual gold to hedge against an unstable economy is probably not what he had in mind.

TELEVISION

Jessica Chastain Is Frustrated

BY BREA CUBIT

The Oscar winner addresses the shelving of her new thriller series, The Savant, which Apple TV+ has delayed in the wake of Charlie Kirk's killing.

From the Archive

Too Hepburn for Hollywood

BY WILLIAM J. MANN

With critics savaging her latest movie and fans alienated by rumors of lesbianism, socialism, and snobbism, Katharine Hepburn fled to Paris in 1934, abandoning a career that forced her to deny what she really was: politically radical and sexually unconventional. The 26-year-old Oscar winner returned to the US 17 days later, ready to do whatever stardom required.

In a story from the October 2006 issue, William J. Mann reveals how Hepburn created the American icon known as "Kate," helping bury one of Hollywood's deepest secrets along the way.