Spiegel Stuff: I Was Held Hostage in Panama in 1989. I Know the Real Cost of Trump’s “America First.”

Thursday, January 15, 2026

I Was Held Hostage in Panama in 1989. I Know the Real Cost of Trump’s “America First.”

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One of the immediate reactions when Trump decided unilaterally to take action in Venezuela was that it was reminiscent of President George H.W. Bush's extra-congressional invasion of Panama. Few people would know better just how scary the parallel than Jon Meyersohn, a broadcast journalist for ABC and CBS who was kidnapped at gunpoint and held hostage in Panama, and who has written a terrifying first-person essay for VF about the grave risks of the "America First" worldview.

Elsewhere in politics-adjacent nostalgia, Vanity Fair has the exclusive on the first stills from Love Story, Ryan Murphy's new show about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.

CLAIRE HOWORTH,
DEPUTY EDITOR

The Real Cost of Trump's "America First"

BY JON MEYERSOHN

Veteran broadcast journalist Jon Meyersohn reflects on his firsthand experience being caught in the crosshairs of Bush's operation to overthrow Noriega, drawing striking parallels between that conflict and the invasion of Venezuela.

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Sympathy for the Devil

BY JULIE MILLER

In 1981 Margy Palm was forced into her car at gunpoint by a serial killer suspected of the murder, torture, and in some cases rape of more than 30 women. What happened between them over the next eight hours—and later while he awaited execution—was so unlikely that journalists and filmmakers have tried for decades to get Palm to tell the whole story.

From the September 2023 issue, in a series of in-depth interviews with Julie Miller, a survivor breaks her silence.