Moves That Matter: Power, Politics, and the Push for Freedom
This week’s moves shaping politics and power.
Keeping track of everything can be…exhausting. So this weekly roundup will highlight the moves that matter (hence the name!).
Trump’s pardons, deals, and power plays highlight the rising threat of privatized power. A new proposed plan for Ukraine was drafted in consultation with Moscow. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, a plan for peace reminds us that diplomacy and democracy are different games. And across it all, RDI’s Frontlines of Freedom Conference is rallying the pro-democracy camp to defend freedom.
While power plays were changing the board, The Next Move was pulling back the curtain, offering strategic insights, and thinking moves ahead.
Thanks, as always, for your readership and support!
— The Next Move team
Pardons, Profits, and Private Power
Trump pardons a crypto billionaire with business ties to his family. He meets with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as Trump’s business ventures boom in Saudi Arabia. Swiss executives shower him with gold—and tariffs on Swiss goods suddenly drop.
The common thread? A dangerous slide toward the privatization of power.
The Privatization of American Power
RDI Founder Garry Kasparov unpacks what happens when power becomes privatized for personal gain—and warns of the United States’ troubling shift towards it. Garry draws on lessons from Russia to warn of an unchecked Oval Office and the urgent need to rein it in.
The Price of Peace
The Trump administration has proposed a peace plan in Ukraine—after consulting Moscow, not Kyiv. The 28-point settlement plan would require Ukraine to surrender land and limit the size of its army and weaponry, echoing long-held demands by Russia.
Playing Russia’s Game: When America is Desperate for Deals, Dictators Win
Fatima Abo Alasrar dissects a long-held pattern in Washington’s diplomacy with dictators: transaction over systemic change. While dictators play the long game, America chases quick diplomatic wins. If Russia wants a bargain, all it has to do is wait.
When Deviant Diplomacy Delivers
This week, the United Nations voted to authorize the US’s post-war plan for Gaza. A ceasefire in the region is a win, but many were reluctant to credit the very man who brokered it: Donald Trump.
How Trump Got a Gaza Ceasefire
RDI’s Uriel Epshtein and Evan Gottesman dissect how the very qualities that make Trump dangerous to America—his distortion of reality, aversion to expertise, and disregard for precedent—also made him uniquely capable of brokering a ceasefire in Gaza.
Frontlines of Freedom
At The Next Move we’re all about defending democracy and fighting authoritarianism. And RDI’s Frontlines of Freedom Conference (FOFCON) is bringing the pro-democracy camp together to build a culture of freedom.
To get in the spirit of FOFCON, RDI is launching the FOFCON Pod. Interviews with RDI Senior Fellow Jay Nordlinger and the courageous dissidents who will be joining us at FOFCON in DC next month.
Register to attend FOFCON on December 9-10 in DC, and join us in defending liberty.
FOFCON Pod: When Garry Met Gorby
On the first episode of the FOFCON Pod, RDI Senior Fellow Jay Nordlinger is joined by RDI Founder and Chairman Garry Kasparov. Garry talks about an important chess anniversary, the intersection of Russian history and democracy, Putin’s useful idiots in America, and his experience meeting Mikhail Gorbachev.
Moves That Matter…Less
There’s no question that we’re seeing leaders flooding the zone—dominating headlines with noise to distract you from seeing the moves that mattered.
Each week, we’ll cut through the noise and raise a flag when something looks like a red herring: the cheap moves, shiny side quests, and headline-grabbers that keep you from seeing the whole board.
Funeral Invitation Snub
Thursday saw a parade of former presidents and top officials at Dick Cheney’s funeral. One top leader of the GOP was noticeably absent from the gathering: President Trump. Headlines honed in on the snub. Dramatic? Sure. But in the larger fight for democracy, is this really a move that matters? Or just a distraction from the whole board?
Cheeto’s Code Words To His Loyalists: Execute Democrats
Cheeto has been very busy in pardoning any criminal he can get his hands on, hoping that this cabal of jailed criminals now on American streets will carry out his orders A dictator like Cheeto is all about assuming that if he can get enough of criminals like him out of jail will be his tried and true loyalists
Now Cheeto is calling on his “street loyalists” to come to his side when he is being challenged Democratic Congress people posted a video telling the military civil servants that they shouldn’t follow illegal orders NOT defy orders Cheeto used this as a shiny distraction from the Epstein file release and wrote on his presidential policy channel, Truth Social, that the Congress people should be executed This is code to his loyalists to carry out executions Will Cheeto want the pardoned antisemites. the treasonous Confederates who still want to support the Confederacy today, and today’s Nazis carry out his execution orders? By using this dogwhistle Cheeto wants to incite a civil war so he can declare a state of emergency with the National Emergencies Act which gives him 130 additional executive powers
Cheeto will be taken out of his dictatorial presidency when he is impeached by WE the People represented by Congressional members when D’s assume a majority in both chambers in less than a year Cheeto knows this and is becoming a vicious cornered animal….a sick sick mind