This week on "Bombshell," we dissect Trump’s first 100 days: whither America First, Axis of Adults (or just the big kids table?), budget shenanigans, and delegating all the things. But first, Mira Rapp-Hooper joins us to walk through the state of play on the Korean Peninsula (and reveals where you can get literal bombshells made into knives). And then Loren and Erin confess why all we want in life is Mara Jade back in the Star Wars canon.

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• “North Korea risk too high for military option,” Robert Litwak, USA Today
• “Could Playing Chicken with North Korea Really Pay Off?,” Jon Wolfstahl, Foreign Policy
• “Confusion, chaos after Taliban breach Afghan base in deadly attack,” Abdul Matin, Reuters
• “Keeping Up Civ-Mil Relations,” Mara Karlin and Loren Schulman, War on the Rocks 
• “Persistence of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
• “Trump Has Pivoted to Scoring Easy Wins,” Jonah Goldberg, National Review
• “Trump Foreign Policy at 100 Days: The Downside of Unpredictability,” Olivier Knox, Yahoo News
• “US Foreign Policy and the Trump Administration's Axis of Adults,” by Dan Drezner, The Washington Post
• “The End of Foreign Aid As We Know It,”  Bryant Harris, et al, Foreign Policy
• “Mattis tells Hill Trump budget won't fully rebuild military,” Jeremy Herb, CNN

This week on Bombshell we take a long look at Syria with special guest Melissa Dalton: what happened, what questions to ask, what hot takes to avoid, and where to go from here. And then we drink a lot. Also on the table: Devin Nunes and the Great Unmasking, reading tea-leaves in the National Security Council staff and membership, Jared Kushner's Wes Anderson adventure, how one dresses to go to war, and a few of our favorite spy novels.

Readings:

• Jane Perlez, After Xi Leaves, Chinese Media Assail Strike on Syria  (NYT)
• Declan Walsh, Attacks Shows ISIS’ New Plan: Divide Egypt by Killing Christians (NYT)
• Ryan Lizza, on the House Russia investigation (New Yorker)
• Michael Crowley, Susan Rice Becomes the Target of Conservative Attacks(Politico)
• Susan Hennessey and April Doss, What Intelligence Officials Really Mean when the Talk About Unmasking(Lawfare)
• Susan Hennessey and Ben Wittes, It's Time for a Select Committee On Russia (Also, We Told You So) (Lawfare)
• Michael Hanna and Sam Heller, Journey into the Unknown (WOTR)
• Carl Prine, Why didn’t Trump drop bombs (San Diego Union-Trib)
• CSIS report, Deterring Iran After the Nuclear Deal
• Adam Weinstein, Jared Goes to Iraq (Task and Purpose)