The Atlantic - October 2019

OF NO PARTY OR CLIQUE

Features

Photograph by NATHAN BAJAR

When Tawanda Rhodes’s mother died, the

state of Massachusetts sent her an itemized bill

for $198,660.26, detailing “every Band-Aid,

every can of Ensure” her mother had used. If

she didn’t repay the debt, she was told, the state

could force her to sell her mother’s home.

72

When Medicaid

Takes Everything

You Own

BY RACHEL CORBETT

The program that provides health

care to more than 75 million low-

income and disabled Americans

isn’t always free. It’s a loan. And the

government expects to be repaid.

48 The Man Who

Couldn’t Take It Anymore

BY JEFFREY GOLDBERG

“I had no choice but to leave,”

General James Mattis says of his

decision to resign as President

Trump’s secretary of defense.

56 When the Culture

War Comes for the Kids

BY GEORGE PACKER

Caught between a brutal

meritocracy and a radical new

progressivism, a parent tries to do

right by his children while navigat-

ing New York City’s schools.

COVER STORY

80 Succession

BY MCKAY COPPINS

Who will control the next

generation of the Trump dynasty?

THE ATLANTIC OCTOBER 2019 5

CONTENTS | OCTOBER 2019

VOL. 324–NO. 4