October 19, 2026

The American Conservative Morning Briefing · Oct 19, 2026 · 4m

Good morning! Today is Monday, October 19th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Jude Russo examines how Erdoğan, once jailed by Turkey's Kemalist "deep state," has become the establishment he spent his career fighting, even as inflation, repression, and succession questions cloud his foreign policy winning streak. With 92 ambassadorial posts vacant, Peter Van Buren argues that if embassies can run for months under career chargés, the real question is whether political ambassadorships were ever as indispensable as their defenders claim. and now for the details. We turn…