Talking Feds Podcast: Trump Breaks the World
Give it a listen.
Dear Substack Readers, I hope you like to listen too! Here is a link to a podcast conversation I had this week on Talking Feds, moderated by Harry Litman, with my good friends Anne Applebaum and Steve Sestanovich (I didn’t know they were going to be on with me until I clicked on the Zoom link.) Harry titled the podcast “Trump Breaks the World.” We discussed the latest developments regarding Ukraine, Russia, NATO, and America’s future in the world. Tune in!
And get Anne’s new great book, Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, as well as Steve’s Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama, which I use for teaching!
You can also listen below.
Terrific, sobering discussion. THANK YOU ! I am heartened that you, Michael McFaul, seem to be so actively working behind the scenes with Congress. I am also heartened by the contacts you and Anne Applebaum have throughout Europe, Russian and China, but most especially with the Ukrainians, about whom I care passionately. I hope the exchange in perspectives between you and them is ultimately beneficial to Ukraine somehow coming out on top. I wish Zelenskyy would rebuke Trump to his face tomorrow rather than sign that extortion agreement. I support democratic Europe (i.e. excluding Orban and Erdogan and now trump) preparing to look out for itself independently of the US, principally because tragically we’re demonstrating ourselves to be an unreliable ally from one administration to the next. I share MM’s desire to see trump fail in his foreign policy - I hope big time enough to smack in the face those 77+ million voters who myopically couldn’t see authoritarianism for the price of eggs.
This Oval Office “Real Housewives” act was phony and manipulative. It played to authoritarian-leaning voters in the U.S. and Europe. They want Zelenskyy out of power, and this show was setting the stage for that. They tell on themselves occasionally, and if you listen for the things that track with supporting corrupt, controlling leaders, you can hear the truth. But more often than not, everything said is part of an act to manipulate, so they can get what they want and then take what they want.