Show Notes
“You have to look at the strange new thing about US foreign policy. It’s not being made by diplomats. It’s not being made just by Marco Rubio. It’s being made by this group of businesspeople connected to Trump.”
So argues Pulitzer Prize winning historian Anne Applebaum in a wide-ranging Conversation about how private business interests connected to Trump are shaping US foreign policy towards Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, and elsewhere. Drawing on her recent reporting from Venezuela, she describes how the administration propped up Maduro’s vice president and partnered with one of the country’s most notorious regime cronies. Pointing to the recent electoral success of an anti-corruption political movement in Serbia, and the defeat of Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil, Applebaum argues that grassroots anti-corruption movements can prevail against the corruption and kleptocracy of authoritarian leaders.
More from Conversations with Bill Kristol
"For the first time ever, the United States homeland cannot be taken for granted as a secure rear area against non-nuclear attacks."
Where do things stand in the wars in Ukraine and Iran? What are the implications of these wars for military technology, the future of warfare, and our highly fluid geopolitical environment?
We are less than seven weeks away from Election Day, and early voting already has begun in some states.
"We're 60 days away from a completely different political environment. And I think people are underestimating how different it's going to be, and how volatile it's going to be without really any moorings for either party."
Where do things stand with the military in Trump’s Second Term? What are the consequences of a shortage of munitions in the conduct of the Iran War? What should we make of the firings of senior military leaders?