Trump’s Tough Talk Threatening Russia With a 50 Day Deadline For a Ceasefire
We begin with Trump’s Oval Office meeting today with the NATO head Mark Rutte and assess his announcement that he is “very, very unhappy” with Russia and plans to deliver “top-of-the-line” weapons to Ukraine, threatening 100% tariffs on Russia if no ceasefire deal is reached in 50 days. Joining us is Michael Kimmage, former Director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute who is currently a professor of history and department chair at the Catholic University of America, chair of the Kennan Institute Advisory Council and a fellow at the German Marshall Fund. From 2014 to 2017, he served on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State, where he held the Russia/Ukraine portfolio. He is the author of The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy and Collisions: The War in Ukraine and the Origins of the New Global Instability. We will discuss his article at The New York Times, “Putin Has Lost Something Worse Than a War.”
Trump and His Family’s Unprecedented Corruption and How Foreign Regimes Can Now Buy American Elections
Then we examine the Trump regime’s unprecedented corruption as Trump and his family monetize their second term and how the trickle-down effect of graft, grifting and crypto corruption has foreign regimes seeing how much their money can buy now that they can invest in not just Trump, but American elections thanks to the administration’s dropping of the case against NY Mayor Adams. Joining us is Casey Michel, the Director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation, as well as a writer, analyst, and investigative journalist working on topics ranging from kleptocracy, illicit finance, dark money, foreign lobbying, and foreign interference to the legacies of Russian and Soviet colonialism. He is the author of American Kleptocracy: How the U.S. Created the World’s Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History and Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World, and we will discuss his article at The Atlantic “America Has Never Seen Corruption Like This”.
Is There Any Hope of Stopping the Slaughter in Gaza?
Then finally we speak with Juan Cole, a professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. He is also the author of the blog Informed Comment at JuanCole.com and the author of The Ayatollahs and Democracy in Iraq, Engaging the Muslim World, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires and most recently, Gaza Yet Stands. We will discuss his latest article at Informed Comment, “Israel Minister: ‘Gaza Must be in Ruins for Decades’, as Airstrike Kills Children Seeking Water” and whether there is any hope of stopping the slaughter of innocents in Gaza.
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