Podcast / The Time of Monsters / Mar 30, 2025

The Real Scandal Is Bombing Yemen, Not the Group Chat

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Matt Duss on the contradictions of Trump’s foreign policy.

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The Real Scandal is Bombing Yemen, Not the Group Chat | Time of Monsters
byThe Nation Magazine

This week Washington was abuzz with a security scandal over a group chat planning the bombing of Yemen accidentally included magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. Lost amid the finger pointing about operational security was the fact that the bombing of Yemen is illegal, immoral, and ineffective.

To take up the actual scandal of the war, Jeet Heer spoke with Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy. We also discuss the actual contents of the group chat which real important fissures within Trump’s foreign policy team between neo-conservatives who favor fighting as many wars as possible and unilateralists who insist there has to be a prioritizing of conflicts. This fissure opens the path to a much different foreign policy, one that the left can play a role in shaping.

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Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe (C) speaks as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (L) and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse listen during an annual worldwide threats assessment hearing at the Longworth House Office Building on March 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. The hearing held by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence addressed top aides inadvertently including Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic magazine, on a high level Trump administration Signal group chat discussing plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images)

This week, Washington is abuzz with a security scandal over a group chat planning the bombing of Yemen accidentally included Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Lost amid the finger pointing about operational security was the fact that the bombing of Yemen is illegal, immoral, and ineffective.

To take up the actual scandal of the war, I spoke with Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy. We also discuss the actual contents of the group chat that reveal important fissures within Trump’s foreign policy team between neoconservatives who favor fighting as many wars as possible and unilateralists who insist there has to be a prioritizing of conflicts. This fissure opens the path to a much different foreign policy, one that the left can play a role in shaping.

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The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

The Imperial Presidency and the Iran War w/ Matt Duss | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

Writing in Foreign Policy, Matt Duss argues that Donald Trump’s rush to war is both

stupid and illegal. It is also wildly unpopular with the public. But he also observes that

congress has been reluctant to challenge Trump’s policy, although some progressives

have now forced the issue to a vote. Matt is a frequent guest of the show and foreign

policy expert. I talked to him about the dangers of a new war and also the larger

systematic problems of the imperial presidency.

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Jeet Heer

Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe.

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