After the American Empire
On this episode of The Time of Monsters: Trita Parsi on why Donald Trump’s retrenchment doesn’t go far enough.
Donald Trump speaks in front of US Navy personnel on board the US Navy’s USS George Washington aircraft carrier at the US naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, on October 28, 2025.
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)Donald Trump claims he wants to be the peace president and has even lobbied for a Nobel Peace Prize. But his foreign policy has been wildly contradictory. While the United States is clearly retrenching from many parts of the world, violence against hemispheric neighbors is increasing. I talked to Trita Parsi, cofounder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, for a wide-ranging discussion on why American hegemony is declining but also why the push for retrenchment hasn’t gone far enough.
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The Imperial Presidency and the Iran War w/ Matt Duss | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
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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