Podcast / The Time of Monsters / Nov 3, 2024

The Dangers of Trump’s Cynical Anti-War Message

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Matt Duss on how Democrats have ceded peace to the GOP.

The Nation Podcasts
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The Dangers of Trump’s Cynical Anti-War Message w/ Matt Duss | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Jeet Heer is joined by Matt Duss to discuss Trump's anti-war pitch.

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(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Donald Trump and JD Vance have a surprising closing message in the 2024 election: They are the anti-war candidates. About the rising conflict in the Middle East, Trump has said, “I wanna see it all stop. I wanna see the Middle East get back to peace.” On a podcast, Vance criticized the Biden administration. “Even though they say they want to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties, they pursued the pathway that maximizes those casualties. They say that they’re pro-Israel. They’ve pursued the pathway that has prolonged the war as long as possible, which is bad for Israel.”

This message is, of course, deeply cynical, since Trump is planning on staffing his administration with hawks, as he did in his first term. But it might have appeal to undecided voters, who polls show to be strongly anti-war. To discuss why Democrats have ceded the peace vote to the GOP, I talked to Matt Duss, vice president of the Center for International Policy and a frequent guest of the show.

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 Living Legacy of Norman Podhoretz w/ David Klion and Ronnie Grinberg | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

Norman Podhoretz, one of the founding fathers of neoconservatism, died on December 16 at

age 95. His legacy is a complex one, since in recent decades neoconservatism has been

supplanted in many ways by American First conservatism. But many aspects of Podhoretz’s

influence still play a shaping role on right. I take up Podhoretz’s career with David Klion (who

wrote an obituary for the pundit for The Nation) and the historian Ronnie Grinberg, who had

discussed Podhoretz in her book Write Like a Man.

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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 GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.

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