Donald Trump reacts as he plays a round of golf at Trump Turnberry golf course during his visit to the UK on July 27, 2025.(Christopher Furlong / Getty Images)
The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
Since 2015, Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the American foreign policy establishment
for being too belligerent and unwilling to negotiate with adversaries. But in office, Trump has
carried out a foreign policy that has all the vices he has criticized and been even more inclined
to risk war or get into new wars. In a recent essay in The New York Times, Stephen Wertheim,
a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, has written an incisive critique of Donald Trump’s foreign policy
incoherence emphasizing how the president’s ad hoc response to problems and his excessive
faith in his own deal making ability prevents any systematic change from the status quo.
Stephen and I have a wide-ranging discussion on the over-stretched American empire and why
Trump is just making things worse.
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Since 2015, Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the American foreign policy establishment for being too belligerent and unwilling to negotiate with adversaries. But in office, Trump has carried out a foreign policy that has all the vices he has criticized, and has been more inclined to risk war or get into new wars. In a recent essay in The New York Times, Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has written an incisive critique of Donald Trump’s foreign policy incoherence emphasizing how the president’s ad hoc response to problems and his excessive faith in his own dealmaking ability prevents any systematic change from the status quo.
Stephen and I have a wide-ranging discussion on the overstretched American empire and why Trump is just making things worse.
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The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani had a very good night on Tuesday: a slate of candidates he endorsed won in Democratic primaries in both state and congressional races. This victory was shared by the Democratic Socialists of America, which is now clearly replacing the old political machines in its ability to get out the vote. Ross Barkan wrote about these elections for The Nation and joins the podcast to tell the story of the rising left in urban America.
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