Background Briefing: May 31, 2026
Trump’s Silence as Iran Holds the Cards, in Particular the Strait of Hormuz, a Prize Our Idiot Gave Them
We begin with the silence about a peace deal with Iran that was supposed to happen following Trump’s long meeting in the White House situation room on Friday. Thanks to Trump’s stupidity and Netanyahu’s mendacity, Iran now holds more cards, in particular the prize that Trump gave the mullahs, the Strait of Hormuz. Joining us to discuss the stalemate and possible ways forward is Mohsen Milani, the Executive Director of the World Center for Strategic & Diplomatic Studies and Professor of Politics at the University of South Florida. Professor Milani has served as a fellow at Harvard, Oxford, and Foscari University in Italy and is the author of The Making of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. His latest book is Iran’s Rise and Rivalry with the US in the Middle East.
As Trump Monetizes His Presidency, His Administration Rewards the Tech Bros By Criminalizing Opposition to AI
Then we look into the spectacular corruption Trump and his family are engaged in as they monetize the presidency as well as the administration’s weaponization of law enforcement in the service of the Silicon Valley billionaire bros like Peter Thiel to criminalize critics of AI who oppose the data centers being built to service this unpopular technology. Joining us is Daniel Boguslaw, an investigative reporter based in Washington, D.C. whose interests include corporate corruption, congressional and White House investigations, American influence overseas, and organized labor and he has an article at Wired Magazine we discuss, “US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows.”
Could Trump Just Admit That He Screwed Up?
Then finally we speak with Stephen Walt, a columnist at Foreign Policy magazine and the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University. He is the author of a number of books including The Origins of Alliances; Revolution and War, Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy, and most recently, The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy. We discuss his article at Foreign Policy, “Trump Should Just Admit He Screwed Up.”