Background Briefing: July 29, 2025
Trump’s Announce First- Details Later Trade Deal With the EU and “Air Farce One: When Gift Becomes Grift”
We begin with an analysis of Trump’s “announce first – details later” trade deal with the EU he proclaimed at his golf course in Scotland which critics see as an attempt to distract from the Epstein story. Joining us is Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect and the Ida and Meyer Kirstein Chair at Brandeis University. He was formerly an assistant to the legendary I.F. Stone, a chief investigator for the Senate Banking Committee, and for 20 years wrote a column at Business Week. His books include Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? and Going Big: FDR’s Legacy, Biden’s New Deal, and the Struggle to Save Democracy, and we discuss his articles at The American Prospect “A Closer Look at Trump’s EU Trade Deal” and “Air Farce One: When Gift Becomes Grift.”
Trump’s New Ultimatum To Putin Seen as a Step Towards War
Then with Russia’s former president and prime minister warning that Trump’s reduction of his ultimatum to Putin to enter into peace talks with Ukraine from 50 days to 10 or 12 days is a step towards war, we speak with Daniel Treisman, co-director of the Center for European and Russian Studies and a professor of political science at the University of California. A leading specialist on the politics and economics of post-communist Russia, he is the author of a number of books on Russia including The New Autocracy: Information, Politics, and Policy in Putin’s Russia and Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century.
Trump Rebukes Netanyahu Over Starving Children But OK’s Plan to Annex Gaza
Then finally we look into the two-faced rebuke of Netanyahu from Trump who acknowledged the reality that children are starving in Gaza along with the reward coming from the Trump Administration’s approval of an Israeli plan to annex parts of Gaza without any limits on how much territory will be taken over. Joining us is Mitchell Plitnick, the president of ReThinking Foreign Policy and former vice president at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. A political analyst and frequent writer on the Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, he served as director of the U.S. Office of B’Tselem and co-director of Jewish Voice for Peace. He is the co-author with Marc Lamont Hill of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics.