Month: August 2025

The Shameful Amateurism of Trump’s Reality TV Diplomacy as He Sells Out Ukraine While Fawning Over a Wanted War Criminal

We begin with Friday’s Trump/Putin summit in Alaska which the Russians refer to as Russkaya Amerika at which Trump again displayed his fealty to Putin welcoming a wanted war criminal on a US military base which had American servicemen rolling out the red carpet for Putin who strode up to a beaming Trump who was applauding his arrival. Joining us to discuss the shameful amateurism of Trump’s reality TV diplomacy and its contrast to the appalling treatment Zelensky got in the Oval Office from Trump and Vance is Angela Stent, the senior advisor and former Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Affairs and a Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs at Georgetown University. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and served as National Intelligence Office for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council, and, prior to that, served in the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State. She is the author of The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century and, most recently, Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest.

A Specialist on Russian Media on the Summit the Russian Public Saw on Putin-Controlled State Media

Then we speak with a specialist on Russian media to get an appraisal of the summit that the Russian public saw on Putin-controlled state media is Michael Gorham, Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Florida. He is the author of two award-winning books on language culture and politics: After Newspeak: Language Culture and Politics in Russia from Gorbachev to Putin and Speaking in Soviet Tongues: Language Culture and the Politics of Voice in Revolutionary Russia. His latest book out in January is Networking Putinism: The Rhetoric of Power in the Digital Age, devoted to the impact of digital media on Russian political rhetoric.

The Possibility of Crypto-Corruption Greasing the Skids to the Summit

Then finally we look into the possibility of crypto corruption greasing the skids to this summit with Trump’s real estate buddy Witkoff able to make secret deals with Putin while his son Zach Witkoff heads up the Trump family crypto scam World Liberty Financial with Eric Trump, making it possible for Putin to buy Trump in advance of the summit by funneling dark money crypto funds into Trump’s greedy pocket. Joining us is Jacob Silverman, a contributing writer for The New Republic and a contributing editor for The Baffler, covering tech and national security. He is the author of Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection and Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, the Golden Age of Fraud, which was a New York Times bestseller. His latest book out soon is Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, and he blogs on Substack at jacobsilverman.com where his latest articles include “Revealed: Trump’s $100 Million Man” and “He Will Steal As Much As You Let Him: President Donald Trump cashes in.”