Background Briefing: October 16, 2025
Trump and Putin to Meet in Budapest Soon For Another Summit After the Alaska Fiasco
We begin with the two hour phone call Trump had with Putin today which he described as yielding “great progress” with a second summit after the Alaska fiasco to take place soon in Budapest which the Kremlin has confirmed. Tomorrow Trump meets Zelensky in the Oval Office to talk about Ukraine getting Tomahawk cruise missiles to strike deep into Russia and we will assess how much that is likely or has been leverage to get Putin to the table and speak with Michael Kimmage, Director of the Kennan Institute who is a professor of history and department chair at the Catholic University of America. From 2014 to 2017, he served on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State, where he held the Russia/Ukraine portfolio. He is the author of The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy and Collisions: The War in Ukraine and the Origins of the New Global Instability.
Trump Authorizes CIA Covert Action Against Venezuela Announcing “We Are Looking at Land Now”
Then, with the Trump administration secretly authorizing the C.I.A. to conduct covert actions in Venezuela against the Maduro regime with Trump announcing on Wednesday “We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control.” Joining us is David Smilde, a Professor of Human Relations and senior associate at the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research at Tulane University. He has published five books on Venezuela and studied the country for over 30 years, living there most of that time, and he is the co-author of The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela: Revolution, Crime and Policing during Chavismo. He is the author of the Substack, Venezuela and United States and has an article at The Dispatch, “The False Pretenses Behind the Naval Operation Off the Coast of Venezuela.”
Friends and Relatives of Our Political Leaders Cash in on Dirty Money From Disreputable Despots
Then finally we look into the bipartisan disgrace of friends and relatives of political leaders cashing in as lobbyists shower them with dirty money from disreputable despots and speak with Kenneth Vogel who covers the confluence of money, politics, and influence for the Washington bureau of The New York Times. He previously reported for Politico and is the author of Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious Vehicle, and a Pimp — on the Trail of the Ultra-Rich Hijacking American Politics. His latest book, just out, is Devils’ Advocates: The Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the Washington Insiders on the Payrolls of Corrupt Foreign Interests.