Transactional Politics and the Future of Global Conflict

After President Trump and JD Vance ambushed Ukrainian president Zelensky in the Oval Office, one GOP Senator stepped up. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska decried Trump not just for his appalling treatment of Zelensky, but also for realigning the US with the rising forces of Putinism around the world. Meanwhile, European leaders are set to negotiate a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire, which could pressure Trump-Vance to show what they really want the war’s outcome to look like. We talked to Yale professor Lauren Young, who pinpoints the message Trump-Vance were sending to the global far right—and explains what Murkowski’s lonely status in the GOP says about the collapse of a center-right bulwark in the U.S. against rising authoritarianism. Listen to this episode here.

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