Chaos and Controversy: Trump's First Week

A week into Donald Trump’s “second first term,” the GoodFellows drink from the proverbial fire hose trying to keep up with the news: a flurry of presidential executive orders; a freezing of US foreign aid; policy spats with multiple nations; at Davos, the world’s globalists contending with MAGA; a Chinese advancement in artificial intelligence that prompted a market selloff and evokes memories of the Cold War’s space race.

Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster discuss the significance of the aid freeze; what Colombia’s agreement to accept deportees after threats of a tariff war portends for Trump-brand foreign policy; how the times have changed at Davos’s annual World Economic Forum; plus whether the emergence of China’s DeepSeek app will trigger a modern-day “moonshot” within the AI sector. Next, the fellows discuss matters they deem neglected (are Russia and Iran’s regimes on the ropes?), a DEI executive order, whether Trump’s revoking of security clearances and dignitary protection was justified or vindictive, plus the three fellows’ Super Bowl plans.

Recorded on January 28, 2025.