Decoding Geopolitics Podcast with Dominik Presl

#93 Victor Davis Hanson: Trump Is West’s “Tragic Hero”. He's Bad News for Russia and a Hope for Europe.

Nov 22, 2025

In this conversation, Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian and senior fellow, makes a compelling case for Donald Trump as the West's 'tragic hero.' He discusses how Trump's negotiation strategies impacted NATO spending and weakened Russian influence in the Middle East. Hanson also highlights Trump’s belief in negotiating peace in Ukraine and examines the coherence of Trump's foreign policy as a push for American strength. With insights on military renewal and support for Ukraine, Hanson's perspectives challenge common criticisms of Trump.

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INSIGHT

Shock Diplomacy Mobilizes NATO Spending

Victor Davis Hanson argues Trump's rhetoric is 'art of the deal' theater to extract concessions.
The shock tactics aimed to raise NATO members' defense spending and succeeded materially.

INSIGHT

Middle East Pressure Reduced Hostile Footprints

Hanson credits Trump with reducing hostile footholds and neutering regional proxies in the Middle East.
He lists gains against Russia's presence in Syria, Iran's nuclear progress, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

INSIGHT

Jacksonian Custodian Of Western Power

Hanson frames Trump as a Jacksonian with a custodial view of the West and transactional tactics.
The aim combines domestic renewal with pressing allies to rearm and reinforce Western preeminence.

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This is a conversation with Victor Davis Hanson - a classics professor, military historian, a Senior Fellow at the Stanford’s University Hoover Institution and one of the most prominent advocates and supporters of Donald Trump, especially within the academic think-tank world.

If you’ve listened to this podcast before, you probably noticed that I am pretty critical of Donald Trump’s foreign policy. While I don’t reject everything he does, I have some pretty fundamental issues with how he treats Europe, NATO or America’s allies and its international commitments in general. And you also might have noticed that many of my guests are very critical of Donald Trump’s foreign policy as well - just in recent months I spoke with John Bolton, Anne Applebaum, Francis Fukuyama all of whom have been even more critical than me. However, I don't want to close myself off in my own bubble, and I think it’s good to be open to ideas of people with other views, especially if they argue in good faith and if we agree on some basic values.

And that’s why I'm speaking with Victor today. He is a pretty staunch Trump supporter but he also has many views that are not typically associated with Trump - he strongly supports NATO, he is a major supporter of Ukraine, he is hawkish on Russia and advocates for the U.S. to arm and he is overall the type that most Donald Trump supporters might call a “neoconservative” with views that Donald Trump himself has frequently criticized.

And so we speak about how all those things go together. How does protecting the postwar-liberal order go together with Trump talking about annexing Greenland and Canada, why didn't Trump end the war in 24 hours as he promised or whether he was naive in his plan for how to do that, how can Europe be in an alliance with a U.S. president who doesn't believe in alliances or why he thinks that Trump is the most pro-European U.S. president in history.

To clarify, I don't agree with many of the views that Victor has talked about on European or Americans domestic politics but that’s not what the podcast is about and I didn't want to focus on. And I’m still not sure whether I agree with anything that he said - but despite that, I think that it’s a fascinating conversation that I was really glad to have. And I heard a perspective that might not be the same as mine but that I still found to be really interesting - I hope you’ll feel the same way.