Paranoia and Purges Are Consuming the Pentagon

Eric and Eliot discuss appeasement and the striking similarities between Putin’s recent demands and Hitler’s insistence that the Czechs surrender the heavily fortified Sudetenland. They then turn to the latest idiocy coming from the administration, including Trump’s demolition of the East Wing, the Pentagon’s new exclusively right-wing press corps, and the live-fire Marine exercise that sent ordnance onto I-5 in California during a salute to Pete Hegseth and JD Vance. They also examine Putin’s phone call with Trump and the situation in Ukraine, along with Trump’s accelerating campaign of regime change in Venezuela. They end the week’s conversation with thoughts on the No Kings protests and the daunting prospects for a sustained ceasefire in Gaza.

Show Notes:
- Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War: https://a.co/d/awNtPTM
- Eric & David Kramer’s latest on Ukraine: https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-putin-budapest-ukraine-tomahawks/

Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.