Eric and Eliot try to parse the fire hose of news emanating from the Trump Administration. They discuss Eliot's Atlantic article on the American antecedents and causes of Trump's ascendancy and whether there is still some point in looking at the European autocrats like Viktor Orban on whom some Trumpists model themselves, as well as Ruy Texeira's article in the Free Press arguing that defending USAID is not the hill to die on for Democrats. They also discuss Richard Danzig's Washington Post article on how Elon Musk's DOGE might constructively help reform DoD's broken and dysfunctional acquisition process. They discuss the problems with Trump's Gaza proposal as well as the fact that it highlights how all other approaches to the issue of Gaza's relations with Israel have heretofore failed. They discuss Trump's executive order on Iran as well as General Keith Kellogg's preparations for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine and Trump's offer to resettle White Afrikaaners who have been disadvantaged by majority rule in South Africa.

Eliot's Latest in The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/trump-historical-analogies/681561/

Ruy Texeira on USAID
https://www.thefp.com/p/defending-usaid-is-political-suicide

Richard Danzig on Pentagon Reform
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/06/doge-pentagon-tech-innovation/

Bret Stephens & Gail Collins on Trump's Second Term So Far
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/opinion/trump-musk-cabinet-education.html

Steven Levitsky on The New Authoritarianism
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/trump-competitive-authoritarian/681609/

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