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The Chris Hedges Report
Hosted by Chris Hedges · EN
Covering US foreign policy, economic realities, and civil liberties in American society.
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Can Israel & the U.S. Sustain Iran's Military Power? (w/ Alastair Crooke) | The Chris Hedges Report
Mar 7Tap to summarizeThis interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.While the official White House X account posts video montages featuring video games and Hollywood movies spliced with real footage of their attacks on Iran, the situation on the ground could not be more different than an American propaganda blockbuster.To pierce the fog of war and offer a concrete analysis of what is taking place across the Middle East, author and former British diplomat Alastair Crooke of the Substack Conflicts Forum joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report.Iran’s military power has seen the depletion of Israeli defensive interceptor missiles, the destruction of billion-dollar American radar systems and the diligent preparation of the Iranian leadership — Crooke explains these losses of the hegemonic West and their ally in Tel Aviv is what’s shaping the reality of the unfolding war.“The Iranians say they also have newer missiles, which they will show and unfold at a later stage. They haven’t reached that stage yet, but that is waiting to be used and deployed at the right moment. They’re quite comfortable that they have huge missile stocks that they can continue for a long war,” Crooke tells Hedges.Crooke also touches on the wider implications this war will have on the region, in particular, the Gulf states that have been subservient to American and Israeli interests and subject to attacks since the war began. “The Gulf used to be known and thought of as a safe place for businessmen, for investors and others and that — AI, holidays, airliners, tourism, et cetera… That’s finished.”The Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Pre-order my new book "Requiem for Gaza"HostChris HedgesExecutive Producer:Max JonesIntro:Diego RamosCrew:Diego Ramos and Sofia MenemenlisThanks for reading The Chris Hedges Report! This post is public so feel free to share it.ShareTranscriptChris HedgesThe ineptitude of Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio is turning the war against Iran into a very lethal version of “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.” The excuses for the war and the goals shift by the hour. Is it to take out the nuclear program Trump insisted was obliterated last June? Or is to, as Steve Witkoff says, because Iran is a week away from producing industrial-grade, weapons-usable nuclear material, a claim the Israeli prime minister and proponents of war with Iran have been repeating for three decades. Is it about regime change? Or is it, as Rubio said, being fought because the U.S. had to join Israel, which was determined to attack, to prevent preemptive attacks on U.S. assets.The U.S. killed the top leaders of Iran, including the Supreme leader, and then killed the second tier of Iranian leaders it said it hoped to negotiate with. “Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” Trump admitted. “And now, we have another group. They may be dead also, based on reports.”Trump demands the Iranian army surrender or “face absolutely guaranteed death.” He says he will order the U.S. Navy to escort tankers and ships through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a move that would line up U.S. ships in what will become an Iranian turkey shoot. Hegseth insists Trump will decide who will rule Iran while our ally in Kuwait shot down three U.S. fighter jets. The U.S. or Israel or both, we don’t know yet, obliterated an elementary school killing 175 schoolgirls.Over 1,000 Iranian civilians have been killed. Tehran is being pummeled with thousands of bombs. And yet Trump, and his vile counterpart in Israel, claim this is a war of liberation. Meanwhile the CIA, which has spent decades fueling one debacle after another in the Middle East, has embraced arming Kurdish militias to bring down the Iranian regime.If one thing is clear it is that Trump, and his coterie of misfits and buffoons, have no idea what they are doing. Joining me to discuss the war in Iran and its consequences is Alastair Crooke, a former British diplomat and member of the British negotiating teams. He served for many years in the Middle East working as a security advisor to the EU special envoy to the Middle East, as well as helping lead efforts to set up negotiations and truces between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian resistance groups with Israel. He was instrumental in establishing the 2002 ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. He is also the author of Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution, which analyzes the ascendancy of Islamic movements in the Middle East.Well, I don’t know where to begin. I’ll let you begin with this utter fiasco which is rapidly of course spreading throughout the region. Give us, I guess, in your view a kind of overview of where we are and what’s happening.Alastair CrookeWell, you listed some of the options for what the war was about just now at the start. But actually, it wasn’t really like that because and we’ve seen it very clearly because it was reported extensively in the Hebrew press, not in the English language press, but in the Hebrew press, which we monitor quite carefully.When [Benjamin] Netanyahu went at the end of the year, 28th, 29th of December to Mar-a-Lago for his summit with Trump, at that summit, he said some things which were a little bit surprising, but are relevant to today. He said to him, “Listen, the nuclear issue isn’t the issue. I’m not going to tell you they’re a month away from a nuclear weapon. No, actually, what I’m going to tell you is you’ve got to change the priorities. The first priority is the Iranian missile system. We have to destroy that because what is happening is the system is becoming much more sophisticated. It is not just that after the June war, they replaced it. They have created a completely new defense paradigm in the interim and it has several layers to it. And I’m telling you that if you do not destroy the missile system, even if Iran got a nuclear weapon, or we knew that it was going to move to nuclear weapon, we could know nothing about it because we wouldn’t be able to penetrate that umbrella.”And he said, “So this is what you have to do.” And Trump agreed at that point, gave the green light for an attack on Iran. This is reported in various Hebrew accounts of this meeting that took place that he agreed to do an attack. And even the date was more or less set. In fact, the date changed a little bit, but it was set for...
Transcribe →The Media’s Capitulation to Power (w/ Ahmed Eldin) | The Chris Hedges Report
Mar 5Tap to summarizeThis interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.In a special episode of The Chris Hedges Report live from Rome, Italy, Palestinian Emmy-nominated journalist, producer, and actor Ahmed Eldin joins host Chris Hedges following their involvement in the dockworkers strike and large demonstrations to halt arms shipments to Israel.Eldin, who has worked in journalism for almost 20 years, explains how crucial storytelling is in a time where Palestinian voices are being killed off in Gaza and silenced elsewhere. “It’s a betrayal of our profession. It’s a betrayal of our human values,” Eldin says of the methods in which mainstream outlets attempt to obscure the realities on the ground of Palestine now and throughout history.Eldin and Hedges also recount their own experiences of being pejoratively labeled “activists” instead of journalists but Eldin embraces that, saying “if you break down the definition of what an activist is, it’s someone who campaigns for social change. Maybe the way journalists campaign is by holding the powerful to account, by reporting facts and providing context.”The Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Buy my new book “A Genocide Foretold"HostChris HedgesExecutive Producer:Max JonesIntro:Diego RamosCrew:Thomas Hedges, Milena Soci, Max Jones Thanks for reading The Chris Hedges Report! This post is public so feel free to share it.ShareTranscriptChris HedgesSo you come out of the journalistic community, went to Columbia Journalism School, they forgive you for that? I want you to talk a little bit about — and you’re Palestinian of course — but talk about how the press has shaped and formed the narrative of the genocide.Ahmed EldinWell, I would say they’ve done it consistently first and foremost. It was not lost on me on October 7th, having witnessed what happened — the breaking of the siege, if you will, in the inverse direction. Of course, a horrific atrocity, but something that I understood was coming sooner or later. And in those early days, I did everything I could to start documenting and applying everything not only I’d learned at Columbia but working for all these media companies ever since.And the reason I did that, Chris, is the answer to your question. It’s because I knew, having my lived experience working in the mainstream, what was going to come and how deliberate they would manufacture consent. And how do they do it? They do it by casting doubt on any truth or any context that can inform or expand the audience’s understanding, which quite frankly goes against the foundations and the tenets and the purpose of journalism, right?And so you’ve seen them cast doubt on the numbers of deaths. You’ve also seen them sanitize language. I mean, some of the headlines which you just shared from ABC News, from CBS, from…Chris HedgesWell, the New York Times banned words.Ahmed EldinOf course, the style guide that leaked in April, 100%. I mean, and look, when I worked for the New York Times, I was 23 years old. It was during the Iraq War. I’d just graduated from Columbia. I was rewriting headlines and making photo slideshows on the digital side of the international desk. And I was privy to the coverage of Iraq and all this to say, when I would put the word Occupied West Bank, back then, I would get called into an office. And these are facts.These are things that exist in legal international frameworks. So why this reluctance to just call them what they are? And I think that just answers. I mean, it’s hard to chronicle all the different ways and document all the different ways that they manufacture consent and limit our understanding. But I think the worst part of it for me is how, as you said, they trade access.They think they can justify their biased coverage under the guise of objectivity in 2025 when people are getting information right from the source. And whether that information is framed in a conventionally journalistic way, which some people would say is like, this view from nowhere where you don’t put your own identity into the story. I mean, look, let’s be real. Journalism is changing for better or worse. Storytelling is changing.Chris HedgesI want to talk about objectivity because that is, that’s a trope. Objective truth is not what they print. And objectivity is really, is translated into utter dispassion, i.e. you’re not allowed to feel passionately about any entity that you’re writing about. But it becomes a mechanism to essentially, in the name of balance, equate lies with truth.So when I covered Gaza, the way they would neuter my story is, Israel would carry out an attack on Jabalia, they bombed Jabalia for instance, and they would say that they had carried out an attack, a surgical strike against a bomb-making factory. Well, I would go there and of course when they drop a 500-pound iron fragmentation bomb, the entire block is gone. I’m seeing the bodies of children and I’m interviewing eyewitnesses, and yet every other paragraph is the IDF.So by the end of the story, you can believe whatever you want to believe in the name of objectivity, in the name of balance.Ahmed EldinNo, and it’s, I’m glad you said that because they not only bury the lead, you know, oftentimes there’ll be an event that happens, and then not only is it that they bury the event — the who, what, where, when, why, I mean, come on, this is the essentials of journalism, of storytelling, not even journalism, just storytelling and that is deliberately done why?It’s because, as you said, then you can believe whatever you want to believe, but I think even more appalling, they know that when they omit certain things from the lead, people don’t read articles. People share articles before they finish them. So the mental gymnastics and the linguistics and the cartwheels that they use in their headlines, even the AP, even Reuters, as you pointed out, I mean, it’s… one thing is it’s offensive as a Palestinian, as a journalist.It’s a betrayal of our profession. It’s a betrayal of our human values. But much more alarmingly, like, do they not realize that this is doing long-term damage to the public’s trust, which was already at record lows, with news organizations and media in general? And that’s why people like you, that’s why independent journalists who do go there, who do have context, who do have experience, and who ...
Transcribe →Going to War, Again, for Israel
Feb 28Tap to summarizeBlood Brothers - by Mr. FishSubscribe nowOnce again, America is going to war for Israel. Once again, many will die for the Zionist state, including American service members. Once again, we will stumble blindly into a military fiasco. Once again, we will do the bidding of a foreign power whose interests are not our interests, but whose lobbyists have bought up our political class, including Donald Trump. Once again, we will violate the U.N. charter by attacking a country that does not pose an imminent threat.This is not our war. This is part of Israel’s demented vision of Greater Israel, of dominating the Middle East. But Israel needs our military, our taxpayer dollars, our weapons to do it. And we have handed them the keys to our formidable arsenal.The architects of the war with Iran, which the administration feels no need to justify to the American public or the international community, admit it will not be quick.Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CBS News on Saturday that the goal is not only to curb Iran’s nuclear program, but “dismantle their terror support network.”“To do all that is going to take longer than the strikes on their nuclear program last summer,” Cotton said. “We’re probably looking at weeks, not days, of joint efforts by the United States, Israel and our Arab partners, who have also been attacked this morning.”Israel’s lackeys in the political class, along with their courtiers in the media, including former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) employee Wolf Blitzer, as well as academia, are shining examples of Israel’s transparent and often illegal meddling in the American political system. Forget Russia. Forget China. No foreign government comes close to exerting Israel’s influence.Democratic Party leaders are not opposed to attacking Iran — they are opposed to attacking Iran without being consulted. Two dozen Democrats lept to their feet and applauded every time Trump threatened Iran, or lauded Israel, in his State of the Union address. The Biden administration and Democratic Party leadership made no effort to reinstate Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear agreement. It focused instead on sustaining the genocide in Gaza. It cheered Israel’s decapitation of Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Kamala Harris in her feckless and tone deaf presidential campaign promised to continue funding the genocide, which alienated many voters, and labeled Iran our most dangerous enemy.Endless war is a bipartisan project.Subscribe nowThe flagrant interference by Israel in the American political system is documented in the Al-Jazeera four-part series “The Lobby,” which Israel and its supporters blocked from being broadcast. Pirated copies can be watched on the website Electronic Intifada. In the documentary, the leaders of the Israel lobby are captured on a reporter’s hidden camera explaining how, backed by the intelligence services in Israel, they discredit and silence American critics and use huge cash donations to control the American electoral process and political system.Israel’s death grip on our political system is also documented in “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.“If you wander off the reservation and become critical of Israel, you not only will not get money, AIPAC will go to great lengths to find someone who will run against you,” Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, says in the documentary. “And they support that person very generously. The end result is you’re likely to lose your seat in Congress.”Israel flies hundreds of members of Congress, often with their families, to Israel for lavish junkets at seaside resorts. These Congress members run up individual bills that frequently ...
Transcribe →The Voice of Hind Rajab: The Film They Don’t Want You to See
Feb 26Tap to summarizeReaper Madness - by Mr. FishSubscribe nowNEW YORK: “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” like all great pieces of art, takes a straightforward story — the battle to save the life of a 6-year-old girl, Hind Rajab, trapped in a car in Gaza surrounded by murdered family members — and elevates it to an archetype. This story is as old as time. It lies at the heart of all religious and moral literature. It pits the cruelty and heartlessness of power against the empathy and compassion of the powerless. It asks us what kind of a life we want to live. Is it a life defined by hubris, domination and violence? Or is it a life defined by compassion, justice and self-sacrifice? These are moral, not political questions.To nurture, preserve and protect the lives of those demonized in war is to be branded a traitor — a subversive, the enemy. It is to risk death. War, and especially genocide, is the quintessential expression of what Sigmund Freud called Thanatos, the death instinct that drives humans towards the destructions of others and themselves. Those who fight for Eros, for life, are eliminated. This schism is at the core of the film. It is the struggle between good and evil, light and dark. And, as so often happens in war, Thanatos prevails. This almost certain defeat gives unquestioned nobility to those who defy the forces of death.Israel and its supporters do not want the outside world to see the bureaucratic machinery that perpetuates its mass slaughter, but I suspect, even more, it does not want the world to see the humanity of the Palestinians who resist.It was hard to find a screening. I traveled for over an hour to see it at the Film Forum in New York City, which had just one showing at 4:45 in the afternoon. I understood why. Despite critical acclaim, an Oscar-nominated director and industry heavyweights like Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix behind it, the film — directed by Tunisian filmmaker, Kaouther Ben Hania — faced major difficulties in getting an American distributor — reportedly out of “fear” and disagreement “with the film’s politics,” according to a report by Deadline.It is not only devastating, not only a cinematic masterpiece, but it rips back all the layers of rhetoric and propaganda to expose the fundamental struggle between the Israeli occupier and the occupied. The struggle is, yes, a conflict about the theft of Palestinian land. It is, as well, a conflict about a violent and lethal occupation, one that has become full-blown genocide in Gaza. But it is also the ancient struggle between the forces of life and death.Anyone who follows Israel’s murderous rampage in Gaza knows the story of Hind Rajab. On Jan. 29, 2024, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza. Six members of the Hamadeh family, along with their 6-year-old niece, Hind, crammed themselves into a black Kia and attempted to flee. They did not get far. An Israeli tank fired on the car, killing everyone except Hind and her 15-year-old cousin, Layan. Layan was able to contact the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on her dead father’s phone.Subscribe now“They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me,” Layan tells the PRCS dispatcher, Omar Alqam, an emergency medical worker based in Ramallah.“Are you hiding?” asks Omar, played by Palestinian actor Motaz Malhees.“Yes, in the car, we’re in the car, the tank is right next to us,” Layan says.“You are inside the car?” Omar asks.There is the sound of gunfire — 62 shots in six seconds — as Layan screams.The line goes dead.“Hello? Hello?” Omar says.There is no answer.The PRCS immediately calls back.Hind picks...
Transcribe →Epstein, Chomsky, & The Politics of Betrayal (Chris Hedges w/ Briahna Joy Gray)
Feb 25Tap to summarizeThe Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thanks for reading The Chris Hedges Report! This post is public so feel free to share it.Share
Transcribe →The Suicidal Folly of a War with Iran [VIDEO]
Feb 24Tap to summarizeFull Text: The Laurel and Hardy negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, coupled with Trump’s appalling ignorance of world affairs and megalomania, seem set to push the U.S. into yet another debacle in the Middle East, one the Congress has not approved, and the public does not want.The demands imposed on Iran by the Trump White House are no more acceptable to the regime in Tehran than those imposed on Hamas in Gaza under Trump’s sham peace plan.Trump’s demand that Iran shut down its nuclear program and give up its missile capabilities in return for no new sanctions is as tone deaf as calling on Hamas to disarm in Gaza. But since we have long dispensed with diplomats, who are linguistically, politically and culturally literate, who can step into the shoes of their adversaries, we are being led to another war in the Middle East by our newest coterie of buffoons. The U.S. and Israel foolishly believe they can bomb their way to decapitating the Iranian government and installing a client regime. That this non-reality-based belief system failed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya eludes them.The promise of no new sanctions will not incentivize Iran to broker an agreement. Iran is already crippled by onerous sanctions that have gutted its economy. This will do nothing to break the economic stranglehold. Iran will not give up its nuclear program, which has the potential to be weaponized, or its ballistic missile program, which Israel said it would target in an air attack. Israel’s reputed nuclear arsenal of some 300 warheads is a powerful incentive for Iran to retain the capacity to build a nuclear arsenal of its own. Iran, like Hamas, is never going to render itself defenseless against those seeking its annihilation.The Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Pre-order my book, "Requiem for Gaza"An aerial attack on Iran will not be like the 12-day assault last June against Iran’s nuclear facilities and state and security facilities. Then Iran calibrated its response with symbolic strikes on Al Udeid air base in Qatar in the hopes that it would not lead to a wider, protracted conflict. If an aerial assault is launched, Iran will have nothing to lose. It will understand that appeasing its adversaries is impossible.Iran is not Iraq. Iran is not Afghanistan. Iran is not Lebanon. Iran is not Libya. Iran is not Syria. Iran is not Yemen. Iran is the seventeenth largest country in the world, with a land mass equivalent to the size of Western Europe. It has a population of almost 90 million — 10 times greater than Israel — and its military resources, as well as alliances with China and Russia, make it a formidable opponent.Despite Iran’s relative military weakness, when set against the combined forces of the U.S. and Israel, it can inflict a lot of damage. It will do this as swiftly as possible. Hundreds of American troops will likely be killed. Iran will certainly shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint that facilitates the passage of 20 percent of the world’s oil supply. This will double or triple the price of oil and devastate the global economy. It will target oil installations along with U.S. ships and military bases in the region.Mounting losses and a huge spike in oil prices will provide the fodder for Trump, and his vile counterpart in Israel, to ignite a sustained regional war.This is the cost of being governed by imbeciles. God help us.Thanks for reading The Chris Hedges Report! This post is public so feel free to share it.SharePhotosLeaders Gather For ‘Coalition Of The Willing’ Meeting In FrancePARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 6: (L-R) Steve Witkoff US Special Envoy and Jared Kushner attend a Press Conference during the ‘Coalition Of The Willing’ meeting at Elysee Palace on January 6, 2026 in Paris, France. Leaders from around 30 countries are gathering in Paris to discuss military support for Ukraine, amid ongoing negotiations on a US-brokered peace plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. (Photo by Tom Nicholson/Getty Images)TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-US-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-POLITICS-DIPLOMACYTOPSHOT - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the press at the port of Ashdod in southern Israel on May 1, 2024. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein / POOL / AFP) (Photo by EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Business Leaders Speak At FII Institute’s Annual FII Priority ConferenceMIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 20: Jared Kushner, Founder & CEO, Affinity Partners, speaks during the second day of the FII PRIORITY Summit held at the Faena Hotel on February 20, 2025 in Miami Beach, Florida. The summit brings together global leaders with a special focus on the Global South to develop strategies to address pressing international issues in areas including healthcare, education, sustainability and AI. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)President And Mrs Trump Watch FIFA Club World Cup FinalTETERBORO, NEW JERSEY - JULY 13: Businessman and former Senior Advisor to the President Doanld Trump Jared Kushner (L) and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff chat on the tarmac on before First lady Melania Trump and U.S. President Donald Trump on July 13, 2025 in Teterboro, New Jersey, They will join FIFA President Gianni Infantino and other guests while watching the final match of the FIFA Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium. This is the first time in the history of the FIFA CWC that the United States has hosted the competition, one year before the U.S., Mexico, and Canada are scheduled to host the World Cup in 2026. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)TOPSHOT-IRAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICTTOPSHOT - Smoke billows following an explosion in central Tehran on June 15, 2025. Iranian media said an Israeli strike hit the Tehran police headquarters in the city centre on June 15, as the two foes exchanged fire for a third day. (Photo by Atta KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)Burning Oil WellsView of burning oil wells, Kuwait, 1991. (Photo by Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images)Iran conducts drill at Great Salt Desert in the middle of the Iranian PlateauUNSPECIFIED, IRAN. - JANUARY 15: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY MANDATORY CREDIT - “SEPAHNEWS/ HANDOUT” - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps conduct a military drill with ballistic missiles and unmanned air vehicles at Great Salt Desert, in the middle of the Iranian Plateau, on January 15, 2021 in Iran. (Photo by Sepahnews/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Iran launches missile attack on IsraelHEBRON, WEST BANK - OCTOBER 01: Many rockets, fired from Iran, are seen over Jerusalem from Hebron, West Bank on October 01, 2024. The Israeli army announced that missiles were fired from Iran towards Israel and sirens were heard across the country, especially in Tel Aviv. (Photo by Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu via Getty Images)Tehran Residents Celebrate As Iran Launches Attack On IsraelTEHRAN, IRAN - APRIL 14: People gather in support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ attack on ...
Transcribe →The Predatory Hegemon (w/ Stephen Walt) | The Chris Hedges Report
Feb 24Tap to summarizeThis interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.As Donald Trump’s administration continues down the path of self destruction, it is taking the rest of the American population down with it. The abandonment of international allies, treaties and norms, the political scientist Stephen Walt argues, will slowly ostracize the United States and give rise to a multipolar world order which will leave the country behind.Walt, the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of multiple books, joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to chronicle what this decline may look like and how Trump’s policy choices are not unlike past empires in history.The decline, Walt and Hedges emphasize, is multifaceted. On the one hand, Trump is motivated by personal gain for himself and his family, and on the other, petty grievances towards countries once considered allies. This policy pattern will isolate the U.S. as Walt says, “we’re already starting to see lots of countries who are currently accommodating the United States in the short term also looking to find ways to de-risk, to reduce their vulnerability, to create alternative structures to one in which the United States has the central role. This isn’t going to leave the United States completely isolated. We’re too big for that. But it’s going to mean a long-term diminution in American wealth, power, influence, and security.”International politicians, such as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, have already begun to understand that rather than groveling to a toxic Trump regime, standing up for your citizens can ultimately pay greater dividends. “You are going to see other leaders realize that kowtowing to Trump doesn’t get you any good, may prompt something of a nationalist backlash in your own country as well. And that in fact, taking a more principled position, defending your own country’s interests, even in the face of American pressure actually will pay political benefits,” Walt explains.The Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Buy my new book “A Genocide Foretold"HostChris HedgesProducer:Max JonesIntro:Diego RamosCrew:Thomas Hedges, Milena Soci, Diego Ramos Transcript Chris HedgesThe Trump administration reflects a sharp break with past U.S. administrations, not only in how it wields power at home, but how it wields power abroad. Not only do its domestic policies increasingly resemble those of all authoritarian states or dictatorships, but its foreign policies are also those chrematistic of authoritarian states led by all-powerful demagogues.These policies are not strategic but mercenary. They seek short term gain over long term stability. They prey on weaker states, even if these states are long-time allies. The political scientist Stephen Walt calls this “predatory hegemony.”Predatory hegemony demands tribute and obsequious deference, including the sycophantic flattering of Donald Trump, as well as deals that enrich him and his family personally, in order to do business. Because countries are bound by trade agreements and economic dependence to the U.S., this predatory hegemony works in the short term. But in the long term it is disastrous for the U.S. pushing countries into other orbits, most notably China, and leaving the U.S. isolated and reviled.Even great powers need allies. Trump is shedding them one-by-one, imploding not only the world order set in place after World War II, but the financial stability, domestic tranquility and power of the United States itself.Joining me to discuss the new world order rising from the ashes of the old is Stephen M. Walt, the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Walt is the author of Taming American Power, Origins of Alliances, Revolution and War and The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which he wrote with the University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer.You spoke before Trump took office, kind of reflecting on where we were headed. I think you were pretty much correct on most issues. What is it that has surprised you over the last year?Stephen WaltWell, there’s several things that surprised me. First, I didn’t expect Trump to do as much in foreign policy as he’s done. I thought he would be focusing on all these domestic items. And certainly there’s been sweeping changes, they’re attempting the most radical transformation of American politics since the Civil War, maybe ever.But I thought that would be where most of the focus would go and that foreign policy would be left to one side. But instead, you’ve seen an equally ambitious attempt to radically transform America’s foreign relations and done with surprising speed. So that surprised me.I was also surprised, of course, by the complete absence of any Republican Party pushback on all of this, either at home or abroad, particularly given that a fair number of Republicans had been sort of traditional internationalists who wanted the United States to be engaged to exercise lots of global leadership. And they’ve been willing to go along with Trump’s wrecking ball operation here.Chris HedgesWell, there’s a kind of symbiotic relationship, the way he treats people at home — ICE, ignoring the rule of law, 96 court orders in the month of January against the operations in Minneapolis, which they just ignore, Pam Bondi. But it’s also reflected in the way he treats allies overseas, particularly in Europe. There does seem to be a kind of a uniformity into how he views power both abroad and both domestically.Stephen WaltYeah, I think that’s right. And it goes really back to, I think, Trump’s basic worldview, the same worldview he exhibited throughout his business career, a sort of contempt for rules, contempt for laws. You can get away and you can do whatever you can get away with. A view that you’re either weak or strong. You’re either the victim or you’re the winner here.And that’s certainly how he has treated domestic opponents — belittling them, threatening them in a variety of ways, the way he’s gone after media organizations, universities, anyone really who suggests that maybe he’s wrong about something. But that’s also been the way he’s dealt with the outside world. And what’s different about Trump as opposed to, I think, every previous American president is that he’s engaged in these predatory acts, not just towards adversaries, where you can understand you want to always try and get the better of a genuine rival.Even when you’re cooperating with a rival, say in arms control, you’d kind of like to get a deal that’s favorable to you. But Trump’s done that with just about everybody, including some of America’s closest allies, where all of these relationships are supposed to be structured and arranged so that the United States is getting the lionR...
Transcribe →LIVE NOW — Come ask a Question!
Feb 21Tap to summarizeThe Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Transcribe →Resistance101: Forging a New Movement for Palestine in Italy DOCUMENTARY
Feb 21Tap to summarizeJoing us for a livestream where we will discuss the movie at 3pm ET here! With little hope of the genocide in Gaza subsiding, dock workers in major Italian port cities have organized strikes and large demonstrations to halt arms shipments to Israel. These actions are a direct response to the refusal of international institutions and governments around the world to confront the carnage. Though the genocide continues, the dockworkers’ industrial disruption offer us a model of resistance. Will the Italian way spread to the imperial core — and can it end the genocide?The Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thanks for reading The Chris Hedges Report! This post is public so feel free to share it.Share
Transcribe →Chris Hedges Live Documentary Q&A TODAY: Forging a New Movement for Palestine in Italy
Feb 21Tap to summarizeQuestions will be taken from the comment section of this Substack post, as well as during the livestream on YouTube/X. Please attempt to keep your questions direct and relatively brief, as I cannot read entire paragraphs during the show.The Chris Hedges Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thanks for reading The Chris Hedges Report! This post is public so feel free to share it.Share
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