All the President’s (Corrupt) Men

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<p>Tommy and Ben break down another chaotic and consequential week in global affairs. Trump blinks and extends the ceasefire with Iran, but the Strait of Hormuz remains closed as US-Iran negotiations stall. Meanwhile, an internal power struggle between Iran's elected leaders and military is complicating talks, and the human cost for ordinary Iranians continues to mount. In Lebanon, Trump stunned Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu by publicly ordering Israel to stop bombing, but the IDF continues to occupy southern Lebanon, and an explosive image of an IDF soldier desecrating a statue of Jesus Christ threatens to erode evangelical support for Israel. The guys also dig into the sprawling conflicts of interest and corruption plaguing Trump's foreign policy team: Jared Kushner's billion-dollar Gulf slush fund, Don Jr. and Eric Trump’s drone grift, and the Trump family’s foray into the crypto and fusion energy business. Finally, they talk about the historic election results in Hungary and Bulgaria, Trump’s slow-rolling regime change efforts in Cuba, and reports that FBI Director Kash Patel is such a sloppy drunk that he’s become a threat to national security. Then Tommy is joined by former USAID official Nicholas Enrich to talk about his new book,<strong> </strong><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/untitled-summit-to-be-confirmed-summit-books/be42e5ef39f27d16?ean=9781668226957&amp;next=t"><em>Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower’s Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID</em></a><strong>.</strong></p><p>Preorder Ben’s book <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/all-we-say-the-battle-for-american-identity-a-history-in-15-speeches-ben-rhodes/c9d9b22b61e6fd44?ean=9780593595121&amp;next=t"><em>All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches</em></a>  and subscribe to his Substack <a href="https://benrhodes1.substack.com/p/notes-on-the-stories-we-tell?r=7jalf&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;shareImageVariant=overlay&amp;utm_source=ig&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio&amp;fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnk2XQpGCmzcvVGkeFlK9dqpiOZOtrjYa6vZNZOGIUYKNGWNuwRdTS-TcWTxc_aem_CO-34uPQ7U7nZXxTI-IbdQ&amp;triedRedirect=true">here</a>.</p><p>For a closed-captioned version of this episode, <a href="https://youtu.be/2_pkC0lxwvY">click here</a>. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.</p></div>