In the National Interest

As president-elect Donald Trump moves to build his second administration, will he follow the Reaganite path of smaller government and lower taxes, or will he instead break from traditional Republican doctrine to focus on industrial growth and pro-family policies? Will his national security team be hawkish or dovish? And just how serious is he about his proposed tariffs? In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Daniel McCarthy, the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review. McCarthy is the author of a recent New York Times essay on the 2024 presidential election, “This Is Why Trump Won.”

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In a stunning political comeback, former president Donald Trump routed vice president Kamala Harris in Tuesday's presidential election to reclaim the White House. What does his victory signal for the future of U.S. democracy? And how will a second Trump administration reshape U.S. foreign policy on Ukraine and Taiwan? In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Harry J. Kazianis, executive editor of The National Interest. Kazianis previously served as part of the foreign policy team for Senator Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign and worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation.

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On Tuesday evening, Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel in what appears to be a direct response to Israel's actions in Lebanon over the past week. What are the consequences of the attack? How great is the danger of further escalation into a regional conflict? And what impact might these events have on next month’s U.S. presidential election? In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with former ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Khalilzad served as U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation from 2018 to 2021 and before that held multiple posts in the George W. Bush administration as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2007-09), to Iraq (2005-07), and to Afghanistan (2004-05).

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On Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump faced Vice President Kamala Harris for their first and likely only debate of the 2024 election season. Harris, channeling her prosecutor background, goaded Trump into making a series of preposterous statements. How might her performance influence undecided voters, and what impact could it have on the November election, still several weeks away? In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Harry J. Kazianis, executive editor of The National Interest. Kazianis previously served as part of the foreign policy team for Senator Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign and worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation.

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On Monday, Donald Trump announced Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his 2024 running mate. A recent convert to the MAGA movement, Vance has championed Trump’s “America First” foreign policy vision and vocally denounced NATO and U.S. support for Ukraine. What might his selection signal both for the future of U.S. foreign policy and for the direction of the Republican party? In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Harry J. Kazianis, executive editor of The National Interest. Kazianis previously served as part of the foreign policy team for Senator Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign and worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Music by Aleksey Chistilin from Pixabay

As Washington confronts increasing belligerence from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, does the West face the start of a new “cold war”? How should policymakers define victory? And what would a second Trump administration mean for the confrontation? In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Dan Negrea, the Senior Director of the Freedom and Prosperity Center at the Atlantic Council and coauthor with Matthew Kroenig of the new book We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War. From 2019 to 2021, Negrea was the State Department’s Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs. He previously served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning office between 2018 and 2019, where he was responsible for the economic portfolio.

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In a pivotal moment amidst Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Senate passed a $60 billion aid package for Kyiv in a 79-to-18 vote Tuesday night. Despite the win, the measure faced dogged opposition in the House, where a majority of GOP members—112—voted against it. What explains the growing indifference, if not outright hostility, to Ukraine aid in the Republican Party? In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative. Mills previously worked at The National Interest, U.S. News & World Report, Washington Examiner, and the Spectator. He was a 2018-2019 Robert Novak Journalism fellow.

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Media coverage has depicted Turkey’s nationwide local elections on Sunday as a major blow for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party. How significant is this political defeat, and what does it augur both for Turkish and Middle East politics? In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Greg Priddy, a Senior Fellow for the Middle East at the Center for the National Interest. Priddy consults for corporate and financial clients on political risk in the region and previously served as Director for Global Oil at Eurasia Group.

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Antonin Scalia’s staunch advocacy for constitutional originalism and textualism—and his 1986 appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court—defined a new era in American jurisprudence. As his heirs move to form majorities throughout the federal court system, only now is the full impact of his legacy being realized. In this episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with James Rosen, chief White House correspondent for Newsmax. Rosen is the recent author of Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936 to 1986, the first installment in an expected two-volume biography of the Supreme Court justice.

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Yesterday’s devastating terrorist attack in Moscow—which left at least 115 dead and reportedly implicates the ISIS-K terror group—poses a significant political challenge for Russia’s freshly reelected president Vladimir Putin. In a bid to manage the fallout from his government’s intelligence failure, Putin's initial remarks this morning hinted at Ukrainian complicity, signaling a clear strategy to shift blame. What are the implications for Russian politics as well as Putin’s war in Ukraine? In this special episode, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Paul Saunders, a noted Russia expert and the president of the Center for the National Interest. Saunders served in the Bush Administration from 2003 to 2005 as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs.

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