Journalist Michael Weiss, editor of The Insider, and retired CIA veteran Marc Polymeropoulous take over The Bulwark for the kind of conversation they have with each other every day about the intelligence world, what the hell is happening in the United States and what it means around the globe. As they started recording, Trump was wrapping his bizarre Wednesday speech at the G7 Summit defending his deal with Iran. Marc and Michael go off about the news conference and turn to a riveting conversation about what is different about the war with Iran compared to the continuing show of strength in Ukraine and how that's happening thanks to years of groundwork by the CIA. It's an alliance that is actually winning despite Trump's posture towards Ukraine and the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Follow Marc on X here: https://x.com/Mpolymer

...and Michael here: https://x.com/michaeldweiss

Watch Michael's latest conversation with Tim Miller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85RXVxg8CHI

And you can read Michael's work on his Substack: https://macspaunday.substack.com/

...and at The Insider: https://theins.press/en/authors/weiss