This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.richardhanania.com

Michael Tracey joins the livestream to talk about recent events. We start with the end of Orban’s reign in Hungary, discussing that nation’s role in American political discourse. This might be the last time in a while anyone in the US has any reason to care about this small central European country.

The bulk of the conversation focuses on the war with Iran and what comes next. Michael expects Trump to keep going all out for regime change, while my money would be on TACO. We read the tea leaves and debate Trump’s many muddled and contradictory statements.

I don’t have a high degree of confidence in my view; Trump is obviously an increasingly unstable lunatic who can go in any direction, and his babble on this topic is even more incoherent than normal. As I explained on X, I think that Hormuz and his lack of palatable options have broken him. But underneath it all, I believe that he’s first and foremost a political survivor, and that means trying to get the best possible outcome for Republicans in the midterms so nobody investigates his crimes and corruption.

We close with some discussion about the Eric Swalwell situation and questions from the audience.

Links to articles mentioned in the discussion

David Ignatius on what comes next

NYT on how Mojtaba Khamenei became his father’s successor, article and podcast

Note: If you would like to get this podcast through a regular podcast app, go to richardhanania.com on a browser on your device (it doesn’t work in the app), log in to Substack, and click on the tab for either the Hanania Show or the H&H Podcast. Select the episode you want, and then choose one of Apple, Spotify, etc. under “Listen on” to your right. You’ll be able to add the show through an RSS feed, after which you will get new episodes, either free or paid depending on what kind of subscriber you are, through whichever platform you use.