Best Daniel MacGregor (Dan Podcasts (2025)

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Is Trump Losing his ‘America First’ Base Over the Epstein Files? 39:54

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7d ago39:54

39:54

The Trump administration is reeling from a potential disaster but one of its own making. After months of roiling criticism over DOGE cuts and deportations, Trump has found himself in a situation in which his loyal base is revolting over his refusal to release the Epstein files. Not only that, his administration — including Attorney General Pam Bond…

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Is Trump Forgetting About War With China? w/ Ali Wyne and Dan Grazier 43:19

19d ago43:19

43:19

As the West focuses on and indulges Israel’s wars in the Middle East, U.S. security policy toward China, supposedly the ‘pacing threat’ , seems neglected. Is that such a bad thing? One of the most interesting threads to come out of the last six months of new Trump foreign policy is that China has not been the focus, other than a tariff war which as…

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Why U.S. and Israel Really, Really Needed This Ceasefire (Ft. Ret Col. Douglass Macgregor 36:24

28d ago36:24

36:24

News is moving so rapidly in the Middle East right now. Israel launched strikes against Iran on June 13, the Iranians have been retaliating in kind, and then the U.S. jumps in with its own strikes against Iran’s nuclear program on June 21. On Monday the Iranians engaged in limited retaliatory strikes on the U.S. military base in Qatar and by the en…

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Trump May Need to Walk Away and Cut Ukraine Off w/ George Beebe and Mark Episkopos 29:34

1M ago29:34

29:34

Ukraine’s attacks on Russia bases and aircraft on June 1 has sent the media and Ukraine’s supporters in Congress and Europe into a flurry of triumphal metaphors and hyperbole, from “David and Goliath” to “daring”, “stunning”, “audacious” and one “bad-ass” operation. Ukrainian military officials said 41 Russian aircraft were hit, including strategic…

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Why the National Security Council Purge is Trump’s Pleasure 33:06

2M ago33:06

33:06

Just before Memorial Day on Friday the Trump administration let go scores of staff from the National Security Council. The usual howling from the media and foreign policy establishmentarians ensued, but the Trump administration was signaling his intent to do this even during his first term. His point: that over the years — particularly in the Bush …

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MAGA: Final Break With the Neocons? 32:58

2M ago32:58

32:58

This last week has been dizzying when it comes to Middle East news. As we speak the President is in the region and has already made a number of announcements regarding a massive arms deal for Saudi Arabia and another for Qatar. He announced lifting sanctions on Syria and even met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the new president of Syria, the first time lead…

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What if Trump did ‘Just Walk Away’ From Ukraine Peace Talks? 39:31

3M ago39:31

39:31

Trump administration has worked doggedly to follow through on its promise to end the war. President Trump started talks with Moscow, which didn’t make the Ukrainians and the EU happy. He then worked to bring Zelensky into the fold after some tense moments in the Oval Office. Trump then tried to bring about a ceasefire, which really didn’t work as b…

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Why is Trump Making John Kiriakou so ‘Frightened and Disturbed’? 36:36

3M ago36:36

36:36

Within just a year we have gone from government censorship of so-called disinformation, brought on by reactionary responses to COVID and Russia-gate, to foreign students literally being abducted off the streets and thrown into detention centers, without charge, for having the wrong attitudes (whether in op-eds, campus protests, or in the case of Ba…

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Why are European Elites Losing it? 33:11

3M ago33:11

33:11

To say that the European debate over the war in Ukraine — at least in the elite halls of government, academia and the professional classes — is virtually non-existent, might be an understatement. For all of the grousing my friends in the realism and restraint world have done about the hive-mind thinking about Russia and the war since the 2022, it i…

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What if US airstrikes fail to stop the Houthis? 39:52

4M ago39:52

39:52

We are into the second week of U.S. airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. U.S. warplanes have targeted Houthi infrastructure, weapons depots and leadership in the capital city of Sana’a as well as other towns and villages in northern Yemen, which have invariably caused civilian injury and death, though the actual numbers are hard to pin down.…

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If Trump Is King, Did America Ask For It? 42:19

4M ago42:19

42:19

“We Live in a Fascist Dictatorship” “Mad King Trump’s Tariff Disaster” “Trump’s neofascism is here now. Here are 10 things you can do to resist” “A Guide to Trump’s Fascist Presidency — From Ignoring Judge to Erasing History” “Fit for a king? Trump’s moves challenge world order and U.S. bureaucracy.” These are all headlines I found in five minutes …

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Daniel Davis: Hegseth Should Have Fired More Officers 22:01

5M ago22:01

22:01

At the end February, newly minted Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fired his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown, who was an appointee of President Biden and had been on the job 15 months. Hegseth said Brown, a career Air Force officer, was “honorable” but “not the right man for the moment,” and said the replacements of five ot…

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The Transatlantic Freakout 33:32

5M ago33:32

33:32

This past weekend at the Munich Security Conference it would be an understatement to say that sparks were flying, or even fireworks. More like bombs going off. It started last week with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeth saying that Ukraine would not be given membership in NATO in any peace agreement and said NATO’s European members would have to pro…

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The Life and Death of Legacy Media 34:15

5M ago34:15

34:15

One of the most extraordinary sidebar stories of the 2024 election has been the complete implosion of mainstream media. Of course mainstream news or more exactly, legacy media, was in its death throes long before Trump won in November. The major network news, cable news, the newspapers of record — the Washington Post, the New York Times — NPR radio…

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Will Trump Bring Magic or Mayhem to the Global South? 38:56

6M ago38:56

38:56

If you have been paying any attention to international politics over the last four years you have no doubt picked up on the phrase “Global South” relating to a host of middle and small powers ranging from South Africa and Indonesia, Brazil to the Pacific Islands and their growing influence on the geopolitical stage. These nations have emerged as op…

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Is Trump Releasing the JFK records — or Not? 34:09

6M ago34:09

34:09

Last week there was a very brief moment in which it looked like the newly inaugurated President Trump was finally going to allow the declassification of all the files relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. This has been decades in the waiting, and he had said clearly in interviews during the campaign and after his elect…

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Inauguration Special: Is the World Ready for Donald Trump? 32:14

6M ago32:14

32:14

Today we commemorate the inauguration of the 47th president, Donald Trump, after the longest and most tumultuous year in recent memory in terms of politics and foreign policy. The results of the 2024 election in November, largely predicted by my two guests today, were still a surprise in a way that no one could have guessed what a seismic shift the…

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Syria is in Pieces, Perhaps Forever? 33:21

6M ago33:21

33:21

The fall of Bashar Assad in Syria has led to grave uncertainties — both in the geopolitical situation there, and in the day-to-day running of the country, which has suffered under civil war for 14 years. The new governing authority under HTS is looking for the lifting of international sanctions so it can start rebuilding the country after over a de…

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What Happens When Israel Annexes the West Bank? 33:11

7M ago33:11

33:11

For the Palestinians in Israel, conditions keep getting worse. In Gaza, the official death toll is now over 45,000, the vast majority civilians. This cannot take into account bodies still under the rubble, which covers the landscape of the two-mile strip. Thousands are displaced and without food, orphaned, and struggling for healthcare as none of t…

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Would Tulsi be the Intel Community’s Worst Nightmare? 34:13

7M ago34:13

34:13

This week we have seen the utter collapse of the Assad regime and the Baathist political ideology in Syria. This follows a year of crisis and turmoil in the Middle East and absolute uncertainty in the days ahead as power centers completely shift and foreign militaries, including the Turks, Israel, and the U.S. race to take advantage of the power va…

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Josh Landis: US out of Syria NOW 36:57

8M ago36:57

36:57

A week ago Syrian Sunni rebels under the banner of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS launched a surprise attack on the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad, capturing over the last week most of the strategic provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, which had been at the heart of the ISIS insurgency during the early years of the Syrian Civil War. The timi…

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Biden’s Long Range Missile Folly in Ukraine 23:57

8M ago23:57

23:57

On Wednesday the US embassy in Kyiv issued a rare, urgent warning that Russia might launch a “a significant air attack.” The embassy was closed and employees were told to shelter in place. Officials did not provide any specific information about threats to the building, and air raids were sounding for most of the county due to incoming drone attack…

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Will Neocons Take Over Trump’s New Administration? 32:56

8M ago32:56

32:56

It’s been an incredible roller coaster ride and it’s only been a week since the election, with Donald Trump winning both the popular and electoral vote in what he and his supporters are calling a mandate for their side. Where does this leave foreign policy and national security? After what was considered a “win” for realism and restraint last weeke…

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Trump Rips Anti-War Mantle From Democrats on Eve of Election 31:58

9M ago31:58

31:58

We are just days away from the presidential election, in fact we are entering the final weekend. Interestingly, Donald Trump appears to have seized on all of Kamala Harris’s weaknesses on foreign policy — particularly the hell she has been taking from her left flank over Gaza — to try and peel off voters in key swing states including Michigan and W…

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Jim Bovard talks Censorship Industrial Complex 32:34

9M ago32:34

32:34

We talk a lot about the military industrial complex here but a growing threat to our liberty is the disinformation/misinformation industrial complex, or what our next guest Jim Bovard and others call the Censorship Industrial Complex. One could say this began shortly before the 2016 election when the Obama administration began investigating the Don…

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Anti-War Libertarians: We’re at War Now, Face it 36:08

10M ago36:08

36:08

The war in Gaza continues today with scores of Palestinians dead, mostly from airstrikes on shelters and schools and neighborhoods outside hospitals. The displaced have nowhere else to go. In the meantime, the Israeli military has expanded its bombing and ground campaign into Lebanon, with more than 1400 dead and a million displaced since mid-Septe…

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Lt. Col Dan Davis: We Don’t Have Capacity to Fight a War in the Middle East 33:21

10M ago33:21

33:21

In the last two weeks we have witnessed a wave of aggressive tactics from Israel that have finally expanded the war in Gaza beyond the borders of the Gaza strip and West Bank and now into neighboring Lebanon, Yemen and possibly Iran. We have seen Israel redefine terror tactics by simultaneously blowing up pagers connected to Hezbollah operatives in…

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Gotham for Sale… to Turkey? 29:58

10M ago29:58

29:58

NY Mayor Eric Adams took a bite out of the Big Apple of temptation and is choking now, charged with foreign taking bribes, campaign donations, luxury items and more New York politics is exploding this week as its Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on charges of bribery, wire fraud, and seeking illegal campaign donations from foreign sources. In the…

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Waking up to New Terror in the Middle East 36:24

10M ago36:24

36:24

It has been a tremendously brutal week in the Middle East. The war in Gaza continues apace with no ceasefire in sight. Meanwhile, thousands of Lebanese have been injured and at least 32 killed after pagers and other electronic devices reportedly connected to Hezbollah members exploded on Tuesday and Wednesday across the country. It is still not cle…

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A Misfit in Moscow: Ex-UK Diplomat Ian Proud Gets Real 33:29

10M ago33:29

33:29

This week we’re talking about diplomacy — or the lack of it — in the now 31-month war in Ukraine. I have the honor to welcome Ian Proud who was a member of His Britannic Majesty's Diplomatic Service from 1999 to 2023 and served as the Economic Counsellor at the British Embassy in Moscow from July 2014 to February 2019. Prior to Moscow, he organized…

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Is Joe Biden Still Running Our Foreign Policy? 37:15

11M ago37:15

37:15

President Joe Biden was reportedly “visibly shaking” as he got off Air Force One two weeks ago and was unable to get into an SUV on his own. This was a report not by a MAGA-inspired X account but by the Daily Mail’s Emily Goodin the week after Biden spoke at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). “Walking slowly down the plane’s stairs, he strug…

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20 Times Israel Used US Taxpayer $$ to Kill Civilians in Gaza 32:38

11M ago32:38

32:38

This week I’m happy to welcome back Stephen Semler who is co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute. He also writes the Polygraph newsletter on Substack. He just published a true deep dive on Responsible Statecraft entitled Gaza breakdown: 20 times Israel used US arms in likely war crimes. I thought it would be helpful to have him come on …

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James Carden Live at DNC: The Blob Devours Anti-War Dems 35:53

11M ago35:53

35:53

This week the Democratic party faithful are gathered in Chicago to engage in the quadrennial ritual of formally nominating the presidential ticket as well as whipping up support for their candidates in the homestretch of the election. No longer a forum for contest, the national convention is a multimillion dollar infomercial not only for the candid…

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Why Won’t The Military Stop Poisoning Our Drinking Water? 36:21

11M ago36:21

36:21

For years the U.S. military has been faced with the reality that for decades water contamination on its bases and installations throughout the United States has affected the health and well being of servicemembers, military families, as well as entire communities that have hosted the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines since the early 20th century. I…

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Who Do You Want To See In The New Trump White House? 38:17

12M ago38:17

38:17

It is now less than three months until the November presidential election and we are in one of the odd cycles in which neither candidate is an incumbent — the last time being when Donald Trump won his seat over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. One of the biggest question marks in these races is how the winner will staff his or her administration, …

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Decline and Fall: American Style! w/ Mike Vlahos 36:57

12M ago36:57

36:57

According to analysts, if the Military Industrial Congressional Intelligence Media and Think Tank Complex gets its way, the total defense budget will reach $1 trillion by 2027. That’s not hard to imagine given that the budget request for 2025, which all includes our nuclear weapons programs and other defense related activities not under the DoD app…

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Kamala’s Conundrum: Israel, Israel, Israel! 35:25

12M ago35:25

35:25

I’ve been reporting in Washington DC for over 20 years, which means I was here for the crazy 2000 election and 9/11, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a political news cycle quite like this one. If this episode isn’t published within the next 12-24 hours it may be at risk of expiring. The presidential election is in full swing right now and the wars…

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Silicon Valley’s Lust for the AI Battlefield w/ Bill Hartung & Stavroula Pabst 35:53

1y ago35:53

35:53

One of my favorite topics is the military industrial complex because it encapsulates the absolute corruption of centralized power as it grows and metastasizes beyond human scale — at which point it becomes not only painfully ineffective, but a threat to the very people it is supposed to be working for. Add weapons and war to the mix and you have a …

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Is Biden High-Stepping us Into WWIII? w/ Col. Doug Macgregor 36:24

1y ago36:24

36:24

It’s been less than a week since that infamous presidential debate and it is shocking how little the wars in Ukraine and Gaza played in the discussion. Worse, when they did spend 11 minutes total talking about the two conflicts, both candidates were largely incoherent and evasive. If the American taxpayer is going to spend tens of billions of dolla…

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The US Military’s Plan to ‘Surge’ Aid to Palestinians is a Major fail 30:29

1y ago30:29

30:29

As we’ve said many times, all is not what it seems when it comes to Washington headlines. Well, this story has to be the epitome of that warning. In March, President Biden announced that the U.S. military would be building two piers — one floating, the other attached to the Gaza coast — to surge aid into the embattled and beleaguered Palestinians l…

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Top Secret: How to Run a Great War 36:24

1y ago36:24

36:24

Some 88 years ago, an economist and concerned citizen by the name of Bruce Knight published a book, How to Run a War, to warn essentially, about Washington’s ability to marshal all of the tools of the federal government to mobilize the nation for war. Written in a highly ironic tone, Knight was drawing on the history of the first World War in antic…

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Bibi Netanyahu’s Triumphal Return to Washington? 31:21

1y ago31:21

31:21

We’ve promised you that each week we will be lifting up the rocks in D.C. to see what is crawling around underneath and this week we won’t disappoint, as we lift up a very big rock – the dome of the U.S. Capitol - and see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swaggering around underneath. Yes, the majority and minority leaders of both the House…

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Sussing out the Saudi Suck Up 34:56

1y ago34:56

34:56

Today I have two special guests to talk about a real unfolding foreign policy failure happening right before our eyes. According to the most recent reports, the Biden Administration is closer than ever to signing a deal with Saudi Arabia that the White House thinks will eventually lead to Saudi-Israeli normalization a la the Abraham Accords that we…

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Information in Wartime: Uncle Sam Knows Best? 36:23

1y ago36:23

36:23

Today, we talk to Brandan Buck — Buck is not only a veteran of the Afghanistan War, but a writer and academic who studies war propaganda through the 20th and 21st Centuries, and wow, does he have a tale to tell. We discuss, among other things, an article he did for Responsible Statecraft, “Feeling manipulated? How Uncle Sam perfected the informatio…

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The Military is Embedding in Corporate America 35:10

1y ago35:10

35:10

Did you know that your hard earned tax dollars were going to a program in which the U.S. military embeds senior officers in private companies to ostensibly learn business practices? Did you know this has been going on for the better part of 30 years and that a disproportionate number of these embeds go to major arms contractors like Boeing and Lock…

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Beltway Bandits: How US arms contractors exploited COVID and Ukraine 41:38

1y ago41:38

41:38

In this episode, my friends Dan Grazier and Julia Gledhill are two ace military analysts who recently shifted their work over to the Stimson Center. The pair have been critical in challenging the status quo in the military industrial complex and the monitoring the goings-on of what we call Beltway Bandits – the major defense contractors in Washingt…

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Conservative Foreign Policy for Dummies (in the Mainstream Media) 41:58

1y ago41:58

41:58

My friends Jim Antle and Curt Mills join Trip the Beltway Fantastic this week to shed light on a familiar but mostly misunderstood subject: the schism in the conservative movement over foreign policy. Mainstream media has deliberately (or due to a lack of laziness and ignorance) set the divide up thusly: Traditional hawks vs. Isolationists. We brea…

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The War Party Unleashed w/ Scott Horton 39:02

1y ago39:02

39:02

Our guest this week is old friend Scott Horton, who is the longtime host of The Scott Horton Show, editorial director of Antiwar.com, and author of several books, including, “Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism.” Scott and I have been talking about endless U.S. wars since the mid-2000s, hammering at American policies in Iraq and Afghan…

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The Art of Failing at Proxy War w/ Michael Vlahos 47:54

1+ y ago47:54

47:54

Our guest for this episode is Michael Vlahos, a writer, a historian of military strategy and history, and author of the book Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change. Over several decades, he has taught war and strategy at Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Naval War College, and has conducted strategic analysis for Johns Hopkins Applied P…

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Are Progressives Necessarily Anti-War? 39:40

1+ y ago39:40

39:40

Our guests for this episode are Katrina vanden Heuvel and James Carden, who are joining us to speak on progressives and the anti-war movement in the age of Russia gate and Trump. Vanden Heuvel and Carden experienced first-hand the brutal schism on the left over Russia, beginning with the 2014 overthrow of the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych…