If you missed today’s live stream with me and Lev Parnas, the full video is posted above. Lev and I walked through the increasingly dangerous split screen between what Donald Trump claims on social media and the grim reality unfolding in Ukraine, Venezuela, Iran, and beyond. I talked about the surreal disconnect I’m seeing as I begin the semester teaching at USC Law: top U.S. and NATO officials trying to maintain the posture of normal diplomacy while Trump posts deranged proclamations, misleads the public, and undermines our allies. Meanwhile, Lev laid out in detail how Trump’s “shadow diplomacy” actually works. He told me about the back-channel operatives, the oligarchs, and the deals cut behind the scenes that have nothing to do with American interests and everything to do with Trump’s personal power and profit.
Lev also shared new reporting from his sources inside Trump’s inner circle, including the stunning revelation that aides are furious not because an American mother was killed by ICE in Minnesota, but because the victim does not fit the racist narrative they planned to exploit. From Ukraine freezing in the dark while Putin escalates attacks, to Venezuela’s rigged “transition” that leaves Maduro’s machinery fully intact, to Iran’s mass killings that Trump loudly promised to respond to and now ignores, every region tells the same story. Trump supports authoritarians, not democracies. He empowers chaos because chaos empowers him. Lev has lived this firsthand. Thank you to everyone who joined us live today. Much more on the way.
