Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the weakening and unraveling of America in just a few weeks as the

world's strongest economy is now an international outlier following an exodus of investors

from US assets, which has driven down the dollar, as Brand America faces growing boycotts around

the globe.

Joining us is Stephen Walt, a columnist at Foreign Policy Magazine, and the Robert and René

Belfare Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University.

He's the author of a number of books, including The Origins of Alliances, Revolution and War, Taming American Power, the Global Response to U.S. primacy.

And his latest book is The Hell of Good Intentions, America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. primacy.

We will discuss his latest article at Foreign Policy Magazine, How to Ruin a Country, a Step-by-Step guide to Donald Trump's

destruction of U.S. foreign policy. Then we'll examine how America used to be a nation of immigrants,

but now Trump has turned it into a nation of hate, xenophobia, exclusion, and cruelty.

Joining us is Dr. Manuel Pastor, a distinguished professor of sociology in American

studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, where he also directs the

Equity Research Institute and is co-director of USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.

His books include Charging Forward, Lithium Valley, electric vehicles,

and a just future, just growth, inclusion and prosperity in America's metropolitan regions,

and uncommon, common ground, race and America's future. Then finally we'll speak with Chris Whipple,

a multiple Peabody and Emmy Award-winning producer of CBS's 60 Minutes and ABC's Prime Time.

He's the author of The New York Times Bestseller, The Gatekeepers,

How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, and The Spymasters,

...