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 a last-minute two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran,

just as Trump was poised to end Iranian civilization and assess the likelihood of this fragile truce holding, with Trump calling the deal, quote, a total victory 100%, while Iranian officials are saying they brought the enemy to, quote, a crushing defeat.

Joining us is Nicholas Harris, interim executive director at the Middle East Policy Council and senior director for strategy and innovation at the New Lions Institute and the former Middle East Security Program

manager at the Institute for the Study of War, where he was Director of Government Relations

responsible for Russia and Eurasia. And from 2016 to 2017, Nicholas served as the 10th First

Lieutenant Andrew J. Bachevich Jr. USA Fellow at the Center for New American Security,

and he has conducted an extensive study on Iran's proxies in the Middle East for the National Defense University.

Then we'll examine Trump's use of the madman theory which Nixon unsuccessfully used against the North Vietnamese

and assess how much this six weeks disaster that

has left everyone worse off opens up questions of Trump's competence, morality, credibility,

and sanity. Joining us is Bill Cher, the politics editor of the Washington Monthly. He's the host of

the History Podcast When America Worked and the co-host of the bipartisan onlinely. He's the host of the History Podcast When America Worked, and the co-host

of the bipartisan online show and podcast, the DMZ. He has an article at the Washington

Monthly, Trump believes in madman theory, but he's actually a madman. After six weeks of insane

behavior, the ceasefire should not lead us to believe Trump has regained

his faculties.

Then finally, we'll speak with Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign

Committee, a one million member grassroots organization dedicated to helping progressive

candidates run progressive campaigns and win.

He formally served as director of strategic campaigns

...