At war with everyone – Who’s actually running US foreign policy?

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2026

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Trump has stripped US foreign policy down from a mix of carrot and stick into an ideological cudgel to beat friends and foes alike – and a lurid horrorshow for domestic consumption in Red America. But who’s actually running the show? Is America’s realignment with the world purely dependent on Trump’s whims or is there something coherent going on in there? Is it all just 1980s real estate thuggery writ large? And where is it all heading? The Economist’s Geopolitics Editor David Rennie explains the new American brutalism to Seth Thévoz. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Presented by Seth Thévoz. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Special thanks to Chris Wimpress and Hannah Marinho. The Bunker is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:07.1	Hello and welcome to The Bunker, your daily ration of news without the nonsense. I'm Seth Tivel.
1:12.9	Ever since J.D. Vance's Munich speech a year ago, the second Trump administration has set the world
1:17.8	reeling with actions and words seemingly aimed at breaking up the global world order. From NATO to
1:23.4	Canada to Greenland to the concept of a rules-based order, it feels like everything is up for grabs.
1:29.9	But who is really making foreign policy in Trump world? Are these decisions, as many fears,
1:34.4	simply a product of Trump's wins at the moment? Is there a guiding principle somewhere in the
1:38.6	president's psyche? Or is American foreign policy, and thus the shape of the world, being guided
1:43.1	from other voices within
	...

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