Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is your host, Abby Martin.

This is the audio of our show. You can watch the episodes on our YouTube channel or at the Empirefiles.

Welcome to the Empire Files. I'm your host, Abby Martin.

We started this show in 2015, and since then we've maintained the premise that the U.S. Empire is not only a huge expanse,

but is constantly expanding. Contrary to those who say the U.S. empire is in decline, the war machine

has been on a continuous march forward to swallow up new regions and markets, no matter the president.

Two years into Donald Trump's reign as CEO of the Empire, we wanted to see if that trajectory

has continued. At the beginning, I admit I thought Trump was a wildcard. I considered the fact

that Trump is an extreme narcissist that only cares about himself, not his fellow billionaires.

I also considered there might be a reason why none of the CEOs of the top 100 corporations in the nation backed Trump for president.

And true to the dizzying effects of having Donald Trump as president, anything was possible.

He could go against the grain and start belligerent major new wars.

He could capitulate and be a loyal servant as long as they made him look good.

Or he could buck the establishment

bourgeoisie and panored to a sector of right-wing isolationists and anti-interventionists who support

refocusing U.S. wars on the border against immigrants rather than waste resources for so-called

nation-building abroad. After all, Trump did posture himself as the anti-intervention candidate

in the 2016 election. Unlike other candidates for the presidency, war and aggression will not be my

first instinct. A vote for Hillary is a vote for more reckless foreign invasions. Obviously, the war in

Iraq is a big, fat mistake.

We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed

in Iraq, in Libya, in Egypt, and in Syria. It was a strategy that made sense.

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