Evil Empire 2.0: Tom Cotton on Europe’s Path to Peace and China’s Dangerous Hegemony

GoodFellows: Conversations on Economics, History & Geopolitics

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News, News Commentary, News:news Commentary, Politics, Government

4.6 • 717 Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

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Summary

US and Ukrainian officials will meet on March 12 to talk peace in Eastern Europe; a new US approach to China may or may not be in the works; and the Trump administration’s gas-brake approach to imposing tariffs on trade partners has a Hoover economist baffled. Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and author of Seven Things You Can’t Say About China, joins Hoover senior fellows John Cochrane and H.R. McMaster to discuss the latest in Ukraine and his concerns over China’s military, economic, and cultural hegemony. After that: The fellows dig deeper into the economic and strategic ramifications of Trump’s tariff ploys, followed by a “lightning round,” including the merits of a US “crypto strategic reserve”; the renaming an army fort in Georgia (H.R. having known the late general whose name was removed); the creator of Hamilton refusing to play a “Trumpier” Kennedy Center; plus what the two would give up for Lent if so inclined. Recorded on March 7, 2025.

Transcript

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0:00.0	High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries
0:04.0	and the triggering of fierce trade wars.
0:06.0	The result is more and more tariffs,
0:08.0	higher and higher trade barriers and less and less competition.
0:12.0	So soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs
0:16.0	that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying.
0:20.0	Then the worst happens. Market
0:22.7	shrink and collapse, businesses and industry shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.
0:29.9	It's Friday, March 7th, 2025, and welcome back to Goodfellows, a Hoover Institution broadcast,
0:35.3	examining social, economic, political, and geopolitical concerns.
0:39.4	I'm Bill Whalen. I'm a Hoover Distinguished Policy Fellow. I'll be your moderator today.
0:43.3	joined by two of the wisest gentleman I know that we call him the Good Fellows. That would include
0:46.9	the economist John Cochran, former presidential national security advisor, H.R. McMaster.
0:52.1	We are not joined today by Neil Ferguson, and that's a shame because he would have been here because of our guest.
0:57.0	Joining us today is Tom Cotton, second term U.S. Senator from the great state of Arkansas.
1:02.2	Senator Cotton is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He is also the chair of the Senate Republican Conference, which makes him the number three Republican.
1:09.5	He is also a talented author in his
1:11.3	own right. In fact, he has a bookout. It's called Seven Things You Can't Say About China. We're
1:15.1	going to talk about that today. Senator Cotton, thanks for coming on Goodfellows.
1:18.8	Hey, Bill. Thanks for having me on. It's good to join you all.
1:21.5	One thing about our show, which is a challenge, Senator, is the world just kind of keeps moving faster than when we can record. And our last episode was a great example. We put it to bed the next day. We had the ill-fated meeting in the
1:32.5	Oval Office between President Trump and Vice President Vance and President Zelensky. A few days after
	...

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