Has Trump Corrupted the Military?

The David Frum Show

The Atlantic

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with his thoughts about the recently reported peace talks between the United States and Iran. David argues that these reported talks indicate the United States is losing the war in Iran, and that the loss highlights what has always been true: The presidency is too big a job for Donald Trump. Then David is joined by Representative Jason Crow of Colorado to discuss Trump’s politicization of the American military, lessons from the war in Iran, and the chaos at Pete Hegseth’s “Department of War”. David ends with a discussion of James Boswell’s classic biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson. Sign up for David Frum’s newsletter alert. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:52.0	Hello and welcome to the David Frum show. I'm David David From, a staff writer at The Atlantic. My guest
0:57.2	this week will be Jason Crow, who represents the 6th District of Colorado in the United States
1:02.2	House of Representatives. The book for discussion this week will be James Boswell's Life of Samuel
1:07.3	Johnson, a classic of English biography and English literature. But before either the
1:12.8	dialogue with Congressman Crowe or the book discussion, some opening thoughts on news that is
1:18.0	arriving this weekend that the United States and the Trump administration may have reached some
1:22.4	kind of resolution in the war with Iran that began on February 28th of this year.
1:29.1	Now, this news is very much in flux.
1:33.6	That accounts for the unfamiliar look of this podcast if you are watching.
1:37.2	I am not recording for my usual recording place in Washington, D.C.
1:41.9	I am in Ontario for the Memorial Day weekend and I'm improvising a recording studio here.
1:46.1	If the news is accurate, what we hear, what has been reported so far is the United States is reaching a settlement based on the idea that the Strait of Hormuz
1:50.5	will be reopened, that oil will resume flowing out of the Persian Gulf, in return for which
1:56.1	the United States will offer some kind of compensation to Iran. Maybe there'll be some kind of
2:00.0	release of frozen Iranian assets, but the United States will get
2:02.9	access to oil, the United States and the world will get access to oil, Iran will get money,
	...

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