Ian Bremmer on One Year of Trump 2.0

Foreign Policy Live

Foreign Policy

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.1 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What is driving U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign policy in his second term? Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer says it is the “law of the jungle ... it’s always been about power.” Bremmer sits down with Ravi Agrawal to share his assessment of Trump 2.0 and what the coming months could look like. Plus, Ravi’s One Thing on U.S universities and immigration. New York Times: Chinese Universities Surge in Global Rankings as U.S. Schools Slip Steven A. Cook: Faulty Assumptions About Iran Have Driven a Failed U.S. Policy Marc Lynch: Why a U.S. Attack on Iran Would Backfire A. Wess Mitchell: The Grand Strategy Behind Trump’s Foreign Policy Oliver Stuenkel: The EU-Mercosur Deal Is a Hedge Against the Donroe Doctrine The Atlantic: Is the Iranian Regime About to Collapse? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Ravi Agrawal, Foreign Policy's Editor-in-Chief.
0:06.0	This is FP Live.
0:10.7	So next week, Donald Trump will mark one year as President of the United States.
0:16.5	He's been here before.
0:17.8	This is his second term, after all.
0:20.3	But it's fair to say that Trump 2.0 has been quite different from Trump 1.0.
0:26.1	More planned, more unfettered, more Trumpy.
0:29.8	It's also been more turbulent for the world, so much so that it's hard to keep up.
0:36.0	So I wanted to bring in a guest who could outline the big
0:39.5	picture from the last 12 months and look ahead to the next 36. That is coming up in a minute,
0:46.2	but first, one thing on my mind, being number one. Let me explain. I was struck by a New York
0:53.2	Times article I read this morning about how
0:56.0	U.S. colleges are slipping in a key list that ranks institutions for their scientific output.
1:03.6	Harvard is now the only American university in the top 10 of the latest Leiden rankings.
1:10.2	Eight of the top 10 are Chinese.
1:13.2	20 years ago, things were the other way around with seven of the top 10 universities, American.
1:19.9	As the article points out, and we'll leave it in the show notes,
1:23.1	this isn't actually about American universities producing less research.
1:28.3	They've been doing more, in fact, at least so far.
1:32.3	This is about the rise of the rest.
1:35.3	Chinese universities have seen an explosion of output in scientific research.
1:41.3	The area the United States remains miles ahead in, however, is attracting foreign students.
	...

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