It’s the Corruption, Stupid
To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes
Charlie Sykes
4.9 • 718 Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Phillips O'Brien is a historian and Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. In this episode, he joins Charlie to discuss Trump's corruption, his desperate Iran's gambit, and his weak position in global politics.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Charlie Sykes. Welcome back to the To the Contrary podcast. We should start with a couple of headlines that are, that you have to say, is this actually real life? New York Times headline. You've heard about this, but the IRS to drop audits of Trump and family. As part of the deal, officials vowed not to pursue any matters, including those involving President Trump's tax returns that are pending. |
| 0:21.7 | So apparently he's getting a forever immunity for himself, his family, and his business. |
| 0:27.0 | This is the same deal that Trump cut to create the $1.8 billion slush fund that he's going to use. |
| 0:35.2 | Which, by the way, here's the other headline from the New York |
| 0:38.8 | Times. Prison to pardons to payouts. January 6 rioters are elated at Trump's $1.8 billion fund. The |
| 0:49.3 | possibility that people who ransack the capital could get cash from the government they attacked |
| 0:53.7 | is the latest headspinning twist in President Trump's effort to rewrite the history of January 6th. |
| 1:01.1 | Meanwhile, Republican voters are okay with that. |
| 1:04.4 | Donald Trump's revenge tour gets Representative Thomas Massey's head on a stick. |
| 1:09.2 | Massey's apparently unforgivable sin was that he broke with Donald Trump on, of all things. |
| 1:16.1 | The Epstein file cover-up. |
| 1:19.2 | Donald Trump is also endorsed the scandal-infested Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate runoff. |
| 1:26.7 | But Ken Paxton is a MAGA loyalist running against incumbent |
| 1:30.9 | John Cornyn, who is presumably somewhat well-liked by other Senate Republicans who now have to spend |
| 1:36.4 | the next six months looking around at all of their colleagues, their Republican colleagues, |
| 1:41.9 | who have been exiled by Donald Trump, that might create |
| 1:45.8 | something of a morale and a political problem. And of course, Donald Trump is still stuck in his |
| 1:51.8 | war of whim in Iran. Let's try to sort all of this out. And joining us on our podcast this morning to sort all of this out. |
| 2:06.0 | And joining us on our podcast this morning to sort all of this out is Phillips O'Brien, |
| 2:11.2 | who's a contributor to The Atlantic Magazine, and an American historian and a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. |
| 2:15.3 | So thank you, first of all, for joining me from across the pond on a rather, you know, |
| 2:21.4 | yet another extraordinary week. |
... |
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