Jacobin Radio: Trump’s Middle East Pivot w/ Juan Cole
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Juan Cole joins Suzi to break down Donald Trump’s dramatic pivot in the Middle East: sidelining Israel, cozying up to Gulf monarchies, cutting billion-dollar deals, promising to lift sanctions on Syria, and exploring a new nuclear agreement with Iran.
Trump vowed quick peace in Gaza and Ukraine, but neither materialized because the aggressors don’t want peace. Putin wants Ukraine without Ukrainians. Netanyahu wants Gaza without Palestinians. Now he's zigzagging between billion-dollar deals and back-channel diplomacy. Is this strategic realignment, opportunism, or just more chaos?
We unpack the U.S.-brokered hostage deal with Hamas that bypassed Netanyahu, the collapse of the Assad regime, and the regional powers now vying for influence over Syria’s new government — amid Trump’s promise to lift sanctions. Is a coherent Trump doctrine beginning to emerge? Juan Cole gives us the big-picture view.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Jacovin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. |
| 0:14.4 | Juan Cole joins us today to unpack what looks like increasingly a Trump foreign policy. |
| 0:23.6 | Following Trump's high-profile trip to the Middle East, the visit marked a dramatic turn in U.S. policy, |
| 0:26.6 | sidelining Israel, cutting deals with the Saudis, |
| 0:29.6 | UAE, Qatar, and promising to lift sanctions on Syria |
| 0:33.6 | and reopening talks with Iran. |
| 0:35.6 | It's a lot. |
| 0:36.6 | Trump entered office vowing quick ceasefires |
| 0:40.0 | in Ukraine and Gaza. Both have eluded him because he argues the aggressors don't want peace. |
| 0:46.5 | Putin wants Ukraine without Ukrainians. Netanyahu wants Gaza without Palestinians, |
| 0:51.9 | raising infrastructure, blocking aid, and devastating the population. |
| 0:56.0 | In response, Trump is zigzagged wildly, proposing to turn Gaza into a U.S. own luxury resort, |
| 1:03.0 | then bypassing Netanyahu to negotiate directly with Hamas for the release of an American-Israeli hostage. |
| 1:09.0 | He refused to visit Israel and instead cozyed up to Arab leaders. |
| 1:14.0 | On Ukraine, Trump first blamed Kiev for provoking the war, |
| 1:18.0 | held talks with Russia without Ukraine present, |
| 1:20.7 | and then pivoted to a critical minerals deal with Ukraine |
| 1:24.1 | and rebuked Putin for failing to move toward peace. |
| 1:27.6 | Today, we're going to focus on the sharp shifts in Trump's Middle East policy |
| 1:31.9 | and whether they signal a coherent Trump doctrine emerging on the global stage. |
| 1:37.7 | Juan Cole is here to help us unpack it all when our program returns in just a moment. |
| 1:58.0 | Music at all when our program returns in just a moment. Jacaman Radio is supported by the Lech-Voenza Grand Lecture Tour. Lech-Voenza led Poland's Solidarnash movement, helped topple Soviet rule, |
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