Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we look into a number of stories and issues in the

news. We'll begin with how the Trump administration has set up a White House media and

propaganda operation that mirrors the Kremlin following the model established by Putin's

political technologists, Vladislav Zerkov, in which nothing is real and everything is possible,

so that eventually people will be tuned off facts and politics and ideology becomes meaningless so that the dead hand of

autocrats and kleptocrats can rule without the inconvenience of a free press and democratic

governance. Joining us is Anna Merlin, a senior reporter at Mother Jones specializing in politics,

crime, religion, subcultures and women's lives, a former senior staff writer advised features.

She was previously an investigative reporter for Gizmodo Media Group, a senior reporter at Jezebel,

and a staff writer at the Village Voice and the Dallas Observer.

She is the author of Republic of Lies, American conspiracy theorists and their surprising rise to power.

And we'll discuss her latest article at Mother Jones, Meet the News State Media,

how a second Trump administration grants access to conspiracy theorists, propagandists, and far-right

influences. Then we'll examine the grift and corruption at the heart of Trump's sellout to Putin

as the Kremlin dangles mineral deals and Trump offers gold card visas to previously banned

Russian oligarchs he calls Very Nice People.

Joining us is Casey Michelle, the director of the combating kleptocracy program at the Human Rights

Foundation, as well as a writer, analyst, and investigative journalist working on topics

ranging from kleptocracy, illicit finance, dark money, foreign lobbying, and foreign

influence to the legacies of Russian and Soviet colonialism.

He's the author of American kleptocracy, how the U.S. created the world's greatest money laundering

...